Chapter 29 #2
When Rush came back into the office, Briggs continued. “The system’s been shut down. I’m gonna give ARCK a call to see if they knew any of this. But for now, everyone needs to stay right here.”
“I think they did,” Thatch said just as Briggs took a step toward his office, drawing Briggs’ questioning stare his way.
With a nod toward our boss, Thatch explained, “I was coming to talk to you. Something about all this wasn’t sitting right with me.
Even without Tessa’s hints, if that’s what they were, it doesn’t make sense that ARCK was able to send us extensive files on this club and the members making up this new family, but somehow not know we were also surrounded by those same members. ”
Briggs’ jaw shifted irritably as he studied Thatch. “Why would they withhold that?”
Thatch lifted out his hands before letting them fall. “Maybe to see what we could do with the information given to us. Or maybe they were telling us. Maybe all our Davises are in the files. Did you get through all the members?”
With a glance at Evans, Briggs answered, “Not yet. But it wouldn’t matter if we had because I don’t know what they look like, and Evans has only seen one of them.”
“Then there’s a chance they were giving us the information we needed.”
“Not in a helpful way,” Briggs muttered, but just as he began turning again, I cut in.
“We need to check on Ada,” I said, bringing up the woman who had worked for us until last fall. At Briggs’ harsh glare that promised destruction, I knew he was realizing just how deep this could go—how many people were in danger that he cared about.
It didn’t matter that Ada had left at the time all these guys had slipped in unnoticed, she’d worked for Briggs for years, was like a mother figure to him, and was Lainey’s great aunt.
She also still came into the office at random to frustrate Briggs to no end and meddle in things that weren’t her business.
We all loved her.
“And Peyton,” I added, not missing the way Rush’s head snapped my way.
“She’s in New York,” Rush said before Briggs had a chance to react, sounding horrified.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said with a breathless laugh. “If this new family was started by the Wreckers, then they’re doing all this to destroy Briggs and his business. She’s Briggs’ sister.”
Briggs was quiet, but the wrath curling from him and the way the rise and fall of his chest deepened spoke volumes. With a dark look at Rush, he finally said, “I haven’t heard from her since my wedding.”
“She’s—” Rush seemed to catch himself, his head bobbing faintly before he gave an even more subtle shake. “Same,” he admitted, like that hurt him.
“Call her,” Briggs demanded. “You know she won’t answer if I do.”
A strangled sort of laugh twisted from Rush. “Did you miss where I said I hadn’t heard from her since your wedding either?”
“She’ll still answer if you call,” Briggs ground out in a tone that left no room for discussion. “She always has.”
“Briggs—”
“Get Peyton on the phone,” Briggs seethed as he turned for his office. “I’ll call Ada and ARCK.”
The rest of us sat in silence until long after the sound of Briggs’ office door slamming shut had faded.
“So, we just sit here?” Evans finally asked, breaking the uncomfortable tension.
“That’s what he said,” I muttered as my stare once again drifted to my wife.
My too-still wife.
I knew from the way she was holding herself, with that glacial look that could make grown men cower, that she needed space. But I never had known how to give Mallory Monroe space, so in the next second, I was slipping out of my chair and crossing the small distance to hers.
Her eyes snapped to me, warning me from coming any closer, and I embraced the thrum of excitement slipping through my veins at the challenge. Violent Mallory really was my favorite.
Just as she reached for her earbuds, I grabbed her hand and hauled her from her chair, already walking toward the break room.
“Gray,” she mumbled, my name filled with even more of that warning.
“Don’t worry, Peach,” I muttered in a soft tease I was sure would frustrate her more. “I know what’s waiting for me.” But when she didn’t try breaking free from my hold or arguing, I wondered if maybe I didn’t.
Still, she let me lead her into the far side of the break room, all while I mentally reminded myself we needed to keep our voices low, so the rest of the office wouldn’t hear us. Again.
“You already said your piece,” she began once I released her, standing tall and glaring at me like it might make me back down. As if it ever had before. “I heard you the first time.”
The slant of my lips was slow and seemed to fascinate and infuriate her, given the way her eyes flared before narrowing into slits. “I’m glad to know you were listening. But now I wanna hear from you.”
“Hear what, exactly?”
“Everything,” I said without hesitation. “I was gonna wait until we left to talk through everything, but it looks like we’re not going anywhere for a while. So, drop those shields, Peach, and let me in.”
She didn’t respond. She didn’t lower her defenses. She just tipped her chin higher and held my stare as a minute passed.
Just when I started rocking backward, her jaw wavered ever so slightly before she exhaled as her attention shifted to the open doorway. “You were wrong.”
“I somehow doubt that. But about what?”
Another excruciating silence settled between us, but I just waited, giving her the time she clearly needed, even though I was dying to get inside that head of hers.
Her delicate throat shifted. “I do have to be strong.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You don’t understand—”
“Except, I do,” I countered as I slipped a hand around her waist and tugged her closer. “Your dad is in your head. I can see that. But whatever you’re hearing—whatever he said—is messed up in ways I wish I could make you understand.”
Blue eyes shifted to mine, the glassiness of them the only crack in her armor. “Including how fatal it is to let an enemy sneak up on you?”
“That isn’t what happened with Davis,” I said patiently. “I also doubt your dad was that gentle when he drilled that particular lesson into your head.”
“That’s exactly what happened with Davis,” she countered, ignoring the rest of what I’d said. Not that it mattered, I already knew enough about her family to know I was right.
“Mallory, you can’t go through life being suspicious of every person you pass by,” I informed her.
“You can’t expect neighbors or people at the store or the ones who make those disgusting drinks you love so much to be secretly plotting against you.
You didn’t know—no one knew because they were all good at blending in. That’s why they were chosen for this.”
When her lips parted, I hurried to add, “And don’t say anything about me knowing. I didn’t know. I just couldn’t stand the guy because the thought of you with anyone else drove me crazy.”
She pressed her full lips firmly together as her focus drifted to the doorway again. When my grip on her waist tightened, she released a shuddering breath and whispered, “I’m the only one who fell for those water bottles.”
Lifting my other hand to her face, I gently grabbed her jaw and brought her stare back to me. “Don’t.”
“That won’t change that it happened,” she breathed. “That won’t change that I fell for multiple traps I should’ve seen.”
“We all should’ve seen,” I reminded her.
“And you did,” she cried out, but the words were barely a breath as they wrenched from her throat.
“You wouldn’t have drunk that water if I hadn’t given it to you.
No matter what you say, you still questioned things about Davis.
Evans didn’t think twice before throwing out a full bottle of water, even if he hadn’t known what prompted him to do it, and he said Wren’s Davis has always rubbed him the wrong way.
Even Chloe subconsciously knew not to touch the water.
” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I failed every test.”
“We can pick apart every situation until we’ve convinced ourselves we failed them,” I assured her. “That doesn’t make it true. And I’m telling you, you didn’t fail in this. Get out of your head,” I begged when her lips parted. “Get your dad’s words out of your head.”
She searched my stare for long moments before admitting, “That isn’t easily done.”
Releasing her waist, I cradled her cheeks in both hands, nodding subtly before lowering my forehead to hers.
“Then focus on replacing his words with mine,” I softly begged before repeating a simplified version of my earlier words to her.
“You’re stronger than you realize. Even if an enemy snuck up on you, I have full confidence you’d come out on top of that fight.
And shedding that diamond-tough exterior isn’t a weakness—there’s so much strength in showing people you’re human. ”
Her hands slowly slid up my stomach until she was gripping at my chest with one hand and clinging to my forearm with another. But the accepting sigh that tumbled from her didn’t match the words that left her next.
“But I don’t think you believe that.”