Chapter Sixteen #2
His dark eyes cut to Margo, the pain evident in the crease of his brow, the tight line of his lips. “Has Hayes gone over the legal paperwork with you yet?”
She did a double take to me. “Th-the what?”
I stepped up to stand beside Grayson. “It’s an NDA between you and Red Snake. We don’t share your information with anyone outside of law enforcement—and only if and when necessary—and you can’t do anything either. This protects both parties. No, I haven’t given it to her yet.”
She cleared her throat and tucked some hair behind her ear, dipping her chin so her butterfly was no longer visible.
Hating that, I moved, taking a seat in the armchair across from her.
It was a silent gesture to let her know I wasn’t going anywhere, and the slight sag of her shoulders gave me the reassurance that I’d done the right thing.
“Okay,” she breathed, nodding. “Do you want me to sign that now?”
“We can after lunch,” I said softly, holding her eyes.
Grayson sighed as he walked over to us. “I take it you aren’t going to give Margo and me some privacy.”
Leaning back, I put an ankle over my knee and settled in. “You would be correct.”
“Right, then,” he muttered, shaking his head.
“Hayes being in here makes me more comfortable.”
We both looked at her, and my chest was about to explode. This woman had no idea what she did to me, the power she had over me, and logically, I was a fool to give her that power. On the other hand, I also didn’t give a fuck.
“Then he stays.”
She nodded and gave Gray a smile. “Thanks, big man.”
“Carrie is the love of my life.”
“Yes…I know that,” she replied slowly. “I think everyone knows that.”
“When I brought her back to Astoria, we wanted to spend a few days by ourselves because there was a warrant out for my arrest from the FBI,” he continued, his voice level.
“Wh-what?” she stammered, sitting up a bit.
He ignored her, continuing as he went to take a seat on the coffee table, his legs next to hers. “Then Michael saw us, and shortly after that, you were banging on Carrie’s door, demanding to see her while threatening me.”
“Well, I didn’t—”
“Carrie’s kidnapping scared the fucking shit out of you,” he said, his hands hanging between his knees, shoulders tight.
I rested my elbow on the arm of the chair and rubbed my mouth, already knowing his damn play. “Gray,” I warned.
“Of course it did,” she whispered, eyes shining. “Those weeks, not knowing where she was, what you were doing, they were hell for everyone. Sarah and Rossy both nearly lost their minds and—”
“You cried yourself to sleep every night,” he finished.
My body went rigid and my hand slowly fell away from my face. She shot me a worried look, sitting up, putting her feet on the floor.
She’d been exposed.
Grayson had exposed something she didn’t want anyone to have.
“Grayson,” I clipped.
Again, he ignored me. “You want to know how I know that, Margo?” he pressed, leaning close to her, blocking my view.
“Because my fiancée told me what you told her. She was distraught over the fact that you cared for her so fucking much—that everyone in Astoria cared for her, because people actually giving a shit about her was something she had never experienced in her old life.”
I heard a soft sob and I shot to my feet. “That’s enough,” I growled, rounding the table.
Grayson didn’t stop. He did what he was good at.
He pushed and pushed until the person in his grasp reached their breaking point.
His interrogation techniques favored that of Ash’s, whereas I was more like Dominic.
I didn’t push. I watched, letting the person in front of me drive themselves to their own breaking points.
But that’s not what needed to happen here.
This was supposed to be a conversation, not a manipulative interrogation. “Back off,” I ordered, putting my hand on his shoulder, yanking him back.
He looked up at me, his scar on display. “She needs to know.”
“No,” I argued, grabbing her wrist. I pulled her off the couch and gently shoved her behind me, my hand on her stomach. Grayson was also on his feet, ready to start again. I lifted my finger. “Try that shit again, Gray. Try it again and I’ll lay you out on this goddamn floor.”
“She needs—”
“What Margo needs is people in her corner who give a shit about her well-being and her fucking boundaries. If she doesn’t want Carrie or the others to know, then so be it,” I snapped. “When all this is over, Carrie will understand.”
His nostrils flared.
I stepped closer to him. “Carrie doesn’t need to know right now or ever. That’s Margo’s decision, not yours. Not mine. Not Red Snake’s. You understand me?”
After fifteen seconds, he looked over my shoulder, his features softening. “You never left our house.”
Behind me, I heard Margo suck in a soft, sharp breath. “Grayson, please.”
“You clung to her, sweetheart.”
“I don’t want her to look at me differently.”
My head dropped, eyes closing, her words like poison, killing me slowly.
“What the hell do you mean by that?” he asked, glancing at me.
The door was thrown open then, banging against the wall, shaking my painting as Jake stepped through, eyes wild.
“You got something?” I called, grinding my teeth.
His eyes bounced between Gray and me as he nodded once. He walked straight to Margo and put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them with his thumbs.
“Jake, what is it?” I pressed.
As he continued to stare down at her, he asked, “Has she signed the NDA yet?”
“Not yet.”
He sighed, giving Margo a useless smile. “Well, that’s good. Makes things less complicated, not that it would be a bad thing if she had signed it already,” he rambled.
“Murphy,” Grayson barked. “Clue us in before I fire you.”
I stepped up behind Margo and slowly pulled her away from Jake. “Did you find Samson?” I asked, voice hard.
He looked pained. “Yeah.”
Margo folded her arms across her chest, huffing. “Well, where is he?” She twisted her neck, looking up at me. “Does Jake always look this crazy when he finds someone?”
“Yes,” Gray and I answered.
“Heard Murphy found something.”
All of us turned to the doorway, finding Dominic leaning against the frame, reading a file.
His suit jacket was off, shirt untucked, sleeves rolled up.
I knew he wasn’t doing well after seeing Margo’s face.
Domestic violence was a hard trigger for him, and he never touched DV-related cases unless absolutely necessary.
“Does Hayes need to get the chopper?” he asked.
“Chopper isn’t here,” Gray answered, shooting me a glare.
“You guys have a chopper?” Margo chimed in, eyes wide.
“Yeah, Hayes is the only one who can fly it,” Jake answered, leaning back against my file cabinets. He put his hand on the back of his neck, massaging it.
“Oh. Well, where is it?” she asked.
“Shouldn’t we get back to the problem at hand?” Dominic calmly suggested, still scanning the file.
Christ, he was about to explode.
“Well, sure, but the fact that you guys have a chopper is the coolest thing I’ve heard all day,” Margo said. Jake and I shared a look before we both looked at Dominic.
Then I looked down at her. “It’s in Astoria.”
Those green eyes were solely on me now, beckoning me to get lost. “A-Astoria? Why?” she asked, tilting her head. She hadn’t pieced it together yet, and I couldn’t fault her for that.
I brought my hand to her face, softly grazing the underside of her bruise.
“Because I had to get to you as quickly as possible yesterday. Chopper was the fastest option,” I murmured, following the trail of my finger, studying the coloring of her cheek.
In a few days, the bruise would lighten, and I couldn’t wait for it to be gone.
She was too beautiful to bear the stark reminder of the past she’d crawled her way out of, my sweet Temper.
Margo flinched, eyes shining with disbelief.
Yes, I came for you. I’ll always come for you, baby.
“Well, I’m happy to know that Ash’s yapping didn’t turn out to be all lies and bullshit,” Jake drawled.
Margo and I turned to look at him, my hand dropping down to her jaw before falling away completely.
Jake adjusted his glasses. “Can I tell you all what I found, or has this turned into a tea party?”
“Do you have tea?” Margo asked.
Jake blinked. “In the sense of information, yes. If you’re referring to actual tea, no.”
“Don’t let Rossy know that,” she mumbled before asking, “Where is Gordon? Running his drugs out of a shed in Huntington?”
“No, Gordon left his hometown years ago,” Jake informed us. “His operation is in Seattle.”
“Operation?” she whispered.
“Glad you marked her, Mitchell, because before Red Snake goes any further, we need to make a call to Agent Garner.”
Oh, hell.
“Fucking shit,” Grayson clipped, hands on his hips.
Margo looked back and forth between the four of us. “Who’s Agent Garner?”
“You’ve met him,” Dominic answered, snapping the file closed. “When Grayson was in the hospital. He was the one who came to arrest him.”
Margo’s jaw went slack.
“Time to draw straws.” All eyes went to the doorway. Ash was standing beside Dominic now. “Who has to make the call?”
“I’ll do it,” Gray said, rolling his neck.
“Ash, I need blueprints of every building Samson uses for his operations, including former ones. We need to know how far this stretches. Dominic, get with Jake and start making a profile.” He turned to me.
“Now that we know the fucker is local, she doesn’t need to be here. Take her back to Astoria.”
“Wait, you can’t just drop me back off! What’s the plan?”
The boys ignored her, nodding at Grayson. Dominic and Jake disappeared down the hall just after Ash.
Gray walked up to Margo, staring down at her, his eyes soft. “Sorry for pushing you,” he whispered. Then, with a quick look at me, he was out of the office, shutting my door behind him.
“Well, I guess we’re taking our lunch to go,” I sighed, running a hand over my hair. I knew, given what she’d told me about Gordon, that he very well could be in Portland too, given its proximity. It was the perfect city for a low-level dealer like him. Perfect to build, to gain power.
Margo whirled to face me, eyes one fire. “You are not just going to take me home and drop me off. I deserve to know what’s going on.”
“I’m not dropping you off,” I declared. “I’m moving in.”
She jerked back but recovered quickly. “You can’t just move into my apartment! We barely know each other.”
I raised a brow. “Is that what you really think?”
Her cheeks heated, eyes fierce, her plump lips pressing into a tight line. “Then have Dominic give me a gun or something!”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean no?”
“Do you want to hear it in a different language?” I quipped.
“You are under my protection now. Giving you a gun wouldn’t do anything but piss me off, because despite what you may think, I do know you.
I know the second you have a gun in your hand, you’ll get a wild hair up your ass and go after Gordon yourself. Just like you went after your brother.”
“Hayes—”
I pointed at her bruise. “This will never happen to you again. That is my promise to you, but in order for me to keep that, you have to let me do what I need to do.”
There was a stretch of inflated silence, both of us staring at each other as she weighed her options.
She was either going to push back on this or give me another shred of mercy.
Mercy I wasn’t afraid to beg for. I’d get on my knees for her if it meant I could protect her and keep her safe from the dangers of her past and the ones we had yet to face.
“Okay, Superman,” she finally said softly. “You can move in.”