"Are you following us because of me, Little Tobes?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat at the low tone Bridge used with her. We’d been mates for more than half our lives, and I didn’t think I’d ever heard him address anyone else quite that way.
She laughed. "No, dipshit. Actually, I was scoping out a different bar when I remembered I’d put a GPS tracker on Ben."
Ben scowled and glanced down on himself quickly. "What? Where?"
She shrugged then took a stool between Drew and Ben. "I'm not inclined to expose my ways of tracking you boys down.”
Little Tobes was all grown up, and she was taking no fucking prisoners. I sighed. "Well then, fantastic, you found us. What is it that you think we're doing?"
"Don't play dumb. Just get on with it. How are you lot going to find Henry Warlow?"
Bridge just laughed. "You are tricky, aren't you?"
I had no choice but to give her a gaze that was all respect. She'd mentally deduced what we were up to, and she was resourceful. She made a good addition to the team whether Bridge wanted to accept it or not.
She looked at the bartender, signaled for a beer, and Bridge's scowl only furrowed further. "You're not supposed to be drinking."
"Relax, Dad, I've been of age for years now."
It was his turn to wince, but she had a point. He'd been treating her like she was thirteen. And she was a good deal old enough for this.
"So, where are we?"
Bridge just scowled down into his scotch. "Just go away, Emma."
"See, that's the joy in this. Just because you told me to go away doesn't mean I have to. Now, one of you can start talking, or I can start calling in the wives and fiancées and what not, and ask them why their men are having private talks without us."
I shook my head. "You wouldn't. I’m just starting to get on Nyla's good side again. She'd eviscerate me if she found out."
Emma grinned. And before Bridge could do anything about it, she took his drink from him and took a long sip.
Her gaze never left his, and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Watching the two of them eye-fuck was disconcerting to say the least. After all, this was Little Tobes. Emma. Toby's little sister. And it was Bridge, but every time we feared for Emma’s mental sanity, she gave as good as she got. So she could clearly take care of herself.
"Don't make me repeat myself. Where are we?"
Ben sighed. "Look, I'm telling Livy when we get home anyway. So you all better figure out a way to make things okay with your women, because otherwise, they're going to kill us."
Emma shrugged. "Yeah. Next time don't have secret meetings."
I sighed. Nyla was going to kill me. Hopefully, I could tell her before Emma did, or worse, Telly. Telly would rub it in and get Nyla even more riled.
Ben said, "Fine. Right now, we're trying to figure out how we prove that Jameson at the very least knew Warlow. And if he has any idea of where to find him or knows what happened to him, we need a way to get him to share that information."
Emma took another sip of Bridge’s drink. To her credit, she didn’t wince at the taste. “Do we have any new evidence?”
We all shook our heads and I said, "No, we have nothing concrete. All we know is that Henry Warlow disappeared after that regatta in the photograph in Jameson’s office."
"Okay, like how? Is there a record of him leaving school? Was there anything pointing at where he might have gone?"
"That's what we're going to research. I'm looking for any unsolved disappearances, John Doe murder cases, etc. to explain where he went. And we’re hoping that it will lead us back to Jameson." I took a sip of my beer. “I’m also trying to decrypt the information I got from Jameson’s vault. Hopefully we’ll get something out of it.”
Bridge tore his gaze away from Emma as she kept taking sips from his drink. Ben seemed to notice the two and gave me a smirk when Bridge wasn't looking. Ben had always hated Bridge’s fiancée, Mina, as much as I did, so Bridge's fascination with Emma was making him happy.
Ben said, "One of us needs to pay a visit to Van Linsted in prison and see if we can get him to say anything about Jameson.”
Bridge nodded. “I’ll do it.”
"Fine. East, keep looking for any information that might be useful.”
"If you'll excuse me gents, I need to get back to the penthouse. I think I—"
The hairs at the back of my neck stood at attention. Suddenly my skin was too tight and my body felt as if it were being pulled by a magnet. I turned to find the source and saw Nyla, dressed in slim-fitting leggings and a sweater I had helped her put on before leaving. She’d paired it with a long woolen coat and thigh-high boots. I nearly swallowed my tongue.
A man opened the door for her as she approached, and she stepped right in. Emma grinned and waved at her. "What, you didn't think I'd tell Nyla where you were? Please, it's not my first rodeo."
As she approached, Nyla gave me a wry grin. "What, that's not happiness to see me, is it?"
Chapter Three
East
Nyla’s tight, compact body vibrated with fury as I asked, "So, on a scale from one to I'm well and truly fucked, how mad are you?"
I'd pulled her toward the backroom, where the private parties were usually held. We'd had Ben's birthday here not too long ago, so I knew there weren't usually customers in the back hall. She whirled on me before I could pull her into the room and said, "What, so ‘how mad are you’ is all you have to say?"
I was worried about her arm. "Nyla, be careful."
That only poured gasoline on her anger. "Stop it. Don't you dare tell me to be careful and act like you care about me. You kept this from me."
She had a solid point. I had kept the meeting from her because I didn't want her to worry. She'd gotten hurt being a part of this, so I needed to keep her safe.
You are the one who hurt her.
"Look, I should have told you, but I've been more worried about your recovery."
"My recovery?" She jabbed me in the pectoral. It didn't hurt, but I made it a point to wince to give her the idea that she was actually doing something. “I could kill you.”
"I know you're mad. Take it out on me. The lads had nothing to do with it. And Emma, obviously... Well, she called you."
"And you know why she did that. We were the unwanted additions to the team, so we formed a little bond. God, I thought I could trust you."
"Ny, you know you can trust me."
She whirled on me again and jabbed me in the other pec. "Don't you dare call me Ny."
I sighed and reached for her. "I'm sorry. This wasn’t meant to hurt you; this was meant to keep you safe."
She threw her arms up, blinking rapidly before wincing. "How many times do I have to fucking tell you I can take care of myself?"
"Until you are no longer in the path of people who want to kill you."
She shook me off. "The only one who has ever tried to kill me here is you."