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“Doc is already in your office,” Grey said as he arrived, his eyes darting between his phone and my face like he wanted to be sure I was real.
I reached out a hand, grateful when he gently laid his hand in it. “I’m okay, Grey. Promise.”
“I’ll believe it when Doc signs off on you.” I rolled my eyes, but I let it go. Overbearing had always been Greyson’s love language, and I had the feeling that wasn’t changing anytime soon.
“Mari.”
I turned, shocked to find Nate next to my best friend. When I looked at Grey, he shrugged. “I figured you’d want him close by after the club was infiltrated.”
He was right. I smiled and looked over at my Good Samaritan. “Why am I always a damsel in distress when you’re around?”
He grinned, tangling his fingers in his gelled hair before carefully unwinding them. The second he did, he was tapping them on his thighs. Appeared Nate had a nervous tell. Why did I find that endearing? “Seems to me like you’re good at saving yourself.”
I laughed, and even if the sound was a little tighter than normal, it eased something in my chest. The weight of Rey’s death had been crushing me again, and I hadn’t even noticed, too accustomed to it to recognize that I was spiraling.
Cash killed Rey. Cash knew my father. Cash knew me. None of it made sense, so it begged the question… What the hell did he want?
I let the three men lead me inside, taking the back corridors so none of the guests saw me bloodied up. The last thing I needed was someone sniffing out a weakness when I was already in the middle of a territory battle.
I was seated in one of the chairs in front of my desk with Doc bandaging my scrapes when Dominic finally spoke. Nate had waited until I was being looked after before heading back downstairs for party cleanup, and I almost wished he’d stayed. I could’ve used some of that go with the flow energy.
“Mari, are you going to tell us what happened?”
Doc glanced up, and I nodded to the door. Whatever else he had to do, I was sure Greyson could figure it out. Sure enough, as soon as the door shut behind Doc, Grey sat in the chair he’d vacated, took my hand in his, and started bandaging me up like he always did.
“Cash and I had a chat,” I finally said.
“And?” Grey’s focus was wholly on my scrapes, and I found I preferred it to the way Dominic hadn’t taken his eyes off me since he’d burst into the alleyway.
I shrugged, hiding a wince when Grey hit a particularly delicate patch of skin. “And I know how I want to move forward.”
“You do?” Dominic furrowed his brows in confusion. “How?”
“The Aces are officially enemy number one for the family. We’re going to tear down their whole fucking world.”
Greyson looked up at me, cuts forgotten. “We’re going to war?”
I didn’t want to risk my people, but Cash had taken someone special from me. No matter how long it took, I was going to rip away everything he held dear in retaliation. It was what was expected of me and the justice Rey deserved. “Yes.”
“Game on, asshole,” Dominic crowed.
Game on.
Chapter Eleven
Mari
Greyson, Dominic, and I were neck-deep in accounting issues at the docks when Tennessee called. “Bad news, boss. Sabine is missing.”
Of course she is.
Sabine Demuth had been on the payroll since she was a child, first as a set of ears around the city, then as a thief. After she took custody of her underage sister, we moved her to a safer position in one of our nightclubs. She’d been out of the game for years. She should’ve been safe.
Frustration soured my gut. In the weeks since my face-to-face with Cash, everything had gone wrong. Shipments were late or missing product, protected properties were getting broken in to, and favorite informants were either going underground temporarily or disappearing altogether. Grey’s network was dwindling fast, and with no way to replenish the lost eyes, we were flying blinder than ever.
“Get over to her apartment. If Brittany’s there, call Jack at the DCYF office and see if he can find space in one of our houses.”
I didn’t want to send the kid to foster care, but she’d go somewhere I could monitor her progress until we found her sister. In all likelihood, if Sabine left town, they’d be together, so that was what I hoped for.
