Page 77 of Broken Wolf Heart
“Yours too,” Crow tells Dutch.
I look at Grey. “You should talk to your mom, too.”
The flicker in him tells me he’s already thought of it. “Yeah. She hasn’t been answering my calls.” His worry is palpable, but I can’t bring myself to offer reassurance.
“Andy’s preparing my pack for round-the-clock patrols,” I tell them. “If they see Vincenzo, they have orders to detain him.”
Mia’s quiet for a second. Then—“I think we should bring my dad into this.”
Everyone turns to her.
Razor blinks. “Charlie?”
She nods once. “I talked to him earlier. He’s still working for Vincenzo, but he’s loyal to me. To us. If we’re going to survive what’s coming… we need someone on the inside.”
“I don’t know,” Crow begins, and I know he’s thinking ofAlvaro and how he sold out those he loved without a second thought.
“My dad isn’t like yours,” Mia says, and even though her tone is gentle, I can feel the way Crow’s hackles raise at that. But in the end, his shoulders sag.
“Maybe you’re right.”
“He did help me,” I say, “at the party that night Dom tried to… And then again before the wedding, he tried to warn me not to trust Vincenzo.”
Everyone looks from me to Grey.
Grey nods. “Call him.”
Mia’s already pulling out her phone. “It’s time we start stacking our side of the board,” she says, and then, “Hey, Dad? We need to meet.”
16
LEXI
Even after we return to Franco’s and I’ve showered and changed, I still smell the blood. It’s there every time I inhale. Or blink. Or lick my lips. My wolf revels in it, but the human me is a little sick over the smell of copper that lingers or the grisly scene I see every time I close my eyes.
Grey hasn’t left our room since we got back. He’s not hiding exactly. More like—he’s isolating. A predator caged in silence. He says we’re safer if he stays away from us for now, and after seeing what he became earlier, I can’t argue with him. Not until we have some answers. Dutch has positioned himself outside the door, keeping watch like a sentry. I hate to admit that I feel better knowing someone will be there to stop Grey if he tries to attack again.
I check in when I can—offer a touch, a kiss, a whisper through the door. Sometimes he answers. Sometimes the silence growls back.
He’s not gone. But he’s fighting with whatever inside him is threatening to break free.
And I don’t know how much longer he can hold it in.
Mia returns from her meeting with Charlie as I’m sittingdown to lunch. Elena is like a drill sergeant about making sure I eat. “It’ll help you heal faster,” she insists in a voice that I don’t dare argue with.
Mia smirks as she sits down across from me, but her smirk vanishes when Elena points a finger in her direction. “You too, missy. You’re too skinny for a general.”
She stalks out with a threatening, “I’ll be back with your plate in a minute,” tossed over her shoulder.
“That woman scares even me,” Mia admits when we’re alone.
I snort, silently admitting the food is helping. Not that I’ll ever tell Elena that. But I can finally feel my wounds from yesterday beginning to ease slightly.
“How’d it go?” I ask Mia when Elena has delivered her food and left again.
“He’s in,” she says just as Andy walks in.
Mia goes silent at the sight of my second, but I wave her to go on. “Andy’s caught up,” I say. And she’s trustworthy, I don’t say. Because even I sometimes waver, but I know that’s only my own insecurities coming out.
