Page 92 of Even if You Fall

Maverick started reaching for his backpack again, only to stop. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be so confident in your ability to protect people just because you’renear them,” he began, his voice softer than before—haunted. His stare flicked between the two of us before he studiously focused on zipping up the bag. “Doesn’t matter what you’ve been through or what you’ve trained for. Kieran’s wife was murdered by another family in front of all of us. My brother’s wife was taken by them right after.”

My head slanted as I imagined the picture he painted, but I just met Briggs’ stare and gave a subtle shake of my head. These ARCK people might be willing and able to do a lot of things we weren’t, but Briggs and I both knew we wouldn’t have let something like that happen.

However, where I knew when to keep my mouth shut around people, Briggs always said what was on his mind, no matter how bold or offensive it was.

I tensed when he told the mafia twin, “That’s the difference between y’all and us...we would’ve prevented that.”

Asneering sound left Maverick as he gave us a look like he would’ve liked to see us try. Stepping up to Briggs, Maverick held his dark stare when he said, “If you ever find yourself trying to pick up the shattered pieces of your life, I’ll be considerate enough not to remind you of that statement. I’ll also spare your life tonight by not relaying that to Kieran. Now, choose someone to come, and let’s head out.”

Briggs glanced my way before nodding past me as he said, “Get—never mind.”

Rush came into the kitchen then, exhaling heavily as he did. “Evans’ mom just called, hysterical. Said she found his dad and wants Evans there.” He gave all of us a meaningful look. “Thought it was self-inflicted.”

Briggs scrubbed a hand over his face before looking carefully at me. “Can we trust him to be there without one of us?”

“What, do you think he’d say what really happened?” I asked, a small sound of denial sliding up my throat at Briggs’ nearly imperceptible nod. “I can’t imagine he would. It would hurt his mom more to know what her husband was involved in, and I can’t see Evans doing that.”

“All right,” Briggs said after a moment. “Ask if he wants someone to go with him, if not, let him go. The rest of you stay ready while—” As if just realizing they’d been missing for some time, he asked, “Where’re Monroe and Gray?”

“Right,” Rush began, then pointed in the direction he’d come, “they crashed on the couch.”

Briggs lifted his chin just slightly as if he was sure he’d heard Rush incorrectly. “Together?”

“Together,” Rush confirmed.

Briggs’ eyes rolled as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t have time for this,” he muttered before glaring at me like the entire night was my fault. “Get them up. Get them ready in case anything happens.”

“Yep,” I said, already heading that way.

Before I even looked at the couch to see exactly what was going on with Gray and Monroe, I narrowed in on where Evans was sitting in one of the chairs. Face tortured. Eyes dark with wrath. Knees bouncing a mile a minute as he sat hunched forward, his phone clasped tightly in his hand.

“What would you do?” he asked before I made it to him. “What would you do if you found out your dad—the man you’d looked up to your entire life—was a dirty cop? But not just a dirty cop,” he added. “Working for the mafia and kidnapping women for a trafficking ring.”

I wavered as I tried putting myself in his shoes...and couldn’t. “Think I’d probably fall into a rage-filled hole of denial, the way you have.”

A strained breath left him, sounding like a humorless laugh. “But you know...you know people like that need to be stopped.” He looked up at me in confirmation, his wrath-filled eyes glassy.

When I nodded, he gave his own jerky nod before quickly shaking his head as the words, “I hate him,” wrenched from him.“How do I comfort her when I know the truth? When I hate him for doing this to her?”

“Because that’s your mom, and she needs you,” I told him softly. “And no matter what you feel right now, no matter what he did, he was still your dad.”

He dropped his head into his free hand, the rapid movement of his knees bouncing his entire body for long seconds before he suddenly pushed from the chair, stealthily rubbing at his eyes as he did.

“Want one of us to come with you?” I asked when he took a step.

“No, I—no,” he said, refusing to meet my stare, but I knew he just didn’t want me to see the tears he was fighting. “I gotta go.”

Grabbing one of his shoulders, I pulled him in for a hug before he could take another step. “I’m sorry, man,” I said softly. “I know you’ve been struggling to find your place ever since we first found out about your dad, but this team is a family, and that includes you. All right?” I shifted him back and clapped his shoulder. “We’ll be here when you’re done.”

Once he was headed toward the garage, I turned to the couch, my eyebrows lifting when I saw exactly how Gray and Monroe had fallen asleep.

Monroe was up against one side of the couch, her laptop open and sitting on the arm. If I had to bet, I’d say her legs hadn’t been stretched out onto Gray’s lap when she’d been awake. But knowing Gray, he’d been all too happy to let her rest there as he’d continued working, considering his laptop was precariously balanced on her legs and about to fall off.

And at some point, after falling asleep himself, he’d started leaning to the side, toward her, and was now only inches from sliding in behind her.

I carefully lifted his laptop and tapped his arm, waiting for him to wake.

“Comfy?” I softly asked, my eyebrows lifting with amusement as he tried to focus on me.

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