Chapter 18
Tyler
Cassie stalked over to me. “Arran’s office. Now.”
I didn’t look away from the glare I deserved. “If she’ll let me.”
“Better ask, then.”
In my flat, Dixie listened. “You won’t leave the building?”
“I swear it.” At least not of my own volition.
“And you’ll come straight back?” She smiled at my immediate nod. “Thank you. I need that.”
“How is it going with Mila?”
“So good. I love her already. Is that weird?”
My chest ached for her. “It’s perfect.”
Dixie beamed and pressed her hands together. “Let the others in. I owe them all a hug.”
“Cassie might come with me first.”
I opened the door, and Cassie burst through, shoving me aside to take in Dixie. The savage woman exhaled then hugged her friend.
“Fucking hell. You’re okay?”
“I’m good, bestie. I’m sor—”
Cassie put a finger to Dixie’s lips, stopping her sentence. “No, ye aren’t. You’re not sorry for anything.” Her gaze locked on mine once more. “But someone is. I’ll be back up soon.”
We left the apartment to the happy sounds of Lovelyn crying into her hug.
The interior of the lift felt like a jail cell.
Cassie glowered and didn’t speak, merely pursing her lips and giving me a once-over that could’ve shredded me to the bone.
Downstairs, we entered the office and closed the door against prying eyes. Arran and Shade lifted their heads from where they’d been in discussion.
“He had her,” Cassie spat. She whirled on me. “Ye had her! How long were ye planning it? Why? Explain it to me like I’m five. We found her flat empty. Completely ransacked. I thought the worst. If ye hurt her, I’ll cut off your dick and make ye eat it.”
A blade was in her hand faster than I could blink.
No one stopped her. I didn’t try.
This was bound to happen. My crew would inevitably find out. The lie Dixie had gifted me wouldn’t have cut it for long.
So I said the one thing they’d understand. That Shade had said when carrying in an unconscious Everly. That Arran told the crew about Genevieve. That Cassie had declared to anyone who’d listen about Riordan.
“Mine. Dixie is mine.”
A beat passed.
Three faces stared at me, my friends processing the consequences of my words. Then Cassie swore and left the room, the door bouncing off the wall in her wake.
Arran and Shade swapped a glance.
Shade spoke first. “Ye emptied her flat?”
Stiff, I rolled my shoulders. “I did. After Lovelyn and Kane went there. I knew Cassie had paid the rent for another month, but the landlord is a piece of shit who let himself in.”
Which I knew because I’d had a camera and motion sensors on the place.
The leader of the skeleton crew leaned forward, his eyebrows slanted in. “But you didn’t know where she was?”
At least in that I could be honest. “No, I didn’t.”
His phone rang, and Arran swore then picked it up, raising a finger to pause us. I sensed the weight of Shade’s stare. The curiosity mixed with concern in his eyes.
“You’re okay?” Shade asked.
I shrugged. “Were ye after Everly?”
“Fuck no. I was a mess.”
I made a no-shit expression. He’d been a madman. Even more deadly, which said a lot.
Shade tugged at the skeleton crew bandanna at his throat, revealing more of his extensive ink. “God help any traffickers who cross your path. If ye can drag yourself away from your lass’s side.”
I couldn’t. Even this was killing me. She was a few floors away, and the pull to her was like nothing I’d ever felt.
Arran’s short call ended with Cassie’s return to the room.
Some of the hostility had left her, and she’d sheathed her blade. “Dixie confirmed it. She said ye agreed to her plan. I knew she liked ye, I just never expected… Fuck. Why didn’t ye tell anyone? Why let us suffer?”
“She only came back to me a few days ago. Any decisions since then have been ours to make, and no one else gets to question them.”
Understanding rippled across the men in the room. The fact that they would defend the same for their women.
Cassie was the outlier. “And the beach? That was ye?”
I was done explaining. “No more. I’ve made my claim. For as long as she wants me, I’ll guard everything about her, including her story. You’ll respect that.”
It was the best I could do, and until Dixie filled in the gaps or contradicted me, I hoped it would hold. To my great relief, one by one, each of the crew leadership nodded understanding, even Cassie.
The pint-sized killer heaved a deep breath. “I have her bags upstairs. I’ll give them to her.”
“No, ye don’t,” I corrected.
Her gaze turned from quizzical to outraged again. “What the actual fuck? How? Ye broke into my apartment?”
Well, shite. I’d been so close to getting away with this. Then again, I deserved to be run through for all I’d done.
I opened my mouth.
Shade beat me to it. “It was me. Riot let me in, and I took advantage. I knew exactly where they were so no snooping required. I apologise.”
Red flooded Cassie’s cheeks. I watched her piece together the fact he’d known. And hadn’t told her. Abruptly, she launched forward and out of the room.
Shade started after her.
I touched his arm, connecting to his gaze for an unspoken thanks.
Shade’s lips tugged into a half-smile. “We’re siblings. She’ll forgive me far easier than your sorry arse.”
He left to hunt her down.
“Hold back a minute,” Arran asked me alone.
Of all the crew, I’d known him longest. I’d come to him for work, hearing of his reputation, and he’d given me everything I’d asked for.
A team of my own. A caseload I dictated.
I trusted him, with everything but the full truth, and alongside knowing me, he was the only one who could question this more deeply. Only he had that background knowledge.
Quiet understanding and concern filled the way he watched me. “Are the Athertons on their way back?”
I confirmed it with a nod. I’d called off the brothers’ hunt when standing guard in the hall.
“I’m assuming you’d prefer to be based here while this situation is ongoing.”
“Wherever Dixie needs me to be. I’ll work around it with my crew.”
My job had been my life for years, taking me away from the warehouse far more often than I was in it. I could handle a change.
Arran narrowed his eyes. “Anything more you want to tell me? Because I have Shade locking up an ex-guard but refusing to say why. A prospect standing guard over a half-dead businessman. You, I can understand for keeping Dixie’s confidence.
I respect the fuck out of that, but…” He stalled.
Worked it out. “Then Shade’s doing the same. How did I miss that?”
The warning in my gaze told him to stop. “If Dixie wants that information shared, it will be. Otherwise Shade will make an example of Buck so other recruits know not to cross us.”
Arran then asked a question I wished he hadn’t.
“Does she know? About you.”
My thoughts stalled. Slunk back to a dark place of pain and horror. I swallowed. “In part.”
“How big a part? Because I’ve known you for years and I’ve seen the fallout. I count it in bodies.”
“Respectfully, I don’t need counselling.”
“Considering everything she’s embroiled in, or about to be, she should have the full story.”
I shook my head once. “I have no intention of making her pity me. She knows that my family is dead. That’s enough.”
His haunted expression called bullshit on my claim.
Arran stood and moved around his desk to rest on the corner, taking a minute over replying.
Perhaps weighing up how hard he could push me.
“Secrets damage relationships. Particularly the kind you’ve had to handle.
Ask me how I know. Fuck. I have experience in this area. I can help.”
He was wrong. I didn’t deserve Dixie, and I’d done enough to coerce and force her to be with me. “If Genevieve stayed with ye because of anything other than love, how would that feel?”
His lips flattened, telling me everything, but I didn’t want to hear his opinion. Whatever Arran thought of me, I moved on before he could voice it.
“On a separate topic,” I said. “Kane’s name is all over the press. He won’t lie low for long, so we need to offer what identity protection we can.”
Arran considered that, his continued scrutiny telling me he hadn’t lost interest in the topic of my fucked-up history.
“I’ll talk to Detective Dickhead, though I imagine Lovelyn will shield Kane from the cops.
She wields some influence over her father.
Alongside that, Kane could also use a crew name. Got any ideas?”
“Not yet.”
“Ask around the crew. Shade came up with Riot for Riordan. He could have suggestions.” He paused. “Perhaps don’t include Convict, or he’ll start calling him some shit that’ll stick.”
On any normal day, I would’ve laughed. Instead, I got up and left, the need to be near Dixie too strong to ignore.