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I cut a corner but didn’t make it far. I stumbled into a tower well over six feet, Ares with his hoodie hood up and his head down. He hadn’t seen me at all and didn’t stop until I physically put my hands on him.
“Dorian. What?” A disorientation laced Wolf’s eyes, his speech lazy, confused even. He started to say something else but stopped at the heavy cadence that fell to a hard stop behind me. It seemed Thatcher and Wells weren’t letting me go alone to find someone to give me answers. Wolf frowned at them. “What are you guys doing?”
“We could ask you the same thing.” Thatcher tucked his hands under his arms. “Thought you were with your parents, man.”
“Yeah, what’s up?” I guided Wolf right when a couple cops passed us in the hall. I honestly didn’t know why the fuck they were here. It wasn’t like they were fucking helping with this situation. They were just as worthless as us kids apparently were. They couldn’t move on the hospital without risking a body count, not to mention witnesses. The hospital Sloane was in was a private one, and whatever security it had wasn’t shy about flashing what they would do if the Maywood Heights police precinct tried to enter that hospital.
My grandfather had that shit all set up, some kind of outside security obviously. Rent-a-cops didn’t carry the kind of shit or authority all those men and women had at the hospital doors. They’d been professional, outsourced, and not many could do that.
Especially against the most powerful families in town.
There’d been an edge of preparedness I think we’d all witnessed, and though our parents didn’t say it, they’d been quick to get Thatcher, Wells, Bow, and myself out of there. I’d been surprised when my god dad and Brielle had actually allowed Wolf to tag along on their trip back. I didn’t think they were planning on entering, but they were surveying the area with their resources. These were mostly Knight’s and whatever else the city could give them. Wolf’s mom was the mayor, and even she couldn’t get in there.
The irony was had it been any other hospital in town the families would have had no trouble getting inside it. The Mallicks basically owned the others because they were all connected to the one that screwed over their family. Ramses and Brielle’s baby had been taken from one of them.
So, yes. They owned them.
If someone wanted to control foot traffic, taking Sloane exactly where she was definitely would be the perfect place. Again, there’d been a preparedness there, and I didn’t think any of us ignored that.
Wolf’s arm was in my hand when I pulled him away. He came with me, but again, he appeared disoriented. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m just higher than shit.” Wolf squatted down, and I made Wells and Thatcher give him room. Wolf breathed in his hands. “I was just wandering the house. My parents wouldn’t let me go back. I…”
“It’s okay.” I got to the floor with him, Wells and Thatcher too. “Have they called you or anything since?”
“Yeah, I was actually just on the phone with them.” His long arms hung over his legs. “We spoke but not about any of that. They wouldn’t tell me anything about that when I asked.”
That didn’t surprise me. They were all shutting us out right now.
Wolf’s fists touched his mouth. “They mostly just wanted to talk to me about her.” He eyed us all, me last. “They were asking all these questions about her. Personal stuff like what she was into. Things she liked…” His arms surrounded his legs. “I couldn’t give them much. I told them you’d know more, D, and they might call you. You know her better.”
But did I? He’d been the one to stay with her, believe her. I swallowed. “Okay. That’s fine.”
Wolf’s throat worked. “I think they’re preparing,” he said, his voice so quiet. He scanned us all. “Preparing for a life without knowing her or some shit, and I…”
“Hey. Don’t say that,” I said, and he pushed me away. He pushed all of us away, getting up.
“But it’s fucking true.” His words amplified in the hallway, suits stopping, cops pausing. They lined the halls on their phones and speaking into coms. Wolf sneered. “What the fuck are you all looking at?”
Wells cringed. “Bro—”
“Don’t fucking bro me. You don’t know shit, Wells. What this feels like?” He shook his head. “I’m fucking dying, and she’s out there and—”
I held him, fucking tight until it was hard for me to breathe.
Wells and Thatcher joined.
We locked in, a strong huddle with Wolf at the center. It wasn’t long ago I’d been at that center. They’d surrounded me when I’d needed it.
“It’s going to be okay,” I gritted, forcing myself to keep my own shit together. Wells and Thatcher backed off when I took Wolf’s face, making him look at me. “I’m going to make sure this shit is okay. She’s going to be all right, and nothing bad is going to happen to her.”
I was telling myself this as much as him, emotion thickening my voice.
The same laced Wolf’s eyes, and I didn’t let go until he nodded at me. I hugged him again, the others too. It took him a second, hell all of us, to stop shaking, but once Wolf did, I had the others guide him back to the lounge. Things would be okay.
I was about to make sure of it.
I found my dad in Ramses’s office, one of the bigger rooms of the house, and it looked like some kind of war room when I entered.
