Lauren must be surprised, too, because she hesitates for a moment before responding, “I must say this is easier than I thought, and much less fun.” She pauses again. “Do you need me to fly in and save the day, Gideon Carnell?”
Gideon growls at his mother-in-law, and color floods back into his mate’s face. It’s a kick in the pants and a reminder that Gideon has a job to do—and that Lauren thinks he can’t do it.
“Don’t you dare.”
“Good. Is everyone alright?”
There’s a cacophony of voices in the background. Jay detects Frankie, Antonio, and even Artem asking questions of concern at the same time. Lauren covers the receiver, and they can make out her admonishment to shut up.
“Gideon?”
Gideon looks at him and hesitates, not wanting to lie to his fearsome mother-in-law but also not wanting to alarm them all further. It occurs to him that the news outlets might have gotten a hold of the shooting and that he hasn’t checked in with Margot since this morning.
Leo whispers, “Stop beating yourself up. You were shot. Cut yourself some slack.”
“Excuse me?” Lauren almost yells down the line.
Jay should have realized that if anyone would hear Leo’s whispers, it would be his super-spy mother.
“Did you say Jay was shot?”
The cacophony starts up again on the other end, but Lauren just walks away this time, until there’s the sound of a door closing.
“Debrief. Go.”
Finn is searching the internet on his burner phone via the hospital’s free Wi-Fi through the encrypted browser Lauren set up. He holds the phone up, and there it is in the news: Jay Rhodes of Phoenix Records and formerly Ripley Records has taken a fatal gunshot to the chest. The article is ten minutes old.
Fatal?
Shit, that they haven’t publicized that he didn’t actually die is a fuck-up of epic proportions.
“I’ll call Margot,” Leo offers.
“Boo-Boo, wait.” Lauren stops her son’s call. “Let me hear what Gideon has to say, and then we’ll worry about the public and your staff. Go ahead.”
Gideon gives her a play-by-play of the events of the day. It’s strange to hear her curse, and her rapid-fire line of questioning is beyond intimidating. The next fifteen minutes are spent running through Jay’s fuck-up—everything from the nurse and doctor to Grayson’s attempts to heal him with magic.
“Grayson. How are you holding up?”
“Not well, ma’am. But I’m ready to do what we need to do.”
“Of course you are. So brave. Jay, are you feeling up to getting out of the hospital?”
“Yes, Lauren.” Jay is definitely ready to get his pack to a safe place.
“Good. Let’s get you some better accommodations, and then I will hopefully have news about Carnell. Boo-Boo, call Margot and let her know I will be in touch about strategy. We need to keep Carnell in the dark as long as possible, but we need to get our boys back before that pesky BBS does Carnell’s work for him. I am waiting on some helpful intel now that he’s on our radar. Can you hang in a few hours longer?”
Can Nix and Luca hang on that long—that’s the real question.
Once Gideon hangs up, they find Jay yet another set of hospital scrubs. They get him unofficially discharged underFinn’s care, and it’s almost midnight before they walk down the hall toward the elevator.
Once in the elevator and the doors close, Rowan’s head pops up like a hound on the hunt. It’s an apt analogy, but when his mate drops into a crouch to smell the buttons and then presses the fifth floor, Gideon balks.
“Ro, time is ticking for Luca and Gray.”
“I know…but please?”
The doors slide open before Gideon can answer either way, and the five of them follow Rowan’s nose down the hall, past the deserted nurses’ station to a room lit only by lamplight, where a young woman with gorgeous curly hair is lying beside a small boy of about nine or ten, both of them asleep on the bed.
