“She’s going to be pissed at a lot of things,” Griff replies. “She doesn’t need to know about what’s in this letter though,” he says sternly.
“I didn’t give her to anyone. I merely stated that if they ended up together, I wouldn’t be upset. No one would protect her and love her like he would in my absence.”
I can tell by the way Griff looks at me that he agrees.
“I don’t want to think about anything beyond tonight right now though. I know there will be hell to pay if I make it through the night alive, but I have to focus on this.”
“You’re making it through the night alive,” Lev says confidently. “We all are.”
Griff pulls out his laptop and tablets. “What’s the name of the family that’s the wildcard? I’ll work on finding leverage.”
I tell him the name but then add, “These are career criminals. It’s going to be hard to find anything of use on them.”
“I’m a criminal, too.” He slides his glasses on and fires up all his electronics. “Do not doubt me.”
“I’ve got a grand on Griff finding usable information before we fly over Greenland.” Lev points at my iPad. “Let me see that, so I can read up on everything you’ve got.”
“You can focus on how you’re going to get out this unscathed with Lilith. She’s not going to be happy.” Griff frowns at his computer and then looks at both Lev and me. “With any of us.”
Truth be told, I’m really fucking concerned about what’s going to happen when I get home. I’ve never lied her to her. This trip and plan are essentially lies of omission, which she won’t appreciate. I can’t risk her safety though, and had she known about this, she would have insisted on being with me. Hell, I can’t even keep Griff and Lev away.
Lev was right. Griff found potentially usable information about an hour and a half into his search. If he wasn’t one my closest friends, I’d be afraid of him. We all fell asleep for the final few hours of the flight.
Dad is waiting for us in an SUV. If he’s surprised to see Griff and Lev get off the plane with me, he doesn’t show it. I, however, am surprised to see Lake sitting beside Dad.
“Gentlemen,” Dad acknowledges Lev and Griff. “How was the flight?”
“Productive,” Griff immediately launches into the information he found. The matriarch of that family has just been diagnosed with cancer. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue because these families are still heavily traditional and led by the males, but the patriarch of this family has been undergoing treatment for early onset Alzheimer’s. Their position of power is hanging on precariously. Neither of the heads of the family will be in attendance, sending their grandson instead.
Lev suggests that we find him before the meeting. If there is anything the three us can do, it’s turn on the charm and schmooze on the drop of a hat. It comes with the role of being heirs to billion-dollar companies. If being friendly doesn’t work, Griff will drop some subtle hints that we know his family’s secrets.
“Why aren’t we going to the family estate?” I ask, surprised when the SUV pulls up in front of the Four Seasons.
“No way in hell is Ivan ever getting near you again,” Dad answers. “I’ve booked suites for each of you. Do you two have suits on hand?” he asks Griff and Lev.
They both nod their heads.
“Good. You’ll need to be dressed and ready by seven tonight. Do you have guns?”
They both do; under their jackets they’re wearing double shoulder holsters. We’ve all been carrying everywhere we go for the past two months. Lake is staying as personal protection for Dad at the family estate. He gives me a burner phone programmed with all his team’s numbers.
It’s only eleven in the morning, so each of us goes up to our rooms for a little more rest, but sleep evades me. I text Lily good morning and tell her to have fun today. She thinks I just flew back to Boston. She probably won’t be awake for several hours.
I keep going round and round trying out how to justify this to her when I get home. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a justification for it. I’m just going to have to man up and accept the consequences when the time comes.
I’m trying to force myself to sleep when I hear a knock on the door. I get up, not bothering to throw clothes on. It sounds like a Lev knock, and sure enough, when I look through the peephole, he’s standing in the hall.
“I can’t sleep,” he says while walking in, “between thinking about everything you confessed and how pissed the girls are going to be at us.” He looks over at me, his blonde hair standing in every different direction. “Fuck. I wish you would have told me sooner than this. I would have been there for you.”
“I know. I couldn’t talk about it though. I just bottled it all up and let my fists do all the talking for me.” It’s kind of ironic how the way I cope with anger and other negative emotions is to beat the shit out something or someone when that is literally the reason I hate myself.
“I feel like we should have seen that something was wrong. We’ve been friends since before we could talk. If anyone should have noticed, it was Griff and me.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I squeeze his shoulder. “Worry about how we’re going to get out of this mess with the girls. Lilith is going to tear my balls off and feed them to me.”
“She’ll probably feed them to all three of us,” he scoffs. “It’d be deserved, too.”
8
CONNOR
After Lev left my room, I wandered down to the Church of the Savior on Blood.
