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“Are you at home?”
“I’m at my grandfather’s apartment in the city, hence the bodyguard. Andrea is back in school, so I don’t have to deal with my mother or Adam’s father. Grandfather had meetings this week, so I asked him if I could stay here. Tally is supposed to come for a visit, but…I can come to you.”
“I would love it if you were here,” I said, and Milo’s expression went taut. “However, I don’t want you right in the middle of this at the moment. Too many uncertainties, and we know Uncle Fuckbucket is gunning for us. But we got my mom.”
“Oh,” Lainey’s voice dropped, concern etching a deep line beneath it. “How is that going?”
“I’m having a hard time with it,” I admitted. “But Milo has been fantastic, and so have the guys.”
“Can I do anything?”
“Stay safe,” I told her and drifted close enough so Milo could hear her even if he didn’t say anything. “What about you? What do you need?”
A little more was right with my world at knowing she was okay.
“You to be safe too. If that blockheaded brother of yours is there, tell him to look after you.”
“I always have,” Milo rumbled. “You be good, Mayhem.”
“I’m very good at what I do,” she retorted. “I have to go, but I am being cautious. I expect the same from you two as well.”
“Love you, Lainey.”
“Love you, Em.”
Milo said nothing, but she didn’t stick around for it. I sighed. “She’s okay.”
“Good,” he said. “You ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. What are we going to do?”
CHAPTER23
KELLAN
The drive back from Vegas had been uneventful and downright boring. Freddie’s penchant for chatter helped pass the time. We’d all avoided the one topic preoccupying all of us.
Sharpe. What he knew. When he knew it. What he did with the knowledge.
How painful his death was would largely depend on those factors. The two people entrusted with Milo’s Ivy, with my Sparrow. One had been a victim herself. I felt for her, I really did.
Yet, she was well aware of what her brother-in-law was capable of and still left a defenseless child with him regularly? Yeah, she didn’t get a fucking pass for that. Not from me. Not from Milo. Not from any of us.
From the day Sparrow left her mother’s room—and whatever confirmation she’d given Milo and Sparrow—and collapsed in tears, she’d avoided additional time with the woman she’d wanted to rescue. I wasn’t sure how aware of her choice she was, but there was no mistaking it.
Did I want to confront her about this? No.ShouldI confront her? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care for the idea of putting her on the spot. Currently, she needed all of us to be her port in the storm.
Trusting us with her secrets had been a boon, and an act of faith. Trusting us with her pain exceeded what we could have asked of her. She’dsufferedfor far too long, and she’d suffered alone. She didn’t have to do that anymore. She believed enough in ourpromisesand inusto let us take that burden for her and protect her.
It was a far too precious gift I would not allowanyoneto diminish. If she needed the break from her mother, then she got a break from her. If she wanted the woman gone?
We could do that too.
In fact, maybe that was what we needed to do. Make arrangements to secure herelsewhere. The only issue with that was taking her had incited the uncle. That made Moira Sharpe a target.
How bad was it that I didn’t mind the idea of dangling her as bait? A knock on the door dragged me out of my thoughts, and I raked a hand through my damp hair. “Come in.”
When Sparrow poked her head in, her smile chased my dark thoughts away to a corner where they could admire her and plan. My darkness didn’t scare her, and that…well goddamn, did we get lucky with her.
