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“The problem was Michael wasn’t part of the chaos. He had slipped off into the shadows and used the attack as a diversion. While the rest of us were focused on deescalating the situation, he went straight for Rachel.” Some of his rage bleeds back out of him. “Fucking woman can never do as she’s told. She wasn’t even supposed to be on the floor, but of course she had to come out of her office. He got one good swipe at her before I snapped his neck.” He forces himself to take deep breaths as his eyes lower to Rachel again. He looks back my way before continuing, less ire in his voice now. “He had a message for her though.”
“Spit it out,” Kade demands and I have to hold back a surprised laugh.
“If you want to go to war, not even your allies are safe. Tell…” he waves his hand in front of him. “There was more but it got cut off. Rachel hadn’t made any moves against Romano though, so we knew the message wasn’t for her.”
I shrug at the pointed look he gives me, not really feeling guilty that they got dragged into this. I never forced them to be a part of this world. Never forced anyone’s hand into being our ally.
“Other people at the club started talking about what was happening at the fights. Your name is now on everyone’s lips. We even have contacts on the east coast calling us to see what is happening in St Graves.”
“War is happening.” I can’t help the savage grin that spreads across my face as I say it.
He rolls his eyes, more of his normal personality coming through. “No shit.”
Declan finishes the last stitch on Rachel’s abdomen and begins carefully bandaging the area.
Alec focuses back on her. “Our doctor looked her over, took some images, concurred the damage wasn’t anything too bad. The bleeding wasn’t nearly as bad before she decided to run. There were other injuries that were worse. She disappeared as we were trying to check on the others.”
“How did you know she would come here?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “That’s a more complicated answer.”
I cross my arms and lean back, my eyes linger on where Rachel still lays unconscious.
“We have time.”
A bad bitch.
My girlfriend is a bad bitch.
She oozes confidence and poise as she levels a glare at Rachel’s second in command. A man who usually reminds me of a combination of Kade and Luca. None of his normal attitude or cocksure presence is here today though. Especially not when his gaze lingers on where Rachel still lays unconscious. There’s a pleading there that’s hard to ignore. I know I would be even worse if it was Scar lying there.
Declan sighs, taking pity on him I assume. “She’s stable but going to sleep for a while. You might as well settle in and just tell Scarlett why you were so sure Rachel would be here.”
Alec takes a moment to study his face before turning back to Scar. “She’s been obsessed with finding and meeting her sister. We were fairly sure she was here.”
“How?” Luca cuts him off. This is something that has been on all of our minds since Rachel first started feeling all of us out.
Alec looks pained as he starts to answer. “We had a guy in Romano’s crew,” he starts.
I watch the others carefully, but not even a flicker of guilt or remorse crosses their features. Absolutely no indication that not only did we already know this information, we handed it over to Romano.
Oh shit. I still haven’t told the others what I realized. I’m not entirely positive how it all fits together, but I know that I’m holding an important piece of the puzzle.
“He disappeared a while back, but he had already shared Romano’s growing suspicions about you guys with us.”
Of course he did. It was probably under Romano’s direct orders too. Make even our allies start turning their suspicions to us. Of course this only backfired against Romano because he misjudged the reason why Rachel wanted eyes on him. For her, it was always all about Jade.
Why? I don’t understand. I heard what they said about them being sisters, but from everything I know about Jade, that only raises more questions than it answers.
I do my best to keep my face as blank as the others’ but I don’t know that I manage it as well as they do. Scar’s gaze lands on me and her lips lift into the smallest smirk. Somehow, I just know that it’s her way of reassuring me I’m doing fine with my mask.
It never stops amazing me how she can read me so damn well. Always ready to give me exactly what I need without me ever having to tell her. She makes me feel like a goddamn teenager with a crush sometimes.
I bury that train of thought or I’m positive I won’t be able to keep this blank mask in place.
Alec surveys all of us, just waiting for one of us to give something away. I refuse to be the weak link that does. Even if it’s something unintentional because I was thinking about Scar instead of what he’s telling us.
“After that,” he continues, “Rachel decided to try and just talk to you as if she already knew something. She couldn’t make heads or tails of that conversation with you, Scar.” He scoffs a little, shaking his head. “Her gut was telling her that she was onto something, but you weren’t giving her much to work with. She was doubting her intuition but couldn’t let it go either. She hadn’t been able to decide how to move forward after that phone call. She didn’t want to risk pushing an ally further away than she already had. Our guy disappeared. We had no other leads. She’s been on edge for weeks.”
