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“You haven’t seen any sign that he or your dad suspects you’ve reached out to us, have you?” Rowan asked.
“N-no. I think I’ve been careful.” Beckett swallowed audibly. He sounded so raw and frightened it brought a lump to my own throat. “But who knows how it’ll go in the future. I’m walking a perilous line here. I know it. I thought it’d be okay, that it’d all work out for the best…”
“That’s what’s important,” I said, unable to stop myself from jumping in. Maybe we were asking too much from him. He was only sixteen. And I knew all too well what it was like to be afraid of your own parent, to not be able to trust that they’d have your best interests at heart.
We did have to end this war—for Beckett’s sake too.
“You don’t have to tell us anything else if you think your safety is at risk,” I went on, ignoring the sharp look Wylder shot me. “You’ve already done a lot for us to help us shift the tide in our favor. Any time it’s getting to be too much, you can back off. I promise your secrets will always be safe with us, and we’re obviously very thankful that you offered your help at all.”
Gideon’s forehead had furrowed. “But, Mercy, he’s the one who—” he started to protest.
I held up my hand and shook my head. The information Beckett could offer could make a huge difference to us, but it wasn’t worth getting it at the expense of a teenager’s life. Iwasn’tas brutal as my father, and I intended to keep what conscience I still had intact. There were lines I wasn’t going to cross.
We could hear Beckett breathe. When he spoke again, he sounded annoyed with himself. “I’m being stupid. Freaking out like a kid.”
I didn’t think he’d appreciate me pointing out that hewastechnically a kid. “It’s understandable that you’re shaken up,” I said. “Xavier’s fucking terrifying, excuse my French. Being cautious around him issmart, not stupid.”
“But nothing gets done if people are too scared to do it,” Beckett said, sounding as if he was talking to himself more than me. He inhaled again with a rush of air. His tone got gruffer. “Sorry for melting down a bit. I want to do this. Ihaveto do it, for me and Dad, for a better future. I’m not going to chicken out.”
I wished I could reassure him more that none of us saw him as a coward, but I couldn’t think of words he’d believe. I settled on, “I think you’re going to make a great leader someday, Beckett.”
The guys around me stayed silent, waiting as our conversation played out. I shot Wylder a grateful smile for his patience.
Beckett didn’t respond to my compliment. There was a rustle as if he’d straightened his posture. More of the confidence we’d seen in him when he’d first come to speak to us came back into his tone. “Okay, I managed to overhear a conversation that Dad was having with one of the guys he does business with. Someone on your list—at least, his last name was Anderson, like I already told you.”
Wylder leaned forward. “What were they talking about?”
“I was wary of getting too close in case he noticed me eavesdropping, but from what I could tell, Dad was pretty irritated. He was talking fast and telling Anderson how he wasn’t happy about where he was taking the deal. It sounded like the guy wanted a better arrangement than he’s been getting from Dad, and Dad was insisting he wasn’t going to get better elsewhere and didn’t like that Anderson was trying to squeeze him for more money—a higher percentage or something.”
Kaige’s eyebrows rose. He might not have been much of a strategist, but even he would be able to figure out that friction between the Storm and his associates could work in our favor.
Rowan spoke up. “And as far as you know, the kind of business they were talking about was all above board, nothing illegal, right?”
“Yeah,” Beckett said firmly. “The only things my dad is directly involved in are totally legitimate. He’s very careful about that, believe me. You’re not going to be able to pin anything on him that way.”
“That isn’t quite what I had in mind,” Rowan said.
“Okay. I didn’t mean— I guess I’m still kind of keyed up.”
“That’s understandable,” I said. “Is there anything else you found out that might help us?”
“I don’t think so. I’m going to keep listening in as much as I can. I’ll contact you again if there’s anything. I should probably go now, though. I don’t know how close an eye he’s keeping on me.”
“Thanks,” Rowan got in before the line went dead.
“So,” Wylder said, looking around at the rest of us, “the Storm is having trouble keeping his associates under his thumb. They’re starting to want more than he’s offering.”
I wet my lips, an idea hitting me so abruptly that I felt almost giddy. “Your dadwasgetting into some real estate deals. Is there any reason we couldn’t too? Maybe we could steal the Storm’s business with this guy right out from under him.”
Kaige frowned. “Are we really in the big leagues enough to approach some international real estate whatever-exactly-he-is?”
A smile was creeping across Rowan’s face. “He doesn’t have to know our background. We can control how we present ourselves and put forward a compelling offer. Then we just need to reel him in. Money talks more than anything else. We do have plenty of that to work with.” He glanced at Wylder. “If you don’t mind dipping into the Noble accounts.”
Wylder waved a hand. “Absolutely, if you can pull this off. Let’s steal everything that used to belong to the Storm that we can get our hands on. And this Anderson guy could be a great asset to have on our side in the future too.”
Gideon cocked his head in thought. “Rowan negotiated the waterfront deal for Ezra. Ezra was very happy with how that went down—and he’s hardly ever actually happy. Obviously we should have Rowan do the talking for us.”
A hint of a flush colored Rowan’s cheeks. He’d always been a little too modest to know how to take a compliment without getting embarrassed. “Of course, whatever you need me to do,” he said to Wylder. “I do have the lingo down at this point.”
