“Anyone know where they are right now?” Jack asks.
I side-eye Ace. “They’ve gone into town. Ace gave them some money to go and get a hand job.”
Jack covers his face with his hands. “Seriously, Ace? You thought that was what was needed at this time?”
Ace wrinkles his nose, and shrugs. “I needed to distract them so I could get hold of one of their phones to get proof that they were involved. I expect Eddy’s realized it’s missing by now, so they’ll be looking for it when they get back. They’ll be shitting themselves, too, if they think someone might have seen those messages between them and the Revenants.”
“Stupid fucking pricks,” Jack growls. He knots his hand in his salt and pepper hair. “I can’t believe that was going on right under my fucking nose. I must be losing my touch.”
“Or you were distracted,” I point out, arching my brow.
I’m walking on fragile ground right now because everyone knows exactly what, or who, might have distracted him. It’s not only because of Camile’s presence, either; it’s the difficult position it puts him in with his daughter. Even so, calling the Prez out in front of everyone probably isn’t my finest moment.
He shoots me a glare. “Don’t, Ghost.”
What am I trying to achieve? I don’t even know myself. There’s definitely a part of me that resents thefucking bomb her presence has thrown into our lives. I also keep finding myself sneaking looks at Ace and wishing I’d been in his position last night. How must it feel to have been inside her? To have tasted her and felt her clenching around his fingers and cock. How did it feel to be inside her, knowing another man’s dick had been there only moments before? The way they’d taken turns with her, one of them thrusting inside her, only to switch positions, had been insanely hot, and I’m jealous I wasn’t involved.
Not that I’d admit it out loud.
Ace gives me a hard stare as if he can read my mind, but then he points at me. “You can talk, Ghost. I told you we couldn’t trust the Numbnuts. And you ordered me to back off. How you have the fucking nerve...?”
“Ace, I swear to God...”
I step toward him, but Jack’s harsh tone stops me in my tracks.
“Enough. We have to stop blaming each other. We all fucked up in various ways and for various reasons, so let’s just focus on the here and now and get a plan in place.”
“What are we going to do with the Numbnuts when they get back?” Ace asks. “We can’t just let them carry on like nothing has happened.”
I agree, and I do feel bad that I didn’t listen before, but Ace’s idea of justice was cutting off their fingers for merely touching Camile, which was nuts. “Yeah, we don’t want them here when Jack’s old chapter arrives. They’ll warn the Revenants that we’ve got backup.”
Ace cracks his knuckles. “Happy to be waiting for them when they get back.”
“I don’t want them dead,” Jack instructs. “They could have information.”
“So we get them to spill it, and then we kill them.” Ace cracks his neck now, like he’s preparing himself to step into a boxing ring. “I do so enjoy a bit of light torture.”
“Just don’t go over the top.” Jack shoots him a narrow-eyed glance. “Not until we’ve got Camile back safely. If they feed us a pack of lies, but we don’t know it, and we kill them, we’ll have cut off an information source.”
I huff out a breath. “As much as I want to make them suffer for betraying us, you’re right. As soon as they get back on the compound, we lock them up somewhere until we get Camile back, and, once she’s safe, we make them pay.”
“Agreed,” says Ace.
I glance toward the closed door, expecting to hear or sense movement from outside, but there’s nothing. I realize one of us is missing. I should be expecting it, considering I was the one who told him to get lost, but I’d been sure his determination to be involved in finding Camile was greater than a few sharp words from me.
I frown. “Has anyone seen Rook recently?”
The others glance around at each other, heads shaking and lower lips pouted.
Fuck. Was I too hard on him earlier?
No, he’s a grown man. He can handle it. Maybe I was a little shitty because I knew a goddamned prospect had gotten to fuck Camile while I’d been relegated to watching from behind a screen like a fucking pervert.
He’d been hanging around here like a bad smell, and now he’s vanished.
Has he just gone off in a sulk?
Jack checks the time. “Get some other men together, ones you can trust, and wait for the fucking Numbnuts to get back and then lock them up in the walk-in cooler. Warn the staff they can’t use anything from it for dinner for tonight.”
