Page 48 of Unwrapped

I don’t speak but slide his phone back across his desk. My jaw tics. My throat’s tight. His fingers still on the keyboard. He sits back in his chair. “Darren?”

“Something off with me. Something’s changed this year. I’ve never been big on holidays. They roll right off me. But this year’s been different. I’m angry. Frustrated all the damn time. I want to punch walls. Break shit. But I met this girl…”

“Shiloh?” He grins.

“Freddie.” His brows draw together. “She’s twelve. Roque’s fast pacing my foster application.”

“Is this about Freddie or you.”

“Both. You were there. You saw how I lived.” I look past his shoulder out the window to the flakes of snow falling haphazardly on their flight to the ground. His chair creaks as he leans back.

“Some ghosts never leave, do they? Life comes full circle. Maybe that’s what this season is for you. I’m married with a kid on the way. Smith and Luce are probably making one of their own…”

“Thanks, for the clarity, Oprah. But I’d already figured that part out.”

“It’s the woman then.”

“You knew she was staying at the inn you bastard, didn’t you?”

He smirks. “You did too. Mac told me you had him return her coat.”

“She’s trouble.”

“So was Devon when she came into town.”

“She’s not Devon.”

“No, she ain’t. She’s your problem to solve.”

I snort. “Nope. Tonight, she’s Federico’s.”

He doesn’t respond to that but starts pecking away on his keyboard again. I rise and get ready to face the music. Literally. My hand pauses on the door.

“Use your time here wisely. Leave your ghosts of Christmases past—in the past. Put everything behind you for good, Dare and move on.”

I swipe a hand over my eyes and nod, still facing the door. Rog and I share many secrets. Burying Ma’s old boyfriend on Boxing Day was just the beginning. He knew the ask was big to bring me back to Springdale on Christmas and he did it anyway.

I spin on my heels. “What’s going down? Why did you really need me here?”

“Not tonight. Let tonight still be about Christmas. Tomorrow it’s back to war.”

“That bad.”

“He nods. Dev doesn’t know a thing about it. I need to keep it that way. But now that we’re expecting…it makes it even more vital that we end this new threat. We might need Roque in on this.”

“I hate owing that man favors.”

“He’s more dangerous than all of us combine. We need to tread carefully. But there’s no other way. The Cartel’s operation is too big. The heat on the border bought us some time but that won’t last.”

“I have some connections with the Royal Bastards out of New Mexico. I’ll make some calls.”

“This is why I need you. I never asked how you made shit disappear, but I had a clue you had help all those years ago.”

“I was the best. I’ll handle this new threat. You have my word.”

“Do it before you head back to Chicago. I don’t want this to follow you there. You’ve worked too hard to sit behind that desk.”

“No one knows where I come from. What I’ve done. The members of the board would shit if they knew their CEO was a former enforcer for an MC.”

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