Page 16 of Carte

“There is,” Chase mused. “But I was in your situation not long ago. I know the knots you’re tying yourself up in. And I know the level of denial you’re reaching up to.”

If anyone did know, it was Chace. Hell, he met Alina, his woman, right in the middle of investigating her father. While he was undercover, no less. It was a mess, but thankfully, he was able to straighten everything out.

“My advice, though?” Chase said into the silence. “Don’t keep secrets. Let her in on everything.”

“I don’t need to do that. All this romantic notion is just in your head. She’s just a client,” I said.

“Yeah, you keep lying to yourself. But we both know you started down the path Max and I went.”

Max, my other brother. His story was even more fucked up than Chace’s. He met Skylar, his now fiancée through getting texts she was sending to Jacob, her dead high school boyfriend, years. Until Sky sent her last text, saying tearful goodbye, ready to walk down the aisle to a man who was considered a head of the mafia branch in Denver. That was when Max lost it and answered. What happened later wasn’t a mess, it was chaos.

“I’m not,” I denied, shaking my head to banish all the thoughts of danger that swirled around my brother’s women. I couldn’t even think about that time without shivering.

“Sure you are,” Chace chuckled. “But I’m telling you, you have to let her in. Don’t keep secrets from her. Just remember what happened when Alina found out about me.”

“Enough of this shit,” I barked into the phone. “I don’t need a therapy session. I need to know, are you in or what?”

“Hey, now.” Chace sounded hurt. I could even picture him putting the palm of his hand over his heart. He was always full of theatrics. “You know you don’t even have to ask that shit.”

“Yeah, I know.” I sighed. One thing was for sure. No matter how immature, or goofy my family was, I could always count on them.

“Want me to read Max in?” Chace offered.

Max didn’t work cases like this with us often. We read him in only when the stakes were high. These days, he did mostly security checks and light investigation for us, while also working on the renovation part of the home design for Sky’s firm. It was the perfect mix for him. Something out of the field, while also staying in this world for us.

He was an ex-swat, and the high-profile cases were hard for him. But with Harley we needed him.

“On it, bro,” Chace said. “And remember, don’t fight it.”

“Fuck off,” I muttered. “Give my love to Alina,” I said before hanging up.

It was dark. Every light in the room was off. I walked and looked in every corner, behind every door, except one, and through every window.

Everything was still. Cracking the entrance door to the suit opened, I spied Miller, one of my guys, standing in front of them. “Everything good?’”

Miller looked over his shoulder and jutted out his chin in affirmative. He was never one for words. a trait I liked about him.

“I’m turning in for the night, but if anything changes, do not hesitate to get me.”

Another chin lift.

I closed and locked the doors, beelining for the couch. The suite had another room, but I didn’t use it. Every night I parked my ass on the couch.

“Fuck me.” I sighed as I lowered my tired body onto it. I was worn out, but this quietness was grating on my nerves.

At three in the morning, it was supposed to be peaceful, but with Harley, it never was. She was usually up until five in the morning, giving me just a few hours of shuteye. But not tonight.

“Come on, Dynamo. Snap out of it, you can do it,” I muttered into the dark. I knew it sounded ridiculous.

The shock and retreat was a normal reaction to something like what happened tonight at the Castle. But I knew Harley. I knew her from before she got big.

She used to sing at the Elite, Alina’s club, and I’d seen her here and there. Then I’d also got to know her these past few days. I knew she had it in her to get through this and back to her old self.

I just had to figure out how to help her. I couldn’t let her retreat into this scared self and lose herself into the fear. If she did, it could take her years to break out of it.

It took Max to meet Sky and wade into her situation to fight out of his. Even now, he wasn’t back to being fully himself. There were still dark clouds around him sometimes and only Skylar could chase them away.

I didn’t want that for Harley, but tonight’s situation had the power to do that to her. I was giving her tonight, then tomorrow, I would do something to yank her back into the light.