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As if that connection between us has ratcheted up to a whole new level now that we’re finally on the same page, we both turn as one and look down at Chloe.
“What?” she asks, her head tilted to lean against Logan’s shoulder. Then she slowly figures out what we’re getting at, and she straightens, her face falling. “Oh, hell no. Riley! You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“That’s not fair!”
“You really will be safer once the guys get you out of Halston.”
And I refuse to feel like a hypocrite for saying so, because I’m not. I’m her big sister, and it’s still my job to take care of her, even though she’s proven she can handle shit on her own if she has to.
She shouldn’t have to. That’s the whole point.
“But—” she starts, her chin jutting out defiantly.
“You’re going,” Maddoc cuts her off. Then he adds, a little more gently, “If you stay here, we’ll all worry too fucking much. It will be a distraction, and distractions get people hurt.”
It warms me to hear him say that. The Reapers care about my sister too.
“But ifRileygets to stay—”
I’m the one who cuts her off this time. “I’m in too deep with all this to stop now, and West Point has fucked with you too many times already.”
“They just fucked pretty hard withyoutoo.”
“I know. And now that I’ve enjoyed that bastard’s ‘hospitality,’ do you really think I could handle it if he got his hands on you again?”
Her eyes well up with tears. “Maddoc said West Point won’t care about us anymore.”
I drop down to my knees in front of where she’s sitting on the couch, taking both her hands in mine. “Except we matter to the Reapers, and Austin already knows what they’ll do to get either of us back. We’ve got no idea what he’ll do with that money, but he gets off on hurting people, and I need to know you’re safe. I need you out of harm’s way. Don’t fight me on this one, okay?”
I can see that she wants to, just like I can see that she knows she’ll lose if she tries.
“Goddammit,” she says with a sigh, her shoulders slumping. Then she lurches forward, wrapping her arms around me in a hug that makes my ribs ache. “Fine. You win. But I hate it.”
“Me too.”
All three of the guys’ phones go off, and Chloe and I break apart.
“They’re here,” Maddoc says, all emotion stripped from his face as he falls into leader mode. “We need to move you fast, Chloe. If we’re lucky, McKenna’s people will still be thrown off from what went down at the warehouses. I want you outside city limits before they get their shit together enough to start plotting revenge.”
Chloe nods, getting stiffly to her feet, then gives Logan a look of betrayal when he hands her a packed bag. “You just did this? You knew Maddoc was going to make me leave!”
“Maddoc is right. We’ve got to move you out of the city quickly,” he says a little stiffly, which is basically a yes. Then he pats her shoulder awkwardly, one of the few times I’ve seen him voluntarily touch someone other than me. “I reconfigured a laptop for your use. It’s in there with your clothing and toiletries and some… reading material.”
Chloe sniffles, then grins. “That manga you got me hooked on?”
Dante grins at the two of them, then heads to the door to let in the Reapers who’ve arrived.
Logan looks slightly pained by Chloe’s enthusiasm, but I fall for him just a little bit harder when he humors her. “You’ll find a book on game theory, a complete Python reference manual, and… yes. I included the final three volumes of Death Note for you too.”
Some of the sadness fades from her face as she murmurs, “Thanks, Logan.”
He clears his throat. “Of course. As we discussed, game theory has many useful applications for strategic thinking, and Python is the simplest coding language to start with.”
“Andyou knew how much it would suck if I didn’t find out what Light decides to do in the final battle.”
“And that too,” Logan answers dryly.
