Chapter 18 Wraith
Wraith
Waiting for Bouche—no, Pax—has my nerves frayed. I have to tell Shadow what’s going on and I’m not at all sure how he’s going to take it. It doesn’t help that he’s been holed up in his office most of the day with Stealth. I hope spending time with our returned brother improves his mood.
“What’s going on with you, Wraith?” Carnage asks, bumping my arm as he passes me in the rec room. “Want to play some pool?”
“Can’t. I’m waiting for someone.”
He turns to look at me, raising an eyebrow. “Waiting for someone? To come here?”
“Yep.”
“For what?”
“To talk.”
He stares at me in confusion. Rightfully so. I’m not making any sense.
“Is something wrong?”
“Yes.”
His expression darkens and he slams his fist into his palm. “Who do I have to hurt?”
“No one. Not yet.” I plop down into one of the armchairs, thankful the other guys are out doing jobs or whatever. “Have you ever had to tell Shadow something potentially upsetting?”
“Potentially upsetting?” He kneels next to me. “Like?”
“Like you can’t follow through on a job because of some information you got?”
His eyes widen. “Dude.”
“No, then?”
“No. Fuck no. What’s going on?” He squeezes my knee. “You can tell me.”
“I know, but—” My phone buzzes in my pocket and I tense. “He’s here.”
“Who?”
“Pax. Hockey player.”
“Paxon Bouchard?”
“That’s the one.”
“I have questions.”
“I’m sure you do, but now isn’t the time.” I get to my feet and head for the front door.
Pax is pulling up in front of the house on the circular drive just as I’m opening the door. He steps out of the car looking delicious as always in jeans and a t-shirt, but his face is taut with worry and stress.
“Hi,” he says, sliding his hands into the pockets of his charcoal gray coat.
“Come on in.”
I step to the side, letting him pass me, and offer to take his coat. As he shrugs it off, he takes in the space around us.
“This is a mansion, Wraith.”
“I guess it is, but a lot of us live here.”
“All of you do?”
“Yes, and we still have rooms available.”
“What about privacy?”
“I have plenty of that. When we’re in the rec room, we’re available. When we’re in our bedrooms, we’re not unless there’s an emergency. Those are the rules and we all abide by them.”
“I see.” He wrings his hands together. “What now?”
“Now, I’m going to message my boss and ask to see him.”
“And you want me to come with you?”
I nod, even as my nerves spike. “Yes.”
“And he’s not gonna lose his shit or anything?”
“Again, this isn’t the Mafia. We’re family. He’ll listen to me.”
“Okay then.” His tongue darts out to wet his lips, and my stomach flips with desire to take over and taste him again.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” I mumble.
“So are you, Wraith.”
I turn when I hear footsteps, and I’m not surprised to see Carnage behind me, but I didn’t expect Stealth to be standing next to him.
“Hey, guys.”
“Holy shit.” Stealth’s face lights up with a rare smile. “You’re The Bouche.”
Pax shifts uneasily next to me, so I jump in. “Paxon Bouchard, yes. We’re, um, we’re friends.”
Stealth doesn’t even blink. “Nice to meet you, man. You’re an amazing player. I’ve been a fan since Philly.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Carnage nods politely but doesn’t say anything.
“Is Shadow free now, bror?” I ask.
Stealth nods. “He is.”
“Mood?”
Stealth shrugs. “Fuck if I know.”
That’s a weird answer. He just spent hours with him. “Thanks. Come on, Pax.”
We leave my brothers and I lead Pax through the house.
“What does that word mean that you said? Bror?”
His pronunciation is cute enough that a smile tugs at my lips. “It means brother in Norwegian.”
“Do you still speak it?”
“Not much anymore. No one around here speaks it, but I try. I don’t want to lose it.”
He nods. “Knowing more than one language is cool.”
“It is. Do you?”
“Shitty French. I tried to learn it for a long time. I always hoped I’d end up playing in Canada and my mom’s roots are from there, but I didn’t stick with it. Hockey took over everything.”
“Colson speaks French. He’s my new brother-in-law. He’s Specter’s husband.” I glance at him as we walk. “Maybe you could practice with him.”
He scrunches his face for a second and I realize my mistake. There’s no future here. Once this is resolved, I’ll never see this gorgeous man again. Which is fine. This was never gonna be more than a hookup anyway. I had hoped it would last a little longer though.
The door to Shadow’s office is open and he’s sitting behind his desk, his head bent as he reads over some documents. I knock softly so as not to startle him, and when he looks up, his face goes from neutral to confused.
“I need to talk to you, boss. It’s important.”
“Who is that?”
“Can we come in?”
He nods, gesturing for us to take a seat on the other side of his desk. I can feel the tension pouring off Pax, and I want to reach out and reassure him, but I can’t really do that yet. Not until I know how Shadow is going to react.
I close the door because this conversation shouldn’t be overheard. When I face Shadow again, I straighten my shoulders and summon the courage I need to get this out.
“Um, Shadow, this is Paxon Bouchard. He’s a hockey player for the Mistone Magnets.”
Shadow nods. “Hello.”
“Hi,” Paxon says, but his gaze shifts quickly to me.
“Why is he in my office, Wraith?”
Leave it to Shadow to get right to the point. “So, erm, the job I’m assigned, to find Patrick Gemelli, the person blackmailing the client?”
“Yeah?”
“Paxon is Patrick’s brother.”
To an outsider, it would look like Shadow didn’t react at all, but I can see the vein in his temple pulse and the way he subtly clenches his jaw.
“Which doesn’t answer my question.”
“I’m getting to that.” I exhale slowly. “In a nutshell, I was stalking the target, ran into Pax, and we… well, we started hanging out, and then we all found out how we were connected to each other.”
“Fucking hell,” Shadow murmurs. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Unfortunately, yes, but there’s a reason I’m here and didn’t just…” I pause, avoiding Pax’s gaze. “Didn’t just handle things.”
“You have my attention.”
“Because of this discovery, I was able to find out more about what the target did and why he had a hit on him.”
Shadow’s eyes narrow. “Go on.”
I launch into the whole story Boone told us and produce the folder with all the evidence in it. While I’m speaking, Shadow flips through the folder. His face is a perfect neutral canvas at first, but then his expression morphs into barely contained rage.
When I finish the story, I wait silently for Shadow to speak. Paxon is practically vibrating with nerves next to me, but he’s otherwise as still as a statue. I can’t even hear his breathing.
After a few tense minutes, Shadow looks up, his intense gaze trained on me. “Are you telling me that we were hired by sex traffickers and almost took out a guy trying to stop them?”
“Yes.”
His expression goes from anger to devastation in seconds. “Fuck.”
I nod, saying nothing while I find the courage to fess up. “I confess I made a call and I let the target get away. I couldn’t go through with it after learning what I had, and…” I gesture to Pax. “And there’s this situation.”
“And what exactly is this situation?” Shadow asks. “Are you together?”
Pax inhales sharply but doesn’t speak.
“Probably not after this is settled, but we spent time together for a few weeks. I wouldn’t be here right now, wouldn’t have brought him into our home, if I didn’t believe everything I learned. We have to do something, Shadow.”
He rises, turning his back to us and going to stand in front of the empty fireplace. I watch him, trying to read his body language so I can at least be prepared if he explodes with anger. When he finally turns around, my breath catches. He looks wrecked.
“This is upsetting, obviously,” he starts softly. “It makes me wonder how many people have died who maybe shouldn’t have.”
I nod. “Yes. Same here.”
“I need to think about things.”
“Right, I know, but, Shadow, I need your blessing to handle this differently.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Don’t have much of one yet until I get your buy in. Step one is to find Paxon’s brother and get him to a safe place. Step two is to find the client and handle business.”
“You’re proposing we step in and take down this ring?”
“I’m not sure we can. We don’t know how big it is, but we can sure as fuck handle what’s happening in our city.”
“You want me to condone the client becoming the target?”
“And give me the resources to handle it.”
Shadow sits down again, scrubbing his hand over his face. “This sets a precedent. If it’s found out, we stand to lose a lot of credibility.”
“Fuck credibility. We potentially have innocent blood on our hands, and I don’t know about you, but that’s not okay with me.
That’s not what any of us signed up for.
I have zero problems taking out a thousand bad people, but not even one good person.
Patrick fucked up, he did, and he made a bad decision, but he did it for a good reason. We have to help, Shadow.”
He’s quiet for a moment, studying Paxon, who, to his credit, doesn’t flinch or back down at all.
“You understand what we do?”
Paxon nods. “Wraith was forced to tell me when it all came to light.”
“And how do you feel about it?”
“Conflicted as fuck, to be honest. I can see that Wraith is a good person, but I’m not gonna lie, it fucks with me that he has no problem killing people.”
I flinch at his words. I didn’t expect him to feel any differently, but it still sucks to hear it.
“But if you’re worried about me saying something, I’m not a fucking idiot,” Pax continues.
“I recognize what a bad idea that would be, and I’m not here to hurt Wraith or any of you.
I just want my brother to be safe. I’m also a high-profile public figure with plenty to lose if all this got out.
” He looks at me. “I came here to support Wraith and prove to you that he went out on a limb for me and my brother because he knows it’s the right thing to do. ”