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It’d been nice to see her with them all.
Drink in hand and arm around my girl for the majority of the party, I hadn’t realized that these gatherings felt different before. I wouldn’t say they hadn’t been complete. I mean, none of us had gotten to know Pilar Mallick, but with Sloane here, I definitely felt the difference.
Her own drink in hand, Sloane lifted her hand at me when I passed her. In the middle of conversation, Sloane engaged with her grandmother, Ramses’s mom. Her grandma Evie was basically a six-foot-tall lively blonde who also happened to be brilliant. She’d definitely passed some of that down to Wolf. The brilliance part, and Wolf was in the group too. He wasn’t doing too much of the talking, but the fact he was with the women and not hiding out in the garage smoking weed let me know shit was different. Different with him. He wanted to be here and around everyone, and even smiled a bit during the conversation.
He tipped his chin at me too briefly before Wells and I navigated out of the Mallicks’ parlor. I didn’t see Bru with the group, but he’d been hanging a lot with Ramses during the party. I knew my god dad was trying to help by including him, and this was his party.
It was like the guy had forgotten that, that we all did care, but I knew things were complicated there. I’d done my fair share of lying to him too in the beginning.
Wells and I found Thatcher in the hall outside one of the upstairs bedrooms. He was lounging against it, restless as he adjusted his stance several times. I didn’t know what that was about, and as soon as Wells and I got to him, Thatcher shot off the wall.
“Hey,” Thatcher said, his hands in his pockets, but before he started talking, a toilet flushed in the hallway. Next thing we knew, Knight, his dad, surfaced out of the bathroom.
Knight stopped in front of us, his finger lifting and directing between all of us. “You kids up to something?”
Right away, my shoulders lifted, the guys doing the same. I didn’t know Wells and Thatcher’s deal, but I’d just shown up to whatever the fuck this was.
“Nah, Dad. We’re cool,” Thatcher said.
“Better be,” Knight stated, before tapping my shoulder, then Wells’s. He eyed his son before stalking his way down the hallway, and I chuckled at how my friend had possibly failed to miss his dad in literally a bathroom five feet away from him.
He had, though, clearly. Thatcher leaned in. “I’ve got to tell you something.” His gaze circulated the hall. “It’s about Sloane’s case. I found a weird connection surrounding one of the lawyers involved. One of the ones Godfrey hired to handle it. I haven’t found the guy, but something came up when I was looking into his background.”
“Okay.” Though, I didn’t know what was up with all the cloak and dagger shit. If we found something weird, I’d be telling the parents. I shrugged. “What is it?”
“I found out who he used to work for. At least, one of his previous clients.” Thatcher’s jaw shifted. “Guy used to work for Ibrahim Mallick.”
The… hell.
“And for like a while too, dude,” Wells chimed into the conversation. “Thatcher said for over a fucking decade.”
“Well, what the fuck does that mean?” I asked, and both my friends lifted their hands.
“Whatever it is, it’s not good,” Thatcher said. “How could it be? That makes no sense.”
It didn’t. Ibrahim Mallick should have no connection at all to Sloane’s adoption.
I mean, he was her grandfather.
“You don’t think he’s involved, do you? In the cover-up, I mean?” Thatcher had his hands laced on his head, restless again. He grabbed his arms instead. “We gotta tell Wolf.”
I agreed and fucking now.
The party was starting to wrap up when we all got back downstairs, people and family members saying goodbye to each other. Thatcher’s parents were taking off early, and we had to stop to say goodbye to them. Bow must have been staying longer since she wasn’t with them, and we all had to say goodbye to the Johnsons too when they took off. They said they had a flight out of town, and Wells’s parents, Cleo and Jax, ended up holding onto him to chat a bit before they too headed out.
Thatcher and I were by ourselves by the time we got to Wolf, and he was gratefully coming out of a conversation.
I grabbed him before he headed into another.
“Keep watch,” I said to Thatcher, not sure the parents needed to hear what I was about to say just yet. I mean, they would, but I needed to tell Wolf first.
Ares and I headed out to his garage, which got some resistance from my friend. It was colder than shit these days, and we both had to put coats on.
“The fuck’s going on?” he questioned once we got inside, bundled up in his collared jacket. “My grandparents are about to leave, bro.”
“I know,” I said, looking around and being just as paranoid as Thatch. “Thatcher just told me something, and you need to know about it.”
Thatcher came in, nodding his chin before eyeing through the window on the door, and Wolf arched an eyebrow.
