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Huh. I was not expecting the Cobra to be literally inside Nixon’s house. That actually might make things easier. Could have Nixon come here, pick Cade up, and bring him home in the dead of night, swap ‘em out when there were no other guards present.
“You’ll have to move the Cobra,” I told her.
“I know. I already talked to Atticus about it. He’s in contact with someone across the country who might be able to take him.” Shay’s gaze fell to her lap, and for just the quickest of seconds, she appeared conflicted. “I told the others. They’re not too happy with me, Atticus, and Nix right now. Piper’s pissed. She wants to kill him herself. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get it, but… but even after everything he did, he’s still my brother.”
I asked, “Piper will be okay with sending your brother away?”
“No,” Shay answered, “but she’s not okay in general. I… I don’t know if she’ll ever want to talk to me again after this.” She straightened herself out, brought that dark-eyed stare to me. “But it’s my bed. I made it, so I have to lay in it. I always knew there was a possibility of things blowing up in my face when I decided I couldn’t let him die. It’s just happening sooner than I thought.”
“I can talk to Piper, if you want.” Don’t ask me why I offered. Maybe to help Shay through this? Maybe for my own selfish reasons, or maybe a mixture of both.
“And say what? No. We’ll go through with this plan of yours with or without Piper’s help. She never planned on sticking around, anyway. She was always going to leave. Everything in Cypress reminds her of her family. Me, the other heirs… we’re all reminders of what she lost.”
I let out a slow breath before muttering, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d get caught up in my mess, Shay.”
“Don’t be sorry. The mess involving the Cobra is of my own doing. If I would’ve just killed him when he lost it…” Shay shook her head. “There’s no point in talking about what-ifs now. Let’s focus on the matter at hand. You want to switch out my brother for Cade. Then what?”
“Then we’ll figure out what Miguel wants the Cobra for. We can assume he wants to use him as a weapon to take the rest of the Hand down, but this way, we can literally catch him in the act and have enough proof to kick him off the Hand.” I smiled at that. Nothing like letting Miguel get everything he’d ever wanted… right before yanking it all away.
Shay agreed with me, “A weapon sounds right. We know he isn’t using him for blackmail. The Palmers still don’t know. If they did, they would’ve gone straight to Atticus about it.” She leaned her elbows on the table. “When are we doing this?”
“As soon as possible,” I said.
Shay nodded as she stood. “Let me step outside and call Atticus.” She didn’t wait for me to respond; she simply walked off, exiting the house without saying another word as she pulled out her phone.
It was only when the door swung shut that I brought my stare to Cade across from me. The look on his face was one I couldn’t read, so I asked, “What?”
The normally quiet, observant man had quite a bit to say, it turned out. “I didn’t see it before, but I don’t think Piper’s the only one who maybe needs a break from this.” When I sent him a questioning look, he went on, “Shay’s broken from all of this, too.”
I thought Shay was the strongest person I knew, given everything I knew about her and her past. She was like me in that respect. If she was broken… did that mean I was, too? Did that mean I was broken and this was nothing more than a stupid attempt to put me back together?
Would I feel any different once Miguel was dead, or would I be stuck feeling this way until the day I died?
Cade must’ve sensed I was lost in my own thoughts after that, because he got up and moved around the table, kneeling his tall frame beside my chair as he whispered, “Hey. Everything’s going to work out. You’re not alone in this anymore, Giselle. I could name a few people who’ll do everything they can to help you.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I—” Before I could say anything else, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen, and immediately my stomach dropped. “It’s Zander.” What were the odds Zander would be calling me right now?
Damn it. I had to answer. I couldn’t let it go to Cade’s old voicemail.
I met Cade’s green eyes as I handed him the phone. “See what he wants. He doesn’t know this is my phone now. He thinks he’s calling you.”
With a sigh, Cade snatched the phone from me and stood. He answered it and brought the phone to his ear as he said, “What is it?”
Put it on speaker, I mouthed. I had to mouth it a few times for Cade to get what I was trying to say, but once he understood, he lowered the phone from his ear and put Zander on speaker for the both of us to hear.
“Giselle said to call you if I find anything out,” Zander spoke in a hurry. “I don’t know if she ever told you, but we bugged Miguel’s office a while back. Been listening on and off. Haven’t learned anything… until today.”
As I bit my bottom lip, Cade frowned—almost like he was frowning at Zander, even though Zander wasn’t even here. “What did you find out? Spit it out, already. I don’t have all day.” Wow. Mr. Grumpy was back, it seemed, or at least he was back when talking to Zander.
“Are you ready for this? I don’t think you are. You should sit down, because this shit is crazy.” Zander paused, as if he was waiting for Cade to sit down—meanwhile, Cade’s scowl kept intensifying. “The Cobra’s alive. He’s inside Nixon’s house.”
When I made hand gestures, trying to tell Cade to, you know, react like he’d just heard some earth-shattering news, all the man did was mutter, “Wow. You don’t say?”
I nearly smacked myself with his lack of enthusiasm.
“I’m being serious, Cade,” Zander said, taking Cade’s lackluster reaction to mean he was skeptical. “Miguel knows. There’s a rat. His name is Anthony. He’s one of the guards on rotation at Nixon’s house, I guess. He’s planning on having Anthony release the Cobra and bring him to him. Miguel’s got an offer he doesn’t think the Cobra will refuse.”
“Well,” Cade huffed, “don’t keep me in suspense.”
