Page 46 of Myla: The Hawthornes

“He was alive when I left,” I replied, wishing I’d finished the goddamn job and been sure about it. “Don’t know how he would’ve made it to a phone, but it’s possible he survived.”

“That complicates things a bit,” Gray said, looking at the floor. “Nothin’ that can’t be handled.”

“Jesus Christ, Aisling,” I sighed and scrubbed my hands over my face. “What the fuck?”

“Your sister in with this guy?” Gray asked. He raised his hands in surrender when our eyes met. “Just askin’ how deep she is.”

“Think it was a first date.”

“That’s good.”

“You haven’t seen her face,” I shot back.

“Just mean it’s good that she’s probably not all tangled up in this shit,” he replied calmly.

“Has she said anythin’ yet?” Bas asked.

“She’s not talkin’.”

“She’s gonna have to,” Gray said grimly.

“You think they’ll come after her?” I asked Gray. If anyone could see the bigger picture, it was the man sitting across from me.

“We’re here now,” Gray said, tilting his head back and forth like it could go either way. “Way the fuck outside our territory, but we’ve got plenty of friends. There’s something to be said formaintaining alliances, even if you doubt you’ll ever use ’em. I think you’re golden while we’re here.”

“Christ.” I shot to my feet. “Someone needs to get back to the house.”

“Your sister go home?” Gray asked in surprise.

“No, she’s back at Aoife’s.” Ronan was there, but while my brother was scrappy as fuck—he’d have no idea how to deal with the lunatic I’d found with Aisling.

“She’s fine for the moment, man,” Gray said. “Sit down.”

“I had him,” I mumbled in disgust as I dropped back down. “I had him and I fuckin’ let him live.”

“Aisling was standin’ right there,” Brody reminded me quietly.

“Focus,” Gray said, his tone still almost eerily calm. “Tell me what the cops know.”

By the time the girls got back with their snacks, I’d explained everything that had happened since Saoirse’s first call. Gray walked away to make some phone calls. I had no clue what he was doing, but I knew better than to ask. The man had contacts everywhere. It was like a whole web of people, just barely overlapping. I had a feeling there wasn’t much that happened west of the Mississippi River that he didn’t know about.

Dragon was still in charge, and after him it would probably be the next generation that stepped up—but someday, we all knew Gray would be the Aces president.

“We couldn’t stop ’em,” Bas muttered as the girls walked toward us. “Especially since there are more old ladies on the way.”

“Should be plenty of protection for ’em,” Brody added. “If shit gets hot, you know Tommy will force her back home.”

“He’ll have to fuckin’ hogtie her.” Myla smiled at me as she got closer, and I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and bring her ass right back to Oregon and away from the mess I was in.

“I’ll hang out a couple minutes and then head over to the house and keep an eye on shit,” Brody said quietly.

For a while, things were chaotic as the girls passed out their vending machine haul and my big sister left Richie’s side to come out and say hello. When Aoife hugged Myla, she looked up and met my eyes across the room. She was glad for me.

Little did she know that having Myla there just made everything more complicated and terrifying. It was bad enough that my family was on the radar of some fucking psycho that was involved in the heroin trade. Knowing that Myla was a day’s ride away would’ve been the only upside in the whole fucking mess.

I couldn’t lie and say it wasn’t really fucking good to see her, though. The minute she’d wrapped her arms around my neck, every thought that had been racing through my mind for the past couple of days vanished. It had only lasted about a minute, but I was grateful for it all the same.

A couple hours later, Aunt Ashley had followed Brody back to the house to get some sleep, Lou had dozed off with her head on Bas’s shoulder, and the rest of us were sitting quietly when the elevator opened up and a group of familiar people started pouring out of it.

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