Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Crowe
I’d been watching Corvane since Noah returned from the corridor.
He hadn’t looked at Noah for the rest of the dinner portion of the evening, but I hadn’t missed the way he’d watched him the whole time he’d been up there talking, and it said something about him that he could listen to what Noah said with no shame or remorse, only hunger. The man had no conscience.
When the dinner portion of the evening was over, he stood and moved to the back of the room where other men were gathering in small groups.
He’d moved through the room with the kind of authority and power that money bought.
But even as he pretended to network and socialize, it was clear that he was aware of exactly where Noah was at every moment and was choosing when to make his move.
Noah and I stayed seated at our table, talking with donors who came over to thank Noah for giving his speech and tell him how brave they all thought he was. If their comments to him were any indication, I thought this fundraiser was going to be a huge success.
The room lights dimmed, and music began to play as we moved into the latter part of the evening.
There was something odd about the shift from a speaker talking about the trauma of humans being trafficked to a social event with dancing and socializing, but as long as it raised plenty of money, I guess that was okay.
At that point, I clocked Corvane as he slowly made his way across the room to where we sat. He approached from the left, coming around the edge of the dance floor with a glass of scotch and a pleasant expression, and he stopped beside our table.
“Mr. Gentry,” he said. “That was a moving speech.”
Noah looked up at him, and I gripped his hand under the table. I felt him steady himself, as he pasted a smile on his face that gave nothing away. I was so proud of my boy. He had to be the strongest man I’d ever known.
“Thank you,” Noah said.
Corvane looked at me briefly, the assessing look of a man filing information, and then back at Noah. He smiled. It was a cold smile. The kind that made him look like a monster in a ten-thousand-dollar suit.
“It must be comforting,” he said pleasantly, “having so many people looking after you. All these”— his eyes moved across the room in a way that suggested he’d managed to spot each of our guys—“devoted friends.”
In my ear, I heard Hawk’s voice. “We’re watching.”
I said nothing.
“It’s a lot of effort,” Corvane continued, “for something that can’t last indefinitely.
People have their own lives. Their own priorities.
” He tilted his head slightly, the gesture of a man making a reasonable observation.
“It’s sweet, really, the way you think they’ll always be there.
But protection like this—” He paused, as if considering how to put it kindly, and then shook his head.
“I’m a patient man, Mr. Gentry. I’ve always found that patience is the most underrated virtue. ”
In my ear, Wolfe was very quiet and very controlled. “Stay steady, Crowe.” Like he could read my mind. Like he knew I wanted to snap the snake’s neck right here, right now. But he was right. This wasn’t the time or the place.
Instead, I looked at Corvane and let the silence sit long enough to mean something. Then I said, in the same pleasant register he’d been using, “I appreciate you introducing yourself.”
He looked at me. For the first time, something shifted behind his eyes. It wasn’t fear, not yet, but the faint recalibration of a man who’d expected a different response.
“Every word you just said,” I continued, in the same even tone, “was heard by four people who are very good at their jobs.” I held his gaze. “But you’re wrong, we’ll never stop protecting Noah.” I picked up my glass and took a drink.
Corvane looked at me for a long moment. The pleasant expression was still there, but it had gone thin.
“Enjoy your evening,” he said. Then he walked away.
There was a beat of silence in my ear. Then Chance Kelly’s voice was there, flat and satisfied. “Got every word. We’re good.”
Gator was quieter. “I love this job.”
Hawk said nothing. I could picture his face.
Noah was looking at me. He’d been very still through all of it, hands loose on the table, and now he exhaled a slow breath, and his hands began to shake.
“Hey,” I said, reaching over and covering his hands with mine. “You’re okay. You’ve given your speech, we can leave if you want.”
“No, I won’t let him ruin this fundraiser. You heard that woman earlier. Me being here and telling my story is helping, so I’m staying.”
“Have I told you lately how brave I think you are?” I asked him.
“I’m really not. He terrifies me. I just—” He swallowed and closed his eyes before taking in a long, deep breath.
“I can’t believe how brazen he is. We’re at a fundraiser to help trafficking victims, for fuck’s sake.
Can you imagine if y’all hadn’t found me in time?
One week, Jackson. That was the difference between me sitting here next to you tonight and—” He paused again.
“And whatever that man had in store for me.”
“Shh, you’re safe. He won’t get his hands on you. Not as long as I’m alive.”
“That man is dangerous,” he said.
“And yet you slipped your security detail,” I said.
“I did.”
“We’re going to talk about that.”
“I know.”
I looked at the dance floor. At the room full of people who had no idea what had just happened at this table.
I glanced over at Corvane and saw him motion for his wife to get up.
At first, I thought they were going to dance, but then he said his goodbyes to the people at his table, like he was leaving.
Hopefully, he at least made a huge donation.
I smirked at the irony of the asshole giving a huge donation to try to look like part of the solution when the truth was he was the problem.
“Corvane is on the move,” Gator said.
“We’re on him,” Chance said. “We’ll stick with him until y’all are out of town in the morning.”
“I feel so bad for his wife,” Noah said.
“I know you do, baby boy.” I squeezed his hand. “You did what you could.”
He nodded, but his expression told me he wished he’d done more.
“Come dance with me,” I said.
“Really?”
“We’re at a gala,” I said. “There’s music. We’re dressed up.” I stood and held out my hand. “And you just gave a speech to this whole crowd while facing down the monster who thinks he owns you, and you didn’t even blink.”
He gave me a real smile. One that reached his eyes. “I did, didn’t I?”
“You did. Now, like I said, let’s dance.”
He stood up and took my hand.
We walked out onto the dance floor, and I put my hand at his back, and he put his on my shoulder, and we moved together in the particular way of two people who’d found their way to each other through a significant amount of difficulty and had decided to stay.
“For the record,” I said, quietly, near his ear. “I saw the same thing you saw. I know why you did it.”
He was quiet for a moment. “And?”
“And you scared the hell out of me.” I pulled him slightly closer. “And I’m proud of you.”
He let out a breath. “Thank you.”
“It doesn’t mean you’re not in trouble.”
“I know.”
“Significant trouble.”
“Jackson.”
“Noah.”
He tilted his head back just enough to look at me. The chandelier light caught the angles of his face. “Can I be in trouble tomorrow, Daddy?”
I looked at him. At the remarkable man who’d stood at a podium an hour ago and told his story to a room full of strangers. Who’d followed a frightened woman into a corridor and pressed a card into her hand.
“Yeah,” I said. “Tomorrow.”
He smiled and moved with me to the music.
In my ear, very quietly, Gator said, “If y’all are done being adorable, we have a debrief.”
Noah heard it and buried his face briefly against my shoulder.
“In a minute,” I replied. Then I placed a kiss on his head and kept dancing.