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I swallow the fear welling in my throat. “Maybe he doesn’t know he won. Maybe he just did it because … Fuuuuck.” I kick the side of the cupboard as my rage pours out. “How did this fucking happen? We were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!”
“We were, but you know there were times when we couldn’t.” Guilt weeps into his tone as he slumps against the counter behind him. “We fucked up so badly.”
“I know.” Because even if Levi isn’t aware he won the bounty, Allura still had to suffer in ways that can scar a soul.
I know from my own experience.
“What are we going to do?” I question. “We already have so many problems, and it’s day one.”
He’s silent to the point where it becomes maddening.
“We’re going to get answers,” he conclusively says. “We were planning on doing that, anyway.”
“And what if Levi comes forward with a claim on her?”
“Then we fight it.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“Then we run,” he replies simply. “That’s always been the plan.”
I massage my temples and sigh. “Yeah, in a few years. If we flee now, we could fuck up that plan, too.”
“We won’t fuck it up,” he assures me. “I’ll make sure that we don’t this time.”
I hope he’s right, but I’ve always been nervous about the plan to begin with. It feels like we’re playing a game with devils, and they could kill us at any moment.
I blow out a breath. “I need to check on Trystan tomorrow.”
“Trystan?” Ryder questions with a cock of his brow.
“The guy Al messed around with and who saw me at that party,” I remind him. “You know, the one we have locked in a storage unit.”
His anger surfaces again, and he clenches his fist.
“You know”—I slant against the counter as something occurs to me—“I always thought it was odd that Trystan was at that party when no other members of Allura’s family were.”
His gaze strays to me. “Are you suggesting he was there for a reason?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I mean, he acted like he didn’t know who Allura was, but that seemed a little weird to me, too, so perhaps he was pretending.”
Ryder rubs his jawline. “You think he was following her?”
“Maybe. He may just be a son of a lackey, but from what I’ve gathered, his father was Levi’s best friend up until Levi got promoted, and you know how that shit goes. Capos can’t be hanging out and drinking with lackeys—it’s beneath them.”
“Unless it’s a façade,” Ryder mumbles with a crease between his brows.
“I’ll look into it,” I promise. “Tomorrow, I’ll go to the storage unit.”
“Be careful,” he warns. “No one can know we have him.”
“I know. And I need you to promise me you won’t go after Levi yet. You need to keep your shit together for now.”
“Are you seriously lecturing me on not breaking the plan?”
“There’s a first for everything. But with this … I feel like you’re at risk of breaking it just as much as Blaise and I are.”
He throws me an annoyed look but doesn’t comment.
