Page 69 of Finlay

“Yeah.” Chester ran an exhausted hand through his hair. “Whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean. He also said he expected my ‘friends’ to do the same.”

The four of us exchanged dark looks.

Chester touched my elbow. “I assume it means more to you than it does to me?”

“Aye,m’eudail.” I kissed his temple. “It’s complicated, but?—”

Before I could say another word, the back door of the shop opened. Logan and Calan tensed, but Evan retreated further into the corner as he said, “Relax. It’s just Reid.”

My lips thinned. How was Evan so familiar with Reid’s scent already? Was it from when he’d been keeping an eye on him?Or had he continued stalking him after I’d told him to step down?

The human who was at the centre of this drama walked into the shop and came to an abrupt halt. He only saw one of us. “You.”

Evan cringed, lowering his head further as though that might save him from Reid’s wrath. In another situation, it might’ve been funny seeing him quiver in front of a man who was half his size. But knowing the guilt Evan was carrying? The shame he felt for not saving Reid as a child?

It meant nothing about this was funny.

“I thought I told you never to come back here,” Reid said, nostrils flaring. “And not only have you come back, but you’ve brought the whole furry cavalry with you?”

“What?” Chester asked in confusion as Logan coughed to try and hide his laugh. Furry cavalry.That would definitely be coming up again in future.

Chester moved around me to stand between hisemployee and Evan. He held his hands up placatingly. “Reid, they’re here because someone came into the shop looking for you earlier.”

The blood drained from Reid’s face. “What?”

“Something about him was off,” Chester said grimly. “Finn came in shortly after he left, and then he called his friends here. They think they know who it was.”

Reid swayed on his feet, his gaze finding Evan’s over Chester’s shoulder.“Who was it, Ev?”

Calan, Logan, and I all stiffened. Evan never let any of us shorten his name.

There was pity in Evan’s eyes as he answered him. “It was your father, Reid. Clyde.”

Reid was shaking his head, stepping backwards as though he were about to turn and run. “No. No, it’s not possible.”

“Actually I don’t think thatispossible,” Chester said slowly. “That bloke looked around my age. There’s no way he was old enough to have a kid in his twenties.”

None of us knew what to say to that. Most supes appeared to be in their mid-thirties, so it wasn’t surprising that Chester thought that.

Reid was blinking rapidly, like he was fighting not to cry. Chester’s expression softened as he tugged the smaller man into a fierce hug. “Don’t panic. It can’t have been your dad, he wasn’t old enough. Besides, Evan didn’t see him, so how would he even know?”

Again, no one spoke. Not even Reid. Like us, he knew that Evan’s sense of smell was more reliable than the average person’s sight. If Evan said it was Clyde, that’s precisely who it was.

So many questions were running through my mind. What did Clyde want with Reid? Why was he tracking himdown when Reid had been free of his clan for five years? What was so urgent that it warranted him risking coming into our territory to get his son back? What if it happened again? What if he decided to threaten or hurt Chester as some sort of power play?

I didn’t know the answers to any of these questions.

Or the answer to the most important one: What the fuck did we do now?

Chapter 21

Finn

Calan stepped up, sensing I was out of my depth with Chester there. “Right. Chester, would ye be okay with Reid cutting out a few hours early?”

“Of course.” Chester nodded. “If Reid needs to go and sort this out, that’s fine.”

Chester’s lips thinned and I could almost hear the questions he wasn’t asking. The ones abouthowwe were going to sort things out and why we were getting ourselves involved.

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