“Will!” Banks yelled next.
I pulled back from my grandpa, his presence always a comfort. Always.
He was a constant. As reliable as the tide, and even if I doubted whatever I was doing, I never doubted him. He was always right.
“You were gone too long,” he told me.
“I know.” I let him go. “We have lots to talk about.”
He’d wanted me extracted from Blackchurch months ago, and again a month ago.
And again, a week ago.
I was his favorite. No offense, Misha.
He looked over his shoulder to the off-duty cops accompanying Martin. “Go home, gentlemen.”
They nodded, some casting a quick look to their boss, but they knew a senator’s protection trumped a police commissioner’s threat.
“You son of a bitch,” Evans growled as his officers drifted off, out of the park, only a coup
le of people remaining with the senator.
I looked over, seeing both Martin and Evans, the realization of how they’d been double-crossed playing in their eyes.
“Don’t trust anyone, right?” Grandpa teased Evans.
I tried to wipe the smirk off my face as I gazed at Michael’s father, but I couldn’t. “Seems my long-game was a little longer than yours, at least.”
He thought my grandpa had teamed up with him, sent me to Blackchurch to screw over Graymor Cristane, and inserted himself to help protect all their financial legacy, but he failed to realize that I was my grandfather’s legacy, and William Aaron Paine Grayson, Sr. would always choose family.
In truth, this plan of action had been set in motion long ago.
“What the hell is going on?” Michael charged up to us, eyeing my grandfather. “You knew? You knew about my father’s role in everything?”
“Will knew,” he replied.
I turned and looked at my friends, all of them staring at me with a mixture of fury, confusion, and unease.
I didn’t want to look at Emmy, but I did, facing my almost-wife with the truth that I’d hidden since the moment she arrived at Blackchurch.
“I sent me to Blackchurch,” I told her and then drifted my eyes around the group. “To make…friends. To see if I could find others just like us—sons needing a home and a fight to live for.”
Micah, Rory, and Aydin loomed in my periphery, and I had no idea where Taylor was. By the time I’d made it to the tunnels, all the cars were gone, and I realized Aydin or someone must’ve followed them through the tunnels, either with a railcar or on foot. I jumped back in my SUV and raced here.
“And it didn’t occur to you to let us in on the secret?” Winter charged. “We were worried.”
“We thought you were gone,” Damon added. “Maybe forever!”
I stared at all of them, knowing exactly what they were saying. I understood why they were mad. I would be, too.
But…
I dropped my eyes, the old doubts creeping back up. “I was afraid I would fail,” I said in a quiet voice.
I couldn’t commit to something, assuring all of them that I would succeed, when I knew it was entirely possible that I wouldn’t. It wouldn’t have shocked them. They would’ve expected me to fail.
And proving them right, I couldn’t handle. Recruiting Micah and Rory wasn’t the only hurdle at Blackchurch. I was also getting sober.