Chapter 29
It had, in fact, been a bad time to mention Mallory and I had been drugged in Aruba.
Only because everyone had thought we’d known that detail all these months and had kept it to ourselves.
Once we’d informed them we’d only just learned about it this morning with the return of most of Mallory’s memories, you would’ve thought another bomb had gone off in the conference room when Evans had asked, “Was it in the middle of the desk? Different from the resort’s bottles? ”
Mallory had barely given a confirmation before Evans explained that Wren had launched her still-full bottle at him when he’d all but shoved her into her room the night of the wedding, telling her to stay put and give him one night of peace.
Chloe had hollowly added, “I had one too, but I was afraid to use anything from my room because I didn’t know how much it would cost.”
Briggs had ground out a strained reminder that the resort was all inclusive as he’d called Lainey again to see where she was.
A call that had sent Briggs spiraling in a way we’d never seen because Lainey and Kaia had been held up at the preschool, talking to the man she was supposed to be getting away from.
After he’d launched a chair at the wall, nearly clipping Thatch in the process, all traces of that calm intensity had exploded into fear-filled rage as he’d demanded all the information we could gather on the Davis situation.
Davis Shaw situation, to be exact. All of them.
When we’d looked into renter’s agreements and employment records, every one of them had checked out.
We shouldn’t have been surprised, given what we knew from our dealings with Wreckers in the past. Files could be falsified to look flawless.
Yet I think it was safe to say every one of us still was.
If only because they’d managed to plant so many of them next to the women connected to us, and we’d missed it for over half a year.
I glanced at where Mallory had sat ever since the meeting, back ramrod straight, hair now pulled back in a ponytail to show the earbuds I knew wouldn’t be playing anything, as she worked at her desk. But there was something off about her fierce, don’t come near me expression.
There had been since long before we’d left the conference room.
She was in her head, and I needed her out of it.
If it was that she’d never suspected a planted mafia member to be anything other than her overly nice neighbor, I needed her to understand all the other ‘Davises’ had slipped past the rest of our team.
If it was that she’d almost put herself in a position to be alone with that same ‘Davis’ for the date that never ended up happening, I needed her to remember exactly how strong and capable of defending herself she was.
If it was the pregnancy she clearly didn’t want .
. . I wanted to fall to my knees and beg her to see differently.
“Something feels wrong about this,” Thatch mumbled as he came to lean against my desk.
Without taking my eyes off my wife, I let a soft laugh slip free. “You mean, other than the fact mafia members were able to surround us without us realizing it?” At his grunt, I dragged my stare to Thatch and added, “I know. They wouldn’t have stopped at them.”
Thatch’s brow furrowed and his head tilted slightly. “What do you mean?”
I nodded toward my computer, prompting him to look at what I’d been working on.
“I was just thinking, there has to be more. When you search for Davis Shaw, these guys don’t pop up anywhere.
But if you search by their renter’s agreements or employment records, they’re there, and their files are airtight.
Which means, we can’t just search for Davis Shaw to find the rest. And we have two other women closely connected to us—more, if they start going to our moms and sisters. ”
A curse slipped from Thatch as he dragged a tattooed hand over his mouth. “Ada and Peyton?”
“Ada and Peyton,” I confirmed.
“Have you talked to Briggs?”
“I was getting ready to. I just . . .” I slid a quick look in Mallory’s direction, unable to help the pull to put her in my line of sight, and felt something in my chest ease when Thatch spoke.
“I know, man, I get it. But let’s take care of this so they’re safe.” Leaning closer, he lowered his voice. “Besides, you know Monroe can handle herself.”
“I know,” I muttered as I stood, then forced a smirk. “Does Chloe know you think she can’t handle herself?”
Thatch’s brows shot up like I should’ve already known the answer. “Chloe can handle a lot—more than I wish she’d ever had to. But I’ll always stand between her and situations like this.”
An amused hum crawled up my throat. “So, where is she right now?”
“In the conference room with the other girls,” he replied immediately and without apology as he angled for Briggs’ office. “Far away from any windows and the front door.”
At that, a fuller laugh left me. “Right.”
Stepping away from the path he was taking, I moved easily to Mallory’s side. My lungs opened and muscles relaxed as I took those last steps to her, as if every part of me had been aching to be by her side again.
Draping one arm across the back of her chair, I placed my other hand on one of the arms, caging her into the chair, all while she continued tapping away on her keyboard as if I wasn’t there.
I lowered my head to whisper into her earbud-filled ear, “Know you can hear me, Peach, so hear this: You aren’t the only one who missed who these guys are.
And no matter what would’ve happened, I have no doubt that you would’ve been the one standing at the end—whether it was against one Davis or ten. ”
Lifting my hand off the arm of the chair, I curled my knuckles under her chin and tipped her head back until she was looking at me, blue eyes unsurprisingly guarded and matching her tense frame.
“Hear this,” I continued, voice dropping even lower as I brushed my thumb across her bottom lip.
“You pride yourself on being strong, but you’ve been force-fed such a skewed version of strength, you don’t see how strong you actually are. ”
Mallory struggled to swallow and looked away, but I pulled her attention back to me.
“From that first day, I’ve been in awe of your strength, but that doesn’t mean you always have to be strong.
It also doesn’t mean you’re weak whenever you stop suppressing your emotions.
It doesn’t mean you’re weak when you show anything other than that fierce persona your family forced you to create.
You wouldn’t be weak for—” The words caught in my throat, choking me.
For letting yourself want our baby.
I made myself force back the pleas and statements and questions of the only subject I wanted to discuss with her, and instead said, “You wouldn’t be weak if you let me take care of you—protect you.
You wouldn’t be weak if you let someone else handle a situation every now and then.
” Searching her impassive stare, I added, “You’re ashamed of admitting you’re human, but there’s strength in showing that you are. ”
Brushing my mouth across hers, I released my hold on her and casually but purposefully swept my hand across her flat stomach as I straightened. Ignoring the way my heart at once raced and ached from that simple action.
But just as I turned to find Thatch standing a handful of feet away, waiting for me, Briggs burst into the main office and shouted, “Get off your computers!”
It felt like even the oxygen in my lungs froze at the sharp demand that had everyone going still.
“Now,” he snapped as he stormed further into the space. “Wipe what you’re doing—wipe everything from the past couple of days—and shut everything down.”
I hurried for my desk as Thatch did the same, while Briggs went to where Rush was working. His tone was too low to make out, but the urgency and fury behind his words was unmistakable.
“Tablets too,” Briggs called out, as if just remembering the devices. “Let me know when you’re done.”
“The club—”
“Everything,” Briggs seethed before Thatch could finish the thought.
“Yep,” Thatch muttered. “Done.”
“Done,” I echoed, closely followed by Evans and Mallory.
Rush was already pushed away from his desk, dragging his hands through his beard as tension rolled off him, waiting for the rest of us to be filled in.
“Confirming that everything from this weekend has been fully wiped from y’alls computers and tablets,” Briggs began as he met each of our stares. As soon as he got verbal confirmation from us, he glanced at Rush and said, “Shut it down.”
Rush pushed from the chair and stalked to the back of the office without another word. But before any of us could ask, Briggs continued.
“There was something about that name that kept bothering me. Davis Shaw,” he added with a slight tick of his jaw.
“I thought maybe Lainey had just mentioned the guy, since the other Davises seem to be heavily involved in Monroe’s and Chloe’s lives, but it just kept grating on me.
Like I’d known the guy.” His head bobbed for a second, his expression growing darker.
“When the Wreckers hacked into our system and destroyed the office last year, I had someone come out to patch up and secure our system.”
“Davis Shaw,” Thatch said on a strained sigh.
“Correct,” Briggs confirmed. “Which means, they’ve been watching everything we’ve done.
They know we’re looking into the club and, depending on how closely they’ve been monitoring us, they might know we’ve figured out their Davis Shaw placements.
” His dark glare shifted to me. “This is a stretch, but it could also explain the bottles that led to you and Monroe being drugged, because I booked the resort for our wedding from here.”
I dipped my head and spared a look at Mallory—earbuds on her desk to keep up the ruse, body stiff and straight as she faced Briggs, but her eyes were on me.