Page 47 of Brother's Keeper

I might as well have told him it was going to rain. It elicited the same mute reaction I’d gotten when warning him about the investigators looking into my abductions and paying Isha a visit. He didn’t care about any of it.

“Five days now,” I added, hoping the passage of time would drum up his interest. “I think one of your underlings had something to do with it. Jaxon Rhodes?”

Grimm watched me with Maximus’s gray eyes. The reading glasses he’d donned must have been bugging him because the man behind the illusioned mask didn’t need corrective lenses.

“I wouldn’t know,” he said.

I walked closer to the desk, bending to put my hands on the corner and my face nearer Grimm’s line of sight. “He says he’s running the gang now. Would youknowabout that?”

The older man sniffed. “He’s been given a measureof authority, yes. I needed someone to oversee matters outside these walls.” He waved vaguely to the room around us. “I find my time rather consumed these days.”

“And you picked him?”

Call it cannon fodder, infantry, or reinforcements, it didn’t matter. A bad hire was still a bad hire. I didn’t think the gang was desperate or dense enough to induct the feral cat into its ranks, certainly not to put him in charge.

“Avery made that decision.” Grimm gave a tight smile. “I trust his judgment.”

“You shouldn’t,” I replied.

“More than I trust yours.”

We stayed in a deadlock, fueling each other’s anger until I caved at last.

“Fine.” I dropped into the chair on top of my crumpled suit coat, resigned to wrinkles for the rest of the day. “Did you help him escape the prison transport?”

“Fitch, I’ll be blunt with you.” Grimm bridged his fingers. “I’m not involved in the day-to-day of the Bloody Hex anymore. I have ascended to a higher calling. This is my focus now. I don’t waste much thought on petty crimes or the disappearances of fully-grown men.”

“They’re gonna kill Rip for his Hex mark,” I protested. “Made a pass at me, too.” And Donovan, by proxy, but the further I could keep him from Grimm’s notice, the better.

“And yet, here you stand.” He thrust both hands at me in a welcoming gesture. “Having taught them a lesson they won’t soon forget, I hope?”

I frowned and looked aside. “Something like that.”

“You understand the way of things,” he said. “So does Ripley. You keep what you are able to defend.”

Anger spiked so fast and hot that I couldn’t stop myself from blurting, “What about you defending your damn gang? If you want to keep us, that is. Maybe you don’t.” That last bit was an unwelcome realization. Things had changed so much over the past two months that I could no longer guess Grimm’s intentions for the Bloody Hex. He’d certainly stepped back. Had he given up?

He peered at me over Maximus’s tortoiseshell glasses. “Why should I defend those who openly defy me, threaten my life, or support someone who does?”

Those first two were for me, the third undoubtedly for Ripley. So, our gang leader held a grudge, after all. It pleased me to see it.

“Growing pains, right?” I taunted. “Those were your words. Just me doing what young bucks do.”

He replied without hesitation. “Mister Vaughn is no young buck and, if twelve years in prison didn’t cure his rebellion, I fear nothing will.”

His eyes were frigid through the mask, chilling me as deeply as ever. If Ripley’s abduction was a punishment, then I was next in line. And, while I’d foiled Jette and York’s efforts once, it had been by a narrow margin. I wasn’t eager to try my luck again.

With nothing left to discuss, I stood to leave.

“One more thing.” Grimm pulled open the desk’s top drawer. From inside, he produced a square of paper about the size of a postcard. “We got these back from the printer this morning. Planned to send you one, but Idon’t seem to have your forwarding address.”

With the card held aloft, he watched me, waiting as though expecting me to supply my whereabouts on the spot. Fat chance.

“Mark your calendar.” He held the square of paper out for me to take, and I curled a finger to draw it through the air into my grasp.

I inspected the card, embossed with slimline lettering announcing Holland Lyle’s 27thbirthday. Location: Maximus Lyle’s house. Date: this coming Saturday. So much for the standard two-weeks’ notice.

Fine print detailed arrival time and a black-tie dress code, plus a champagne reception and full dinner to be served.

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