Page 44 of Hartley

“If I don’t fire them, will you stay?” Jordan asked. There was so much wariness in his tone, a fear that bled through at the thought of Hartley leaving. While I’d be fuming mad if Jordan fired them, I couldn’t leave. I doubted Hartley could either. Then again, he was so firm in his decision, his eyesleveling Jordan’s. Maybe he would. It showed how much he wanted to protect our friends. That was who they were. More than Jordan’s guards, they were people we cared about.

“I’ll stay, but you can’t get rid of them.”

“I won’t, but they can’t do things behind my back. That shows a lack of respect, which I can’t have.”

Hartley reached up to cup the back of Jordan’s neck to draw their foreheads together. “They didn’t do it with the intent of deceiving you. They let us in there because I asked them to.”

“It’s the same thing,” Jordan sighed, some of the anger bleeding from him.

“It’s not. We’re equals, right? You, me, and Vail? How can we be if you always want to take over and make all the decisions? If this was something that just pertained to you and not us, that would be one thing. But it’s not the case. The paper was found in my grandfather’s home by your men. Sheldon wanted to give it to Forest. And Forest showed it to me. Was my brother freaking the fuck out? Of course he was. Hell, I was too. Still am, if I’m being honest. But the point is, not everything we do has to be cleared by you. Lane isn’t a threat sitting on a couch watching TV with no weapons, no phone, and especially not with Sheldon and Ollie in the room with us. I didn’t rush in there alone. I didn’t go in without thinking. Give me some credit.”

Hartley reached his other hand out for me as he leaned slightly from Jordan. I went to him, not resisting the pull. He brought me close, so my body touched his and Jordan’s. “I wasn’t going to keep it from either of you. I just wanted to soften the blow.”

“There wouldn’t have been anything to soften if you had come to me in the first place,” Jordan stated.

“Yes, there would have. You would have still been pissed at them and you would have marched in to see Lane and demanded he tell you what the note meant, even if he had no idea, which he doesn’t, by the way. Lane wasn’t involved in the day-to-day dealings of his family.”

“Where’s the note?” I asked.

“For has it. He’s back at his place with Sheldon.”

That had my eyes widening.

Hartley chuckled. “I know, right? My brother is so damn clueless. He has no idea how much Sheldon cares for him. I mean, for Sheldon to go to For instead of Jordan…” Hartley whistled. “That’s some dedication.”

“That’s stupidity,” Jordan said low with danger threaded into his words.

“Nope, not doing that. You’re not going to fire or threaten them. You can yell about them not coming to you. I’ll give you that. Sheldon has feelings for my brother. What lengths would you go to for Vail or me? How many backs would you go behind for us?”

“It’s not the same.”

“It is. You see it. You just don’t want to admit it.”

“Stop making sense.”

I smiled and brought my hand to Jordan’s back to rub soothing circles over it. “You have to let us fly.”

“As long as you both always return to me. No more threatening you’ll leave either.”

“Drastic times…” Hartley stated.

“I get it, but no more. I can’t explain to you the icy fear that flowed through my veins when you said those words. Your point was made. Don’t do it again.”

“I won’t. I have a feeling that would only work once. I meant it when I said you have to trust us though. We need tobe given the space to make decisions on our own. That note had everything to do with my family. If I only knew the why of it.”

“Any ideas?”

Hartley told us what he’d thought and how maybe his grandfather had been killed, but with no body and no proof, there was no way to say for certain. Plus, with Lane telling him how that would have cost his family money they didn’t have, would they waste it on doing that? Also, why did Hartley’s grandfather leave the note out? Why not keep it in a drawer or somewhere it wouldn’t be seen?

This was another puzzle we had to put the pieces together of. It was different from trying to solve Gil’s riddle. Hartley figured that out pretty quickly. This wouldn’t be solved nearly as fast. The only people alive who knew were the ones we wanted dead. And yes, I did too. After what they’d done, they had to go.

Damn, look at how far I’d come. Before, I wouldn’t have been able to even think of things like this. Now, I had clues in my head I was trying to solve. It wasn’t about death and murder. Never mind, it was, but not only that. There were breadcrumbs we had to follow until we discovered the complete picture.

21

HARTLEY

“Are we going to do something about you still being naked?” Jordan asked, switching the topic to much friendlier territory.

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