Page 142 of Body and Soul

“He wants the boys,” I said. “All three of them. He’s blackmailing me with his connection to the feds, forcing me to deliver Xion to him. I don’t even know what machinations he has in place trying to get to Xander and Xavier but I know he’s coming for them, too. If I don’t hand over Xion in the next two days, information will be released to the FBI, enough to put us all away for a good, long while.”

“Well, that’s just ridiculous,” she said with a snort. “Xion’s locked up in a psych ward. How are you supposed to…”

I met her eyes. “I thought I was protecting him by moving him out of the hospital. Algerone has people everywhere. He could’ve gotten to Xion in there.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And I thought I could just keep Xion away from him. It was one thing when he was only dangling Dani’s rescue in front of me, but I can’t let all of you go to prison.”

“Wait…Daniella? Your sister?” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Shepherd, did you find her?”

I nodded gravely. “Months ago. We…even spoke a few times. But she couldn’t leave the cult. She’s pregnant and brainwashed. I tried to free her, but Ezekiel moved her and the rest of his cult out of the country. They’re in Malaysia. Algerone’s mercenary operation is the only group capable of getting her out. I was considering giving up on her for Xion’s sake, but this new information…it changes things.” I dropped into the otherrocking chair. “I don't know what to do, Mom,” I admitted, hating how much I sounded like the lost little boy I used to be.

Mom was quiet for a long moment, her gaze drifting out over the snow-covered fields. The weak winter sun had climbed higher, painting the sky in streaks of gold. Mom’s rocking chair creaked as it moved slightly.

“Sometimes doing the right thing means making hard choices,” she said. “Choices that will alter the trajectory of lives far beyond our own. We can’t always know how that’s going to turn out. All we can do is make the best decisions we can with the information and options given to us.”

“What should I do, Mom? Either way, I’m going to hurt someone I care about. How am I supposed to choose between the family I share blood with and the family I grew up with? It’s not fair.”

Mom reached over and squeezed my hand. “Life rarely is fair, sweetie. But let me ask you this. If you had to choose between saving one person you love or saving a hundred strangers, what would you do?”

I frowned, considering the question. “I'd save the person I love,” I admitted. “But I'd feel like shit about it.”

She nodded. “That's because you're a good man, Shepherd. But sometimes we have to make those impossible choices to protect the ones we love most.”

I sighed, rubbing my temples. Fuck, I needed a drink. Or ten. “So you're saying I should give Xion up to save Dani and her baby?”

Mom's eyes flashed with a familiar steel. “I'm saying you need to reframe how you look at this. Perhaps it isn’t a betrayal. Maybe I’m the one in the wrong here. Maybe a good old-fashioned sit down between us and Algerone is exactly what we need. Maybe I messed up taking those boys away from Algerone. Either way, they deserve the chance to make that decision forthemselves. All you’re doing is playing the middle man, setting up a meeting. You can’t know how it will play out, but I can promise you this. Xavier, Xion, and Xander are resourceful and smart, and I trained them all well. Xion’s got a whole company of mercenaries looking after him too, doesn’t he?”

I frowned. “You knew about that? All this time, you knew where he was? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Mom's lips curved into a wry smile. “Sweetie, I'm your mother. I know everything that goes on in this family, whether you boys want me to or not.”

I shook my head, torn between exasperation and grudging admiration. Of course she fucking knew. Annie Laskin had eyes and ears everywhere. It was part of what made her such a formidable matriarch.

“So,” she said, picking up her coffee cup, “how long did he give you?”

“Two days.”

“Well then,” she said, standing, “You have time for lunch.”

After lunch, I leftEli at the house in Liar’s Corner and drove out to the junkyard for one last-ditch attempt at talking Boone out of making the biggest mistake of his life.

I pulled into the junkyard, gravel crunching under the tires of my SUV. As I stepped out of the vehicle, my boots sank slightly into the muddy ground. Fucking great. These were new shoes.I'd barely taken two steps when I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye.

“Hey! You can't be here!”

I turned to see a skinny young man in thick glasses rushing towards me, waving his arms like a deranged air traffic controller. Leo, Boone's tech expert.

“Hey, Professor!" He planted himself in my path like he wasn’t a hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet. “Sorry, but Boone said—”

“Move,” I growled.

Leo's eyes went wide behind his glasses, but to his credit, he stood his ground. “I’m sorry, Shepherd. I can't let you—”

I shoved past him, nearly knocking him over. My long strides ate up the distance to Boone's trailer. Behind me, I could hear Leo's panicked footsteps as he scrambled to catch up.

“Wait! You don't understand—”

I ignored him, marching up the rickety metal steps to bang on Boone’s trailer door.

Boone jerked it open a second later and demanded, “What?”

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