“I’m sure Savage will tell us how cute we are,” Pri comments, pulling on a pair of lace-up ankle boots.
“I’m sure he will,” I agree, “but Savage can kiss my ass.”
She laughs. “Careful with that offer. He might just do it.”
“Thems fighting words,” I joke, as a knock sounds on the door. “And that will be the team,” I say.
Pri motions to her wet hair. “I won’t blend in like this on a winter day.”
“Finish up,” I say, kissing her. “Just come on out when you’re ready.”
With that, I leave Pri in the bathroom and shut the bedroom door. For a moment, I just stand there, in no rush to answer the door. My place or the safe house? I decide on the safe house for one reason: Pri is going to hate me for what I’m about to suggest. I don’t want her to feel trapped in my territory.
Decision made, the knocking has started again, and I head for the door, checking the peephole before opening up. Blake is the first inside the room, with Savage and Adam following. Savage is holding a coat in his hands. “Candace sent this for Pri.” He sets it on a chair.
Blake indicates bags in his hands. “Donuts.”
Adam sets two trays of Starbucks coffee on the table. “Caffeine,” he says, indicating one tray to add, “White mocha,” then the other, “Cinnamon dolce.”
Since I didn’t exactly sleep last night, at least not well, I grab a white mocha and sip. “What’s new, if anything?” I ask, sitting on the arm of a chair while Savage grabs a coffee and sits down across from me.
“Not much,” Adam says, grabbing a cinnamon dolce himself, and plopping down on the couch.
Savage opens the box of donuts and grabs an éclair. “Fuck yeah,” he says, and I don’t disagree, and neither does my stomach. I grab a glazed donut and take a bite.
“An accurate statement,” Blake says, ignoring the coffee to sit down next to Adam. “Both about the donuts,” he grabs a glazed himself, “and an update. All is quiet right now. Almost too fucking quiet, if you ask me.”
I’ve pretty much inhaled the donut and finish it off. “Logan called Pri. Something about protecting her more than she knows. I don’t know what that prick’s story is, but he’s trouble. And I don’t think her parents are being blackmailed. I think they’re willing participants.”
“Lucifer’s been up all night trying to identify the bald man,” Blake says, already on donut number two. “He’s got it in his head that if we find him, we find Deleon.”
“If we find him, I’m killing him,” I say, my gaze meeting Blake’s, “and feel free to fire me after, boss.”
Blake sips his coffee and Savage says, “Fuck yeah, you were right, boss. He’s staying.”
“Agreed,” Adam concurs. “He wants to stay. I just wonder if I can get him to call me boss?”
Savage grabs another donut. “Just call me daddy.” He wiggles his eyebrows and eyes the group. “This is an appetizer, right? We’re ordering breakfast when we get where we're going?”
“You had breakfast,” Adam reminds him and then adds, “And that daddy joke is weird, but then, what do I expect? You’re weird, Savage.”
I ignore them all. “Assume her parents are dirty,” I say.
“That statement sounds like—pretend she’s pretty,” Savage comments dryly. “When she’s not pretty.”
Sometimes I have no fucking clue what Savage is talking about. “I agree with Adam. You’re weird, Savage. I need to save her parents. If it’s possible, I need us to save them.”
“You can’t,” Savage says. “We can’t. You can’t save people who don’t want to be saved.”
“Now you have to make sense?” I challenge.
“I always make sense,” he says, dusting icing from his hands. “Save her. That’s who you need to save.”
“We’ll save them if we can,” Blake interjects, “but right now, Savage is right. We need to save Pri.” He looks between us all. “The question is how? She’s now a target. Waters has power from the inside. How do we do that?”
“The way I see it,” Adam says, setting his cup down, “Waters dies, which obviously isn’t an option or Pri leaves town and changes her name when this is all over. Preferably with her own personal bodyguard—you.”
Now, I set my cup down, hands on my thighs. “I don’t want her to have to give up her life.”
“Then you need to write us a story here with a happy ending,” Savage challenges. “And write it snap, crackle, and pop, as in right now.”
“All right,” I say. “She has to drop the case and then blame me for turning on her. She has to turn me into the enemy and do so publicly.”
“Drop the case? Are you kidding me?”
At the sound of Pri’s indignant voice, I turn to find her standing in the doorway, the pink of anger shading her cheeks. “I’m not dropping the case,” she assures me, “and if that means I have to leave the country, I’ll leave. I’m not sure there was ever another option, and on some level, I knew that. But I leave when Waters is in jail for the rest of his life and not a minute sooner.”