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Niko glanced at Rafael, who’d stayed behind the sofa at my shoulder. “Didn’t you say you were going to look into this criminal guy? And Lou’s stalker too?”
Rafael nodded. “I’ve been working all of the connections I have access to. I don’t know a lot of people in Boston, but I managed to get in touch with a few old contacts. They haven’t been much help in tracking down Haggard yet, but they confirmed that Sheeran is the top dog in the city on the criminal side of things.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “The Harvester would squash anyone who tried to go against his people on his territory.”
“And Sheeran’s boss must be awfully happy with him, because he’s got a huge mansion in the suburbs and a collection of flashy cars, from what I hear.”
I grimaced. “If he’s doing well under the Harvester, he’s got every incentive to keep the guy happy. Which includes kicking me out of town.”
Jasper knit his brow. “I guess we can’t fight back in a literal sense. He must have tons of people working for him.”
“Yeah. And a show of overt aggression against Sheeran and his men would only make the situation worse. Like I really am trying to go to war with him.” I rubbed my mouth uneasily. “Plus the Harvester would almost definitely bring it up with my mom then.”
Rafael inclined his head in agreement, though he looked unhappy about it. “There’s nothing good that could come of going head-to-head with them. Even if we had the full backing of the Deadly Rose’s power behind us, which we don’t, it’d be a mess.”
Jasper gave my hand a squeeze. “Your mom obviously had to deal with guys like this a lot. What wouldshehave done if she wanted to force someone to back off but couldn’t be direct about it?”
I leaned back on the sofa as I considered the question. My mind drifted to the memory of Coach Balakin’s bloody corpse, and I winced.
“Well, she tried to force me to back off from skating by killing my coach. Manipulating me into thinking our enemies had done it because of his connection to me so I’d be afraid to keep at it.”
I sucked my lower lip under my teeth to worry at it, thinking through everything Balakin had told me over the years. “I bet that’s also how she kept him under her thumb the whole time, forcing him to always tell me I wasn’t good enough. He loved his kids and his grandkids so much. All she’d have needed to do was suggest that they’d meet some horrible end if he didn’t follow her orders…”
Niko shuddered. “I can see why you’d rather stay away from her.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, but the wheels in my head had started spinning. “But that doesn’t mean her strategies couldn’t apply here. What if we could figure out something that matters a lot to Sheeran and his most important lackeys and show that we could destroythatif he doesn’t leave me alone?”
Rafael’s eyes darkened. “You want to start hurting their families?”
My stomach lurched. “No, no, nothing like that. Nothingreal. We’d be bluffing. I don’t want to actually destroy anything they care about. But Sheeran believes that I’m dangerous—that I’m my mother’s daughter. So he’d think I mean business. We’d have leverage that could level the playing field.”
Niko’s eyes brightened. “That all adds up. Where would we start?”
I turned to Rafael. “We’ll need to find out everything we can about Sheeran and his right-hand men—which means mostlyyou’llneed to find it out, since you have the contacts.”
“Hold on,” Jasper said, and indicated Niko. “We aren’t going to stay on the sidelines for this. I’m sure we can manage to scope out a couple of these guys if you need it.”
My chest tightened at Niko’s emphatic nod of agreement. “These are criminals. They won’t be happy with you if they figure out you’re watching them.”
Jasper drew himself up straighter. “The same goes for Rafael, doesn’t it? And they’ve already seen him with you—they know he’s part of your mom’s crew. You said that Sheeran didn’t take your comments about skating seriously, so chances are good that he never bothered to look into it. There’s a decent chance he has no clue who Niko and I are.”
Even as my stomach knotted, I couldn’t deny he had a point. When I looked at Rafael, my bodyguard offered a grim smile.
“You might have an advantage over me, just this once. I’ll still do most of the digging, but your lack of connection to the criminal world could work in our favor once we know who we’re checking up on. If you’re sure you want to go in this deep.”
“No question about it,” Niko said without hesitation. “It’s to keep Lou safe and make sure they don’t stop her from skating—I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Jasper’s expression had hardened. “Same.”
For a second, unexpected tears pricked at the backs of my eyes. There was no denying their adamant devotion, even though I didn’t feel as if I’d totally earned it after my screw-ups this afternoon.
But my men didn’t see it that way. They were going to stick by me and support me no matter what.
I hated the thought of them putting themselves in danger, but how could I tell them no when I knew how far I’d be willing to go to helpthemif need be?
“We have to make sure you don’t get into any situations that are too difficult,” I said. “Nothing too far on the criminal side, just getting a sense of their everyday lives.”
Niko took in my face and stepped closer to brush his fingers over my hair. “You know this world better than we do, Angel. We trust your judgment. But we aren’t going to stand back while you and Rafael take on the problem by yourselves.”
