I do a quick check of the street and then head through the slit in the chain-link fence. I hit a code on my phone, and the graffiti-splashed slab of corrugated metal and boards opens—the ugliest, most unlikely garage door on the planet.
Knox is down there, waiting in the dim garage, leaning on his Spyder, a car he never gets to drive unless he’s heading out of the city.
“What the fuck?” he says before I even shut the door. “We did that whole getaway operation so you could drop a date at her front door?”
I stalk past him, into the stairwell.
He follows. “When you said make a drop, we thought it was something legit.”
I keep going. “It was legit to me.”
We head through the ruined lobby and into our actual living quarters.
Grayson and Cruz are on the corner couch playing video games. Calder is sitting at the table, thinking. Or maybe not thinking. That’s Calder for you.
I go over to the wall of built-in cabinets and shelving. I grab a glass and set it on the long bar, scratched from years of use. I pull down a bottle of scotch and pour.
Knox stands on the other side of the bar, watching me. “It’s morning.”
I down the first one and pour another. “Not for me.”
“So you gonna tell us who that was?”
“A girl,” I say, even though that doesn’t begin to describe her.
Knox grabs a glass and shoves it over to me. I pour. He drinks the next one with me.
“A girl?”
I give him a hard stare. That’s not really what he’s asking. He’s wondering whether she went with me willingly. Probably heard the scanners. “It’s not like that. She’s…” I look him in the eyes. “My girl.”
“Fuck, what was that?” Grayson’s in my face. “Did you just say your girl?”
I give him a hard look.
“You gave me how much shit for Abby?” Grayson continues. “For wanting to be with her? You fucking split us apart with your bullshit, making her think I didn’t give a shit. You acted like I was betraying the group by wanting a relationship, and now it just doesn’t apply to you?”
“Man has a point,” Knox says.
“Look, we had a rule that you broke,” I say. “But Abby came along and proved herself. She showed what she was made of.”
“And she went on to make that turret into a pink fucking princess room,” Cruz jokes.
Grayson isn’t laughing.
“So maybe the rule’s fucked,” I say.
“Oh. Maybe it’s fucked,” Grayson growls.
I take another drink. “Yeah. Maybe.”
Ryland wanders in. We’re all here, even Nate. Nate doesn’t usually come to the Bradford, but it’s our ten-year anniversary from killing one of the guys who tormented us. We mark every goddamn death, because they’re important. Not because we feel sorry for those fuckers, but because it’s proof that we’re still alive.
They’re all staring at me.
“You have Abby,” I say to Grayson, “and you’re still upholding the vow—one blade to protect my brothers, one blade for vengeance. A man can do both. You proved it.”
“So you’re changing your mind?” Knox says.
I look around, because the five of them, they need me to be a stand-up kind of guy. “I’d be a pretty shitty leader if I made all my decisions when I was fifteen fucking years old and never updated them.”
Fifteen was how old I was when I led them out of that basement. When we made the vow.
“Back then, yeah, we needed to be all about us. Survival. But, Grayson, you’re still here. You’d lay down your life for your brothers. Even with that girl up there, you’d lay down your life.”
“Fuck yeah,” he grunts.
I stare into my glass. Given a choice, I’m not so sure Grayson would put us over Abby. But I don’t go there. No reason.
“Only an asshole refuses to let his mind be changed by new information,” I say.
“So full of shit, my man,” Calder says calmly. “The new information isn’t Grayson and Abby. It’s the girl. The girl changed your mind.”
“I didn’t say Grayson changed my mind. I said Grayson shows it can work. That you can meet somebody…meet a woman who is…” I stop, unsure how to describe Brooke.
Cruz laughs. “Fuck!”
“What?” I demand.
“You are whipped on this bitch,” Cruz says.
My growl is low and loud. “Wouldn’t call her a bitch if I was you.”
I catch Grayson’s eyes. My guys are looking at me like I’m an alien, suddenly, but Grayson gets it. He nods.
“It won’t go anywhere, but I wanted to drop her right. That’s all,” I say.
“Won’t go anywhere?” Grayson asks.
“Can’t,” I say. “Speaking of which, where are we with Keeper?”
“Still nothing,” Knox says.
Calder sighs. “I have listened to a hundred hours of phone calls, and it’s shit. I got a few where they mention him, but nothing we can use.”
“Abby’s helping us with the Franklin City archives,” Knox says, looking at Grayson. “We’ve been finding handwritten notes on some of the margins of property transactions. We’re hoping to find Keeper mentioned. We’ll be back at that today.”
I nod. Then, as casual as I can, I ask, “Did any of you ever hear of Keeper referred to by the name Innkeeper?”
“Pretty sure. Yeah,” Calder says with a shrug, not realizing the seismic effect of his words on me. “A few of the phone calls reference Innkeeper, and I assume it’s Keeper.” My heart pounds as he continues, “Not like they sit there saying, ‘Innkeeper—Keeper for short.’ But it’s pretty clear in context. Why?”
I turn my glass counterclockwise.
She fucking knows.
She knows who Keeper is. Something twists deep in my belly. It hurts because she knows what they did to us—men like Keeper. Keeper’s at the fucking center of it. Doesn’t she give a shit? Have I been an idiot all this time? Love puts a guy’s head up his ass. Is that happening to me? No way, I think. No fucking way.
“Why?” Calder asks again.
“Possible lead,” I say.
“Are you serious?” Knox says. “To Keeper? This is huge. What is it?”
“I need to work it out. And I will work it out.” I look my guys in the eye, one after another. I let my voice go icy smooth, because I made this promise to them long before I met Brooke. “Nothing stops us from rescuing those boys. From taking our vengeance. Nothing.”
Brooke is a beautiful distraction, but I don’t need her. I can’t need her. I only have one purpose beyond saving those boys, and that’s revenge.
It’s taking all the pain and fury inside myself so that the other guys have a chance at a normal life. There’s no chance of that for me.
I made my peace with that long ago.
Chapter 23
Brooke
I pull the blanket more tightly around me. It’s a cashmere silk blend, soft as a cloud, but I’d give anything to be wrapped in Stone’s coarse blanket instead. I felt safe in that cabin in a way I never have in this ten-thousand-square-foot home.