Page 62 of Unconditional

“She’ll come out when she’s ready.In the meantime, we need to talk.”

Swallowing, my hand dropped to my side and slid into my front pocket.

“Yeah.”

It had been put off long enough.I followed Milo back to the kitchen table and took a seat, rubbing at my fatigued eyes.It had been a while since I had felt so much exhaustion and the growing pressure of a migraine pressed against my skull.

“We need to discuss your next move.”

There was an unbidden desire to groan like a petulant child.“My next move?”

“Yes, where do you stand?”

“Where do I stand?”

Milo released an impatient breath.“Are you going to actually answer any of these questions or are you going to just keep repeating them?”

Dropping my elbows down on the table I raked my fingers through my hair, pulling as I reached the ends.“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”Now he was the one repeating me.I almost laughed.

“Milo, there is an eight-year-old boy on the line here.There is a possibility that I fucked up—yet again—and have brought another kid into this mess.Kyle has zero intention of letting up, and Bri seems determined to continue being his right-hand bitch.”

He opened his mouth to speak but I held up a hand.

“I get it.You have this incredible life here with the girl of your dreams and trust me, the last thing I want to do is uproot any of that.And when I think about that, I want to say fuck it and tell Kyle to kiss my ass.But then I remember this little boy, and the beautiful lifehehas, and I am torn up thinking about ruining that for him.”

“Talon, it isn’t just me—”

“I know you have your girl—”

He huffed, slapping his hand onto the surface of the table.“No, I mean that it’s not just me that is on your side.We have people who can help.”

Birdie stepped back into the kitchen, her arms weighed down by grocery bags.Milo stood to help her, emptying the bags and unloading the contents into the tiny kitchen’s cupboards.

“You mean witness protection?”

Birdie sighed at the distaste in my tone, a half-smile tugging at her lips.“Sheesh, you MacArthurs.”

Milo bumped her hip with his own, stepping past her to place a bottle of orange juice into the fridge.

“She’s only saying that because I was hesitant at first too.”He must’ve seen the confusion I felt written on my face.“I had to go undercover for a bit, but as you can see it was worth it.”

“Kyle would sniff me out in a second if I were to become an informant.He’s changed, Milo, and trust it’s not for the better.He’s more paranoid than ever.”

“That’s because he knows they’re close.”

“Who?”

Milo clicked his teeth, a grin sharpening his face.“Tsk, tsk, brother.You know I’m not going to tell you that.All you need to know is that I wasn’t the only defector, I wasn’t even the first.This has been in motion foryears.Kyle isn’t even the grand prize.”

“The supplier,” I mused.“Of course.That’s why Kyle’s so freaked out.”

“Yep.He knows if the supplier is unveiled, it won’t be a few decades in prison he’ll be facing.It’ll be his neck.And who knows, it could go deeper than that.There are things the detectives aren’t telling us.”

Neither Milo nor I had any idea who Kyle’s supplier was.If any of us were high enough in the instep to know, it would be Bri, but I still held the suspicion that Kyle kept her at an arms length in that regard too.Especially after Milo’s abandonment and betrayal.

It didn’t surprise me that the operation Milo was involved in went deeper than busting Kyle, but it certainly changed the dynamic we were facing.If I took this information back to Kyle, surely it’d be enough to distract him from his blackmail on me.That would take his eyes off Leo, at least for a little bit while he worked out a plan to get the supplier even more underground than they already were.

---