Page 54 of Surrender (Angels Halo MC Next Gen)

Another vibration of my phone tried to distract me, but it was followed by the door opening, and a nurse rushed in with a syringe in hand.

“Don’t touch me!” Papa bellowed, rattling the bed so hard it moved a few inches. “Don’t. Touch. Me!”

Seeming unfazed by the belligerent patient, the nurse added the medication from the syringe to the IV port. His anger slowly dissolved until there was nothing but the sound of our breathing in the room.

Once Papa was asleep again, the nurse left without a word. As soon as the door shut behind her, I covered my face with my hands, curling into a ball as I squatted at Mom’s feet. I didn’t care that I appeared weak. It didn’t matter that all of my broken parts were laid out for Mom and Ryan to see. I couldn’t have held it back a moment longer.

“He’s been having hallucinations,” Ryan explained after several moments, having given me a reprieve to cry.

A single moment to be human, to hurt and grieve because my papa was gone. Not dead, but no longer there. It was hard to mourn the loss of a person who was still breathing, still right there in front of me, giving me a drop of hope to cling to that maybe—maybe—one day, he might return.

“He said Kovak, or maybe one of Kovak’s people, has been showing up at the house. Taunting him. That was why he thought Kovak took you. And then he keeps saying I’m not his real son. Just a man who looks like him. He freaked Nova out about there being two Ryans. He had such conviction in his voice, but it was laced with fear and confusion.”

Scrubbing my hands over my drenched face, I slowly straightened, absorbing what my brother said. “Are you sure it isn’t true, that someone wasn’t there? Maybe someone who looks like you?”

Makeup, done right, was a powerful talent. How many times had I used it to change the shape of my face to disguise myself?

Ryan frowned at me like he thought I was the one who’d lost their mind. Which was fair, but also not the point at the moment. “How would they have gotten inside the compound, let alone the house, without anyone except Pop seeing them, Samara?”

“Tell me you don’t have a contact inside Kovak’s syndicate,” I dared. “Or any other family’s operations.”

Clenching his jaw, he looked away, unable to lie but unwilling to speak the truth aloud.

“How many of our enemies have eyes on us from within?” I asked, brows raised. “How many of our supposed allies? We have traitors right beside us every day. The only way to stay alive is to never trust anyone completely. Papa may have been having hallucinations, but would he really think Kovak was after me on his own? Really? That limp-dick motherfucker couldn’t find his way out of a cardboard box without someone holding his hand. Kovak might be an enemy, but he doesn’t even make the top ten list.”

While Ryan chewed that over, I turned my back on him. Meeting Mom’s gaze, I saw that we were already on the same page. She and Ryan might be able to have full conversations with a look, but I could read body language better than blueprints. My mom might not be the easiest person to get a good vibe on, but she was the one who’d taught me how to search for and find a person’s tell.

And then use it against them.

“Who called in the favor for Budapest?”

“Budapest?” Ryan grumbled, but neither Mom nor I looked at him. We hadn’t talked about my trip in detail yet. Mostly, she’d bitched at me for what had gone wrong. Getting shot was my own fault. I should have paid more attention. Staying still while out in the open, even in a crowd, was a recipe for getting yourself killed. Her usual criticism for any so-called favor I helped her with. “Samara, Pop has been having hallucinations, and now you’re going all random about the capital of Hungary?”

Ignoring him, I wrapped my arms around my middle and waited, refusing to break eye contact with my mother. For nearly a full, tension-filled minute, we had a stare-off. With a huff, she scrubbed her hands over her face in agitation.

“Their code name was Quail. I owed them a favor from another lifetime. Before I even met your father.” She pressed her lips into a hard line. “I didn’t know until afterward that they’d traded the favor.”

“The extraction went smoothly,” I reminded her. “I didn’t make a single mistake. No one died. The kid got back to his mother without a scratch on him.”

My leg throbbed just thinking about what had followed. I felt sweat slide down my back at the remembered adrenaline, the tickle of fear that I wouldn’t make it back. Wouldn’t see Elias. Wouldn’t get a taste of the happiness I’d always envisioned experiencing with him.

“I know,” Mom said with another huff. “You did an amazing job.”

“Yet you still blamed me for what happened outside of the Parliament Building.” Her praise didn’t even register. Because her words might say one thing, but how she said them meant something completely different. “Even after promising you wouldn’t interfere if I fulfilled your stupid favor, you wouldn’t leave me alone. Since things didn’t end as seamlessly as you wanted, you didn’t have to uphold your part of the deal.”

“I was hearing chatter,” she said with a shrug.

My humorless laugh filled the room. “With you, that could mean anything. I didn’t take it seriously.”

“Hello.” Ryan waved his hands at us. “Can one of you maybe back up and explain to me what you’re talking about? Budapest. Extraction. Chatter. All of it.”

When Mom kept her mouth closed, I snorted. “Right. Still won’t let him in on your not-so-secret secret. Don’t you think he can handle it, Mom?”

“Samara, stop baiting her and talk to me,” he commanded.

Rolling my eyes, I turned to face my brother. “Back in January, someone called in a favor Mom owed. A political figure whose illegitimate offspring was taken and being held for ransom. There was a deadline. I took care of it. Mother and child were reunited on a crowded street in Budapest. Right outside of the Parliament Building.” I felt a chill go through me as the memories of what followed flashed through my mind. “I watched them get in a car and drive away.”

His face blanked. “By taking care of it, you mean…?”

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