42
Vultures Fly
Gabriel
I wait until we’re in the SUV before I start asking questions.
“Do you know what Shade talked about?” I ask Mikael darkly.
“No. I didn’t want to get too close with Daniels so protective of her,” Mikael admits with a frown.
“The phone?” I look at Jake.
“Cloned,” he tells me absently. “No activity yet.”
“She’s out of this,” Cade insists. “With the stakes raised even higher, she’s going to lie low.”
The look both Ace and Jake give him makes him lean back warily.
“She told me last night that she wouldn’t go out again,” Mikael offers, but it’s weak. We all know it could be a lie.
“Did anyone else hear her Mama talkin’? If that ain’t a sign she’s gonna blow shit up, I don’t know what is,” Ace chuckles with relish.
Obviously, I missed something entertaining. I was stuck on the phone with my father and dreading his impending arrival. He will be here in time for dinner, but I want Amanda to be as far away from him as possible.
With her escape last night, she’s proven to be resourceful. I’m sure either Shade or Tera, possibly both, assisted in her slipping past us all. Or Jake, who never said a word to any of us about it. Coming home to an empty house has never felt so devastating before.
“She said that last night ,” Jake taunts Mikael, still staring at his phone. “She needed sleep. It’s a brand-new day, Mikael and she’s all rested up. Talking to her parents gave her back some of her fire.”
His brows furrow at whatever he’s looking at before a smile twitches on his lips. The phone gets closed out quickly, making my eyes narrow. Whatever she just did amused him. I’m not taking that as a good sign.
“So you two are teaming up?” Cade gives Jake a dark glare. The rest of us follow suit.
She’s ignored Jake for so long that I never saw this coming. I knew he was obsessed with her, like the rest of us, but her closed-off attitude toward him made me think it was one-sided.
How much more wrong about her am I going to get?
My mind flashes to the video Shade sent me and the sound of her panicked breathing. The idea that she was facing that while I was planning to throw her in a cell and then lock her in my home to keep makes me sag in my seat. We were both falling apart, and I refused to listen.
My phone chirps with a message twice in a row.
I pull it out to see Shade has sent me two recordings, one longer than the other.
Shade: In case you needed more proof.
My brows furrow.
“Proof of what?” Ace asks with a sneer.
“Play it,” Mikael mutters on my other side.
Cade slides the privacy partition up to keep the driver from listening in.
The first recording, the longest one, is Amanda’s final meeting with Blake. Hearing her flat tone telling someone to leave the room is startling. There’s such a big contrast between her usual snark and this deadened voice. That cold sound continues, even though she’s making an effort to change her tone at times. That deadly hum rides underneath the false calm. She went there for violence. That much is clear.
The sound of a struggle makes us all tense. We’ve seen that she’s okay and read the report of what she did in return, but hearing it firsthand doesn’t help me at all.
The sound of Blake screaming in pain and begging relaxes Ace back with a vicious smile.
All of the information she gets out of him has already been shared with us. It didn’t include the absolute rage that overtakes her when she hears the account was made in her name. My eyes meet Cade’s as he winces.
The audio cuts out as soon as a door opens.
“As first interrogations go, she didn’t do too badly,” Jake comments with a smile.
“Second,” Mikael mutters and shakes his head. “She beat up the landlord over her apartment. Broken knee. But scared him bad enough that he confessed to me about Blake messing with her through him and his payout for it.”
“I’ll let her know about pain first, questions second. And Manny?” Jake asks thoughtfully.
“Confessed to giving her the letters for Mrs. Danvers, a downstairs neighbor. Her daughter was one of the people swindled out of her house. When the lawsuits didn’t move forward, Mrs. Danvers went digging for reasons. She thought Amanda knew all about everything he was doing and wanted to punish her. That woman is vicious,” Mikael shakes his head in disbelief.
“We’ll introduce her to my imp’s Mama and that will be put to bed,” Jake smirks.
“She really didn’t have any place to go but us,” Cade’s eyes squeeze shut, trying to stem the tide of guilt that matches mine.
“She ignored the eviction notice from Matthias LLC,” Mikael adds, staring out the window. “She had faith in us, and we blew it.”
“What’s the second one,” Ace asks, reaching for my phone to press play himself.
Amanda comments that she’s surprised the grass isn’t made of money. The bitter sound of it makes me wince.
Shade speaks next, and Jake pouts.
“He found the account already. Show off.”
“Shut up,” Cade frowns, staring at the phone.
It isn’t until she hesitates about the money that his eyes meet mine. He looks afraid of what she’s going to say. When she says to give it to the victims, he lets out a harsh breath and stares out the window. The pain and guilt in his expression match mine perfectly. I never realized just how much I have in common with Cade until now. I was under the impression that his father’s death had been set aside and laid to rest. I was very wrong.
“She’s at ease with that asshole, and we’re nothin’ now,” Ace snaps, popping his knuckles restlessly.
“She’s not expecting to survive.”
Jake’s dark tone gets all of our attention.
“You all heard it. She’s taking as many of them down with her as she can. She laughed at Blake when he offered to help her. If she’s so set on not making it, she’s going to be risking a lot.”
“Loose cannon,” Cade grits out between clenched teeth.
“What’s she doing at home?” Mikael asks Jake darkly.
“Playing around. Leave her alone,” Jake turns his shark stare on Mikael. “She’s earned some safe alone time.”
“From now on, one of us stays behind,” Ace mutters. We all agree quickly.
“I’ll head back after you’re dropped off,” Mikael nods.
“No,” Jake leans forward to press his point home. “She needs some time to herself. She’s at a standstill until more information comes her way. Shade doesn’t have anything for her yet. We need to get some to her as quickly as possible.”
“Are you insane?” Cade asks and shakes his head. “Forget I asked.”
“She passed the damsel in distress point Monday morning,” Jake catches all of us in his dead eyes. “She’s firmly in our category now.”
“No,” Cade grabs his tie to yank him face to face with him. “We aren’t sitting back and letting that happen. Not to her. Not ever.”
“It’s done. Get over it,” Jake leans closer until their noses are pressed together. “Jeffersons never stop fighting. It’s likely why the marriage lasted as long as it did. She didn’t give up.”
“I want to raise that fucker from the dead and kill him again,” Ace grinds out, rubbing his knuckles.
“Get in line. ?iti gets first dibs,” Mikael glares as he offers first place in line to Amanda’s mother. “Since that isn’t happening, we can focus on helpful things.”
“Like?” Cade snaps.
“Information for meine Seele ,” Jake puts in. “If you continue to baby her, she will shut you out completely.”
“How can we not?” I ask with a scowl. “How can we sit back and watch her blithely walk off to beat the hell out of people?”
“We walk at her side, fools,” Jake gives us a disgusted glance. “Just like any other recruit.”
“She’s not a recruit,” Cade yells.
“No, she’s unique,” Ace bites back. “One of us in her own way.”
“We came here to get away from that,” Cade’s voice turns ragged. “We can’t let that happen to her.”
“Then minimize it as much as possible,” Jake shrugs nonchalantly as if he doesn’t believe it will happen.
“She’s shutting the account down,” I mutter, staring at the two recordings on my phone. “That means they’ll be looking for backers. Especially if it was their only account.”
“I’m looking into that,” Jake says with a yawn.
“You’re going to set yourself up?” Mikael frowns at me.
“My choice in decorating might not be up to Amanda’s standards, but there are plenty who will see it and drool,” I assure him.
Jake cracks up laughing, suddenly back in his sunny mood.