AllFreeNovel
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Problem is, those consequences were paid by the next generation. And the price was way too high.
It’s what the two of us have been trying to make up for since, even in small ways through helping those who can’t help themselves with our contract work and through staying in Brockford as a deterrent to a rougher, more dangerous crowd, keeping it safe to keep Thorns safe by extension, fulfilling the promise I made to Ax and my baby girl so she could be free. She’s the one who deserves that, I’m the one who’s gotta pay for my sins now.
I stride out of the bedroom and head on downstairs to the main level of my house.
I take a beat, then stride on into the salon, feeling Charlotte’s eyes on me the second I come into view.
“This really isn’t what I expected,” she comments, gesturing around the room. “Expensive furniture, some priceless antiques, even. It’s all very… refined.”
“What were you expecting then? A shithole?”
“Barebones. Basic.”
“Huh.”
“That’s the man I remember,” she pushes.
I shrug as I take a seat on the edge of the armchair opposite the couch she’s chilling on. “It’s been nineteen years. People change.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that impression,” she says pointedly. Way too pointedly.
“What’s that mean?”
“You hesitated earlier.”
“What?”
“You were always the shoot-and-ask-questions-later kind of person. But upstairs you sought out intel instead of going straight for the kill.”
“You woke me up from a dead sleep, woman.”
“It’s instinct,” she argues.
She’s fishing for information on me, trying to figure out where I’m at and what makes me tick these days.
And I ain’t having it.
She’s not knowing nothing until I’ve got what I need from her. I’m the one asking the questions here.
“Who are you working for?”
She hesitates.
Well, that ain’t good. It means she knows I ain’t gonna like the answer one bit.
“Charlotte,” I push.
Another beat goes by.
But then she finally gives it up. “The Gatekeepers.”
I still, unable to hide my shock.
It takes me a while to respond.
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, scrubbing my hand over my face.
“Cal, listen, I—”
