They say that when you know, you know.
And I know.
I have a good feeling about her, about us. I know we have a lot more getting to know each other, and plenty to learn about each other, but I’m here for it.
“Never thought I’d see the day that Seth Decker admits he has genuine feelings for a woman,” Felix says to me the second we are alone. “Marry. I wish I had recorded that, because no one would believe me if I told them.”
“See, I wasn’t scared of commitment. I was just waiting for the right woman to come along.”
“Yes, well, you better not break her heart or my wife will murder you with her bare hands,” he casually warns me.
“Oh, I believe it,” I mutter.
The two of them have a friendship that I’ve never seen between two people before. There’s no jealousy, just pure love and support. They’d die for each other, without even thinking about it.
And I love that Cara has that.
I’ve read about women calling their best friends their soul mates, and I feel like that sums them up.
But that doesn’t mean there’s not room for me.
“I have to admit, you threw the M word out at the right time. Now they’re talking about it instead of them wanting to walk right into Marko’s fucking house, or wherever gangs congregate these days. I think it was a brilliant distraction. What are we going to do?”
“Atlas said they have a warehouse they use as their base,” I say, sighing. “And yeah, I agree. That plan of theirs is not fucking happening. I’m not opposed to locking them up somewhere if they try it. We need another plan, though, or they aren’t going to let it go.”
“Yeah, and they’ll say that we’re trying to control them. I know how this works. We become the bad guys for wanting them to stay safe, like it’s a crime,” he says, a little too passionately, like this isn’t his first time dealing with this.
And with Clover as his wife, I bet it’s not.
“I think I know what we need to do,” I say, quieting my tone. “We need Rhett to get his ass back here, because he’s the one they really want. What better bait than Rhett himself? There’s no way that Cara should have to be put in danger because of what he did.”
“You just told her you see yourself ending up with her and now you want to bring her ex back into the fold? I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: you have some big fucking balls, Decker,” Felix whisper-yells, looking both shocked and amused.
“Well, this is the only way I can think of to keep her safe. She said that she doesn’t love him anymore, so I don’t have anything to worry about, right?”
“Yeah, nothing except a shitload of history. And years of close love and friendship,” he mutters under his breath.
For a second, I reconsider my idea, but no, this is what Cara needs to be safe. And I’ll have to deal with whatever comes with that. I know what we have together.
It’s something.
“How are you going to find him?” Felix asks, brow furrowing.
“I’m going to get you to get Clover in on it, and then I’ll go to wherever he is and bring him back,” I explain. “Or if we can I’ll call his ass and tell him to come back. If he has any honor, and I have heard that he does, he won’t want Cara and Clover in danger. He will come back and accept his fate.”
“Death?”
“Well, if it’s him or Cara, guess who I’m choosing?”
“What are you two whispering about?” Clover asks nosily as she steps into the kitchen, eying us both.
“Where’s Cara?” I ask, deflecting.
“She’s chatting with Atlas. Why?”
“We have a plan, but we need your help. It will protect both you and Cara,” Felix says, wrapping her in his arms. “I know you don’t like not telling Cara things, but if this works out, we can all be back to normal. Cara will be safe, and Sapphire can come home.”
Well played, bringing up their daughter.
Clover hesitates. “I do miss her. What do you both have in mind?”
“Do you know how to contact Rhett?” I ask, keeping my voice low. “He is going to return and he is going to be the bait, not you and Cara. Same plan—we get Marko and his crew arrested, but don’t you think Rhett would want to come and face this instead of getting women to do it for him?”
Clover winces, and I’m sure that she knows I’m right. Any man who is worth anything wouldn’t want women taking the heat for him. “He called Cara from a burner phone, and she told him we were safe so he didn’t come here and get himself killed,” she says.
I’m not going to lie; it hurts. Cara didn’t tell me Rhett called her, for one, but also she’s still trying to protect him, even though it’s putting us all in danger.
“But I could probably get his number from Mom,” Clover agrees after a few moments. “I’ll call her now. Cara is going to hate us going behind her back, though.”
“Yeah, but she’ll be alive to hate us.”
Clover nods slowly and heads to her bedroom to speak with Faye.
“You sure we’re doing the right thing here? The Wind Dragons sent him away for a reason,” Felix says quietly.
“And what is their reason?” I ask, needing to understand.
“From what I’ve gathered, Rhett is going to be their president one day. They need him alive,” Felix admits. “And with all of us down here, it looks like we have it all under control.”
They need him alive, but it’s at our expense.
“Why do we”—I motion to Felix and myself—“along with the Knights, need to fight Rhett’s battle here? Why are we the ones being put in danger? Give me one reason and I’ll back off.”
Felix just looks at me. He knows I’m right.
I can’t control what others do. I can only try to keep those that I care about safe.
They might be loyal to Rhett.
But I am not.
Chapter Thirty
Cara
Decker says he has to go and take care of some work, and I tell him to be careful. I’d never be able to live with myself if something happened to him because of me.
Con calls me and we have a long chat. I feel so bad that I haven’t been able to see her or get to know her properly because of this whole situation. I promise her that we will catch up soon. I know she thinks I’m just ignoring her and maybe don’t want to get to know her, but that’s not it at all.