Page 31 of Shattered Souls
As far as I’m concerned, it’s the investment of a lifetime.
Knowing we’re all in agreement, I sit in Dax’s vacated chair and drag the laptop closer. Unlocking my phone, I pull up the username details Blue sent me for an account he’s been warming up for the past couple of weeks. He reckons—and I’d agree—that if whoever runs this thing is so tight on security, they’ll vet anyone who tries to join the group, regardless of how much they are willing to pay to get in.
Once I’ve logged into the account, I glance at the others crowded around me before requesting to join the private room.A message pops up on the screen.Your request is pending approval.
“What now?” Logan asks, his arm around Riley’s waist as he flicks his gaze from the screen to me.
“Now, we wait.”
Dinner is a quiet affair. The laptop sits open on the kitchen island, and I’m pretty sure we all spend more time glancing at it than at our plates.
“What’s the plan when we have a time and location?” Gray asks when the scrape of cutlery against porcelain becomes cloying.
Riley abandons any pretense of eating—all she’s done is push food around her plate since Logan set it in front of her—to look at me. It’s the set of her jaw and the spark of determination in her eyes that gives away her intentions before she says, “Whatever the plan is, I’m coming.”
“Absolutely not.” Grayson’s harsh tone cuts like a blade, earning him an incinerating look from Riley.
“Ry—” I try more tactfully before she shakes her head, cutting me off.
“No. You kept me out of the loop last time, and while I understand why you did, I’m not doing it again. I can’t sit here and wait for you to return, wondering whether you have my daughter with you. It’s not happening.I’m coming with you.”
Her declaration is met with a moment of silence as I exchange glances with the guys. Gray looks like he’s about to mount another protest—fucking idiot. Thankfully, before he can incite World War Three, Logan interjects. “Alright, so looks like we need to find a way to get the four of us into this event.”
“You can’t be fucking serious?” Grayson growls.
Seriously?Dude needs to learn to recognize a losing battle. Do I want to put Riley in danger by bringing her with us? No. Do I want her exposed to the sick underbelly we’re going into? Hell no. Do I recognize that wild horses won’t stop her from coming? You can bet your ass.
Instead of trying to talk her out of coming—or knowing Grayson, devising ways to ensure shecan’t—my priority needs to be ensuring she is safe and protected at all times.
“Grayson,” Riley snarls in a tone so vicious that I can’t help but smirk. In a fight between Mama Bear vs. Grayson, my money is on Riley. Every. Single. Time. “If you so much asthinkabout keeping me away from this, I will blend your balls into soup and force it down your throat.”
Coughing to disguise his laugh, Logan not so subtly lifts his hand from the table to cover his balls.
Unperturbed, Grayson’s dark eyes narrow on Riley. “While you’re focused on your daughter and these two idiots are too pussy whipped to say no to you?—”
“Hey!” Logan interjects with a scowl.
“—Iam trying to keepyousafe. You don’t need to see the shit that goes down in a place like that.”
“But my daughter does?” Riley spits back.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Grayson’s shoulders drop on an exhale. “Of course not.” Bottling up his anger, an emotion I’ve never seen on him before flares from his eyes as they meet Riley’s. “If I could prevent Aurora from stepping foot somewhere like that, I would.” He swallows roughly. “But I can’t.”
“You can’t stop me either, Grayson. And if you try, you will destroy any hope of there ever being anything between us.”
Nostrils flaring, the grind of Grayson’s teeth is the only sound in the otherwise silent room. Just when I think he’s going to shoot himself in the foot and forever ruin whatever they mighthave, he manages to swallow back his protests. Sounding like he’s chewing on nails, he spits a “Fine.”
“It’s not like we’re going to let anything happen to her in there,” I point out. “She’ll always be with one of us, and Dax will have a team on standby.”
Grayson’s curt nod is the only response he seems capable of making as he sulks in his chair, looking like someone pissed in his cereal.
“Laptop,” Logan barks as the screen lights up with a notification. Chair legs scrape against the floor as we all crowd around the island. Me in front of the laptop with Riley on my left, Logan looking over her head from right behind her, and Grayson on my right.
I can feel the tension coiling through the air around us as I type in my password and bring up the site. A notification pops up saying I have a new message. All it contains is an amount and a phone number. Probably a burner, and the bank account it’s connected to is emptied as soon as the money hits and closed once the event is over.
Should the organizers check, we’ve already moved money into an account Blue set up that will link back to my dummy online account, so I quickly transfer it over.
This time, we only have to wait several minutes before we’re sent a link to the private room.
