30. Reed
Chapter thirty
Reed
This whole day has been like living a dream.
These people are wonderful, this life they live is full of compassion and joy, and I can’t help but feel that Taryn, Emma, and I all fit right in.
Not only that, but the woman in my arms is what brings it all together.
Thalia is a vision when she isn’t brought down by trivial things. She looks so carefree and happy.
I want that for a lifetime. To see her smile every day. To hear her laugh light up a room. To know when she looks at me like that, it’s because she’s falling for me too. She may not want to admit it, but I think we’re both in too deep now. Just as my heart belongs to her, hers belongs to me.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Things are moving quickly, but I know this is where I’m meant to be.
It’s funny, because my dad used to tell me the same story when he met my mom.
They bumped into each other in a grocery store, and he didn’t even get her number, but he knew he was going to marry her.
All it took was them running into each other again a week later, and that was it.
I thought their story was coincidental—there’s no way two people found each other and just knew they were it for one another. Until now. Until her.
I’m a believer because Thalia is my future.
I brush her hair behind her ear, observing her fondly as she talks excitedly with her family. Laughter is exchanged, good stories are swapped, but I’m solely focused on the woman who stole my heart and showed me that there’s so much more to the world.
I realize with a cold rush of clarity that I would do anything for her. If Brooks is bringing a war to them, then I won’t sit on the sidelines. Not while my girl is out there. I can’t.
No matter how much she’ll try to argue, we’re in this together. I won’t send her to the frontline unless I’m right there with her.
“I’ve got some news,” a young woman with dark, chopped hair appears behind Alana and Connor, a laptop resting on her forearms.
Alana turns. “Everyone, this is my protégé, Blair.”
“Hi, Blair,” Emma waves.
The young woman nods in greeting. “We may have a problem.”
Rowan sits forward, locking in as Addison takes his hand in hers, and everyone quiets.
Blair sighs as she flicks across the keyboard. “It appears that Brooks has been meeting with the West Branch leader, Vincent Locke, in hopes of gaining their help.”
“Fuck,” Rowan curses under his breath. “Of course. And has our grandfather agreed to this?”
Blair shakes her head. “Locke said that as long as his daughter is alive, he has no reason to accept helping a traitor.”
Thalia tenses in my arms, her spine going rigid as her hand tightens around her glass. Her eyes become distant at the mention of their mother, and it makes my chest constrict. I place a hand on her back before leaning forward and kissing her spine to distract her.
She loosens, letting her shoulders sink as she eases back onto me and rests her head on my shoulder. I rub my hands up her arms, keeping contact to show that I’m with her.
Atlas rubs a hand across his mouth as he shakes his head. “He hasn’t even asked to relocate her. Why care about whether she’s dead or not?”
“Because she’s his spy,” Thalia says with an arctic chill dripping from her words. “She’s just as fucked in the head as her husband was.”
Rowan nods in agreement. “We need twenty-four-hour surveillance on Crystal. Dom, Theo, can you keep an eye on her until I can get someone to relieve you?”
Both assassins look at each other. “On it,” Theo winks.
Addison’s phone pings, and she looks at it. “Logan and the Northwestern Branch should be here any day now. They’ve pretty much tied up all their loose ends.”
“Good,” Rowan says. “We’ll need all the help we can get.”
“War is coming,” Bailey adds gravely as she rolls her glass on the table. “Brooks is going to fucking pay for what he’s done.”
Dom leans forward, brushing a strand of Bailey’s hair aside as the table goes completely silent. No one even breathes as he stares at her fervently. Her eyes widen on the table before her, a blush spreading over her cheeks.
“We’ll end this,” Theo whispers with conviction.
“Well, this is fucking fantastic.”
Bailey’s head whips up, and she freezes in place.
Across from her, a thin, tall man in a suit crosses his arms over his chest as he glares at the trio.
Not to be rude, but he definitely doesn’t look like he fits in here at all.
Not with his slicked-back hair and the thick silver glinting on his wrist.
“Liam,” Bailey smiles, rising from her chair. “You said you weren’t coming—”
“I wasn’t,” he interrupts rudely before his hands fall to his sides and his fists tighten. “That was until you wouldn’t answer my calls.”
Bailey’s head rears. “Your calls? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for two days. Why haven’t you been answering me?”
He straightens his tie, his expression sharpening. “I’ve been busy with work.”
Bailey’s jaw shifts as her smile fades. “Uh, huh. Always busy with work. You know someone is trying to kill me, right?”
“And whose fault is that?” Liam retorts.
Theo attempts to shoot up from his seated position, murder etched into his features before Dom reaches behind Bailey and plants a hand on the blonde man’s shoulder, forcing him back into his chair.
“Wait,” Bailey scoffs, her fingers touching her temples. “Are you blaming me for this?”
Liam sighs, looking away from the table. “Can we not do this here?”
“Fine,” Bailey bites as she grabs her coat.
They head for the door, but before they can make it there, I feel a crawling sensation along my neck. Like someone is watching me.
I glance behind me and catch a tall, older woman dipping out of the bar with her head of black hair tucked. I only catch a sliver of her features, but she seems oddly familiar. Almost as if she may be related to someone…
“Sorry sack of shit,” Theo spits before turning to Dom. “Why didn’t you let me hurt the fucker? Didn’t you see the way he was talking to her?”
Dom nods, but doesn’t say anything.
Alana is the voice of reason as she reaches a hand across the table. “Look, I know you two…feel strongly for Bailey, but Liam is her fiancé.”
“Even if he is a fucking jackass,” Thalia mutters before flicking a straw paper.
“You can say that again,” Addison grumbles.
“He shouldn’t be talking to her like that,” Theo shakes his head in disappointment.
“I know,” Loxley says under her breath. “But we have to respect her wishes, okay?”
“No, not okay,” Theo bites as he rises. “You may be able to sit here and listen to it, but I sure as hell can’t.”
“Theo—” Alana calls, but he doesn’t listen. Dom follows behind him, retrieving a cigarette from his pocket as they step out of the bar.
I watch the whole ordeal from the outside looking in, but my mind keeps circling back to the woman from earlier. I squeeze Thalia’s hip, getting her attention as she glances over her shoulder at me.
“I saw someone,” I whisper.
She lifts a brow. “What did they look like?”
“Tall, dark hair,” I roll my wrist, trying to form the words. “Just come with me. She couldn’t have gone far.”
She nods before we slip away from the group. We take one step past the threshold of the bar before both wincing at the fight that’s happening in the parking lot between Bailey, her fiancé, Theo, and now Dom.
“All I’m trying to say is that you would rather spend your time here, with people you don’t even fucking know while I’m at home, living the life we built together, Bailey.” Liam rages as he tosses a hand in the direction of the bar.
The blonde woman runs a hand through her hair, looking far more stressed now than she did a minute ago. “What is it going to take to make you understand that someone is actively trying to kill me?!”
“I never asked for you to take over!” Liam shouts, his chest rising and falling. “We were perfectly fine until you decided you needed a bigger purpose!”
Bailey’s face drops into something heartbreakingly blank. Not rage, but exhaustion. The kind that comes from tearing the same wound reopened over and over until there’s nothing left to bleed.
For a moment, the parking lot goes quiet except for the distant thump of music from inside the bar.
Then Bailey laughs. It’s a short and bitter sound that reverberates sadly.“You know what?” she says, shaking her head. “I spent months convincing myself you were scared. That this was fear talking. That eventually you’d understand.”
Liam scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Oh, here we go.”
“No,” Bailey points at him. “You don’t get to interrupt me this time.
” The sharpness in her voice actually makes him pause before she continues,“I was shot twice last year. I have three scars on my back from a knife attack. Someone put a price on my head before I had ever accepted leadership of the South Branch. And every single time I came home bleeding, you looked at me like I was an inconvenience.”
Theo’s jaw tightens as Dom lowers his cigarette, eyes narrowing.
Bailey doesn’t stop. “You keep saying I chose this over us. Well, I did.”
Liam folds his arms triumphantly. “There it is.”
“But not for the reasons you think.” She counters, and his expression falters. She steps closer, her boots crunching across the gravel. “I chose myself. I spent years shrinking myself to fit into the life you wanted. Years pretending I didn’t have ambitions because they made you uncomfortable.”
“Ambitions?” Liam laughs cruelly. “You’re running a network of murderers, Bailey.”
Theo moves before anyone can stop him as he stalks quickly across the parking lot. “Watch your fucking mouth.”
Liam turns slowly towards him, his expression bored. “What? Did I hurt your feelings?”
Theo’s eyes darken.“No. But you’re doing a fantastic job proving you don’t deserve hers.”