Page 71 of To Hunt A Wolf
The awkwardness reaches a new level with the three of us in the same room again.
“I was looking for my mother,” I say lamely.
“She left early this morning,” Levi says.
“What?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
I sigh. “Of course not. Why would she?”
He hesitates. “I’m sure she was just busy with the details of whoever she’s hunting down this time…”
“Don’t defend her,” I snap.
He falls silent.
In that silence, I only feel worse.
“We were just—” Tripp begins.
“Listen,” I say at the same time, but then Jadick arrives, and I clamp down on whatever sentimental thing I’d been about to indulge in.
Pushing to my feet, I prepare to make myself scarce. Whatever they’re here for, it clearly has nothing to do with me.
“Hey,” Jadick says with a flirty smile. “Glad you’re here. I was just going to look for you.”
“You were?” I ask warily.
“We’d like to invite you to stay for a status update on the Thiago situation,” he says. “Care to join us?”
My eyes widen, but Jadick doesn’t react to my surprise. I look from him to Levi, waiting. But even if Levi’s in charge out there, with the men, in here, it’s clearly Jadick at the helm.
“Okay,” I say, still off-balance.
But I’m not going to turn down information.
Levi rounds the table, and Tripp follows. They both take a seat. Jadick motions for me to take one too. I sit across from Levi. Jadick sits beside me.
I scoot away as much as possible without making it obvious.
“What’s this about?” I ask.
“We’d like to make sure everything’s on the table.” Jadick smiles. “Pun intended.”
Tripp rolls his eyes. “Terrible,” he mutters.
“That sounds good,” I say, doing my best to focus on the information he’s offering to divulge. “We can start with who made the call to extract my mother and why.”
“I made that call,” Levi says.
I’m not surprised. They’d said as much yesterday. But his admission means I’m forced to meet his gaze. There, I find way too many layers of emotions to unravel. Instead, I shift my eyes to a spot on the wall just over his head.
“Why bother?” I ask. “Not that I’m not grateful, but she would have eliminated your enemy for you. We all know she’s capable.”
“Because of this.” He sets his phone on the table between us and hits play on a voice mail.
Thiago’s voice fills the room.
