A ripple of apprehension ran through me at that, and I licked my lips. "Danny, it's Hades," I said. "Have you heard anything about Chase Lockhart?"
"Speakerphone. Cool," she replied, "Lockhart... Wasn't he one of the scumbag traffickers you offed in the Timberwolf massacre?"
"Yeah, he was. Except he didn't stay dead." I didn't think there was anything to be lost in revealing that information. Chase wasn't going to any great lengths to maintain his Wenton Dibbs identity now that the curtain had been pulled back.
"Shit," Danny muttered, sounding distracted. "Sounds like you're in a world of trouble down there."
Zed huffed an annoyed sound. "Yeah, you could say that. I submitted a job request to the Guild this morning..."
"Don't hold your breath," she replied in a dry voice. "Like I said, someone is not happy with you guys." There were some voices in the background, then the line went dead.
A tense silence filled the air before Cass broke it with a long exhale. "Well, that can't be good."
"No shit," Zed snapped and threw a carrot at Cass's head. For a dead man, Cass had impressive reflexes. He caught the vegetable before it smacked him in the face and took a bite of it instead.
"This is about me, isn't it?" Lucas asked in a quiet, thoughtful voice. "Whatever my uncle was doing with the Guild... or whatever he had planned for me?"
I wanted to reassure him, to tell him this likely had more to do with Zed and me or with Chase and the war he was waging on the Timberwolves. But... the Guild had never involved themselves in gang politics before; why would they start now? At that thought, it was unsurprising we hadn't heard back on help to protect Seph. They might have viewed Chase and his sham company Locked Heart as a gang dispute and declined on that basis.
"Probably," Zed admitted before I could think of a nicer way to say it. "The arsenal under your house raises a whole heap of red flags. Hell, I'm still not one hundred percent convinced you're who you seem."
I groaned. "Don't fucking start with that shit again."
"He's got a point," Cass rumbled, side-eyeing Lucas. "What if Gumdrop is some kind of sleeper agent and one day a duck will quack and he'll murder us all?" This time all three of us looked to him in bafflement, and Cass just shrugged. "It's been a long week being fake dead," he admitted. "I watched a lot of Netflix."
A slightly hysterical laugh was bubbling up in my throat, so I swallowed a couple of times to hold it back before turning my attention to Lucas. "There's a good possibility it has to do with you, yes. But whatever it is, we can work it out. Obviously, your uncle tried to train you up as a kid, but I think your mom took you out of town to keep you safe."
"It'd be useful if she could give us some more information," Zed said, drumming his fingers on the tabletop.
Lucas screwed his nose up and shook his head. "Yeah, I don't think that's happening any time soon. Every time I see her she seems to have lost more of her lucidity. It's weird, like there's something else going on, but her doctors haven't found anything outside of her MS."
"I'll look into it," Cass muttered, turning his attention back to his food and ignoring the way Lucas stared at him.
"Look into what?" Zed snapped. "In case you forgot, you're officially dead. You can't freaking leave the house, or we'll have the entire Shadow Grove Reapers breathing down our necks."
Cass's tiny smirk was way too fucking smug. "Who better to fly under the radar than a ghost? Don't worry, Zeddy Bear, I won't get caught."
Zed spluttered, choking on the sip of beer he'd just taken and turning red in the face. Lucas just grinned so wide I thought he might burst out into laughter. And as for me? I didn't know what to fucking do with that. Cass had just given Zed the most ridiculous nickname in gangster history, worse than Gumdrop, and I had a psychic hint it was going to stick.
"I'll come with you to see her tomorrow," I told Lucas, deliberately sidestepping Zed's new nickname. "Maybe she'll be having a better day."
Lucas shrugged, looking dejected. "Yeah, maybe." Then he flashed me an appreciative smile. "Thank you."
Warm bubbles of emotion fizzed through my belly as our gazes connected, and I smiled back at him. It was impossible not to.
Zed's phone rang again, and he showed me the caller ID displaying Alexi's name on the screen.
"Take it," I told him, pushing back from the table.
Zed gave me a nod and answered the call as he moved away from the dining table to find out what Alexi was calling for. Cass tried to help me stack the dishes up, but I gave him a stern look and eyed his sling.
"You've done enough tonight," I scolded. "Go watch a movie or something. Just chill and let that shoulder heal." His eyes narrowed and his lips parted as if to argue back, but I hardened my glare. "That's an order, Cassiel. Don't test me."
"Better do what she says," Lucas offered, stacking up dirty plates and carrying them into the kitchen. "You wouldn't want to get shot again."
Cass scowled in Lucas's direction but reluctantly did as he was told. I picked up more of the dishes from the table and took them through to where Lucas was already rinsing and stacking plates in the dishwasher.
"I've got this," he told me when I tried to help. "Zed will probably have business shit to discuss when he gets off the phone anyway."
I wrinkled my nose, not really even wanting to know why Alexi had called. When Cass had proposed the idea of faking his death to free himself from the Reapers, I hadn't even given it a second thought. I got it. Sometimes I wished I could kill off Hades, too.
"Hey." I tucked my arms around Lucas's waist and rested my cheek against his back. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you with the details."
Lucas didn't respond immediately, his shoulders bunching as he gripped the side of the counter. Then he exhaled heavily and turned around to hug me back.
"I get it," he said against my hair. "I don't like it, but I get it. You've got no real reason to trust me, not with something as serious as all of that."
I pulled back, wanting to disagree, but he silenced me with a gentle kiss.
"Not yet, anyway," he amended. "But one day you will. In the meantime, I'm not going anywhere." Then his gaze turned sheepish. "If that's okay?"
Flashing him a reassuring smile, I reached up and pulled his face to mine for a lingering kiss that filled me with those effervescent bubbles of happiness that he always created. "More than okay," I told him in a whisper as we broke apart, breathing heavily. "Want to leave this mess for later?" My intent was clear as I pressed my body into his and nipped his lower lip with my teeth.
Lucas groaned, then shook his head. "So fucking tempting, Hayden. But I actually have a stack of assignments to do for school. I'm, uh, I'm a bit behind. If I don't catch up soon..." He trailed off with a grimace.
A flash of guilt stabbed through me. Lucas should be completing his senior year at Shadow Prep and preparing to go to university, not learning how to fight and surviving a nearly fatal stabbing at the hands of his older lover's ex-fiancé.