I don’t mention the fact Sarah—Or AJ, or whatever—also covered our asses by plastering her face all over airport cameras and drawing the feds off, even though they still haven’t found her.
“You should look into Eve more. He could have really tortured the fuck out of her, but instead, he kept her hydrated and never physically assaulted her in any way. Little suspicious,” Snake goes on, glaring over at me.
My fists clench, and Drake rolls in front of me, putting himself and his wheelchair between us like he’s a buffer we can’t just step around.
“I get that you’re pissed, Snake, but watch what you fucking say about Eve. And don’t downplay the shit she just endured. We can trust her,” I say calmly, silently reminding myself he’s in hell right now.
He cuts his eyes away before pushing away from the wall he’s on and shaking his head. “No. We can’t fucking trust anyone.”
He walks out, leaving us all behind as he goes to stew and steam a little more.
“Sarah really fucked his head up. He used to be the nice one,” Drake sighs, then spins his chair around to face the group again. “We should bring Eve in on this. She’s fucking brilliant and she should see the names you’ve compiled.”
I shake my head, and he starts to argue, when Rush picks up a piece of paper and hands it to me. Only it has nothing to do with the problem at hand. My throat tightens when I see the picture attached the page, and I slowly take a seat.
“You found her,” I say quietly.
“Yeah. Herrin would kill for this info. I’m trusting you with it. What do you want me to do? Approach her or leave her alone?”
Pop would kill her if he ever got his hands on her.
“Leave her alone. I just wanted to know she was safe,” I say on a heavy exhale. “Well, check out the details of her life and make sure she’s not in any sort of trouble, then leave her alone if all is good. But wait until we have our shit sorted out and know what we’re dealing with.”
He nods, but I can tell he doesn’t want to wait. When his gaze lingers on the picture, I tense. Some shit never really made sense… But now? Now I think I understand.
“Can we get back to the feds and the Hell Breathers who want us dead now? Or are we going to continue staring at some girl? Who is she?”
“No one,” everyone says in unison to Drake’s question.
“Yeah,” he snorts. “You guys are real subtle. Fine. Whatever. Back to business.”
After four hours, we come up with… not a fucking thing. By the time we leave the meeting room, I’m exhausted and cranky. Snake never returned, which means he’s off getting drunk or fucking someone up. He’s going to end up putting more people in the hospital than me. Not that the ones he’s finding don’t deserve it, but still. He’s a loose cannon and a problem waiting to happen.
All because of a girl.
One fucking girl.
The second I walk into my room, I’m reminded why Snake is all kinds of fucked up.
Eve is smiling from the bed as she closes a laptop, and I watch as she sits back on the pillows. Her smile slowly falls when she takes in my expression.
“Do I want to know what’s wrong?” she asks.
“Any chance you’re a secret assassin on the run from a mob father?” I ask her.
Her eyebrows go up, because we’ve not yet told her about Sarah. Yeah… Not an easy conversation to have. And she didn’t overhear it the day all hell broke loose. Fortunately.
“I watched the Godfather once, but that’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to the mob. No assassin skills either.”
The only reason Sarah would have kept that a secret from Snake was because she was doing something shady. I’ve told Eve shit I never thought I’d tell anyone.
Maybe Snake was right… Maybe Sarah is the one we should be looking harder at.
“Why are you asking me something so random? Don’t tell me I’m already back under a microscope?” Eve groans, drawing me back out of my own head.
When I look up to see the worry creasing her forehead, I force a smooth grin and wink at her.
“The only thing you’re going to be under is me, baby. No worries,” I say coolly, moving toward the bed.
She bites down on her bottom lip as I slide in beside her, and she throws a leg casually over my waist.
“Not tonight. I need a minute to heal, since we didn’t stop until early this morning.” She smirks like she’s toying with me, but I half believe she might really need recovery time.
“What were you doing?” I ask her, pointing at the laptop.
She tenses, and that immediately has my eyebrows raising.