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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 
OceanofPDF.com
FIVE MONTHS LATER
BENTLEY
“Team, let’s go,” Marcus shouts as he rushes past me and “alerts” me of the rushing part by smacking the side of my head.
“Marcus, causing our coworkers brain damage doesn’t help them work faster,” Finn says as he gives my recently smacked head a gentle rub, like he can rub the damage away.
“He should have read my mind. Instead, he’s sitting there looking at emails,” Marcus grumbles as I get up to trail after him.
“Ooh! Where are we going?” Claude asks, even though he is most definitely not a detective. Ever since he started dating Alexei, he apparently thinks he works here. Alexei says he hates it, but the way he lights up (as much as Alexei can light up) tells me otherwise.
“At least you’re not abusing me,” Briar says as we head out to the transportation vehicle. It’s made for five people, but Claude is bound and determined to be the sixth as everyone takes a seat.
“Alexei, let me sit on your lap,” Claude says as he climbs in. The moment he’s in, the car takes off and he falls into all of our laps. Even though Finn is the smallest of us, he gets the roomy front seat as the four of us have to cram into the back while Claude crushes my nuts with his hand.
“Whoops. Alexei, I accidentally fondled Bentley, what should I do?” Claude asks. Although no one else calls me by my first name much, he now seems to think he’s on a first-name basis with everyone in the group.
“Maybe go home?” Alexei says. “You’re not sitting on my lap. Climb in the far back.”
Claude looks at me. “Since we already made it to third base, how about a bit of lap time?” he asks as he climbs onto my lap without waiting for permission.
“Claude, who invited you?” Marcus asks.
Claude shrugs as he blocks my view since the man is almost as tall as me. “I don’t even know what I’ve been invited to do. Instead of taking time to explain to everyone what’s going on, you just abused them then ran out the door,” he says as I notice Alexei glaring at me, like I have invited this peacock of a man onto my lap.
“That’s true. Marcus, you need to tell them what’s going on before we arrive and we’re all standing there confused,” Finn says.
Marcus sighs, as though this isn’t part of his job. “There’s a vampire attacking people at the mall. When we get there, Claude and Karsyn, I want you two to head to the far entrance in case he runs. DeGray and Briar, take the side entrance and Finn and I will head in from the front. Any questions?”
“Do we know anything about the attacker?” Briar asks.
“Male… that’s it. The report was extremely vague,” Marcus says.
He swings around the back of the mall where Claude and Alexei jump out, then heads to the front. It’s hard with people fleeing, so when Marcus ends up stopping halfway to let Briar and me out, he and Finn also get out.
“Briar and I will take the front since we can run faster,” I say.
“You think Cheetah Legs isn’t very fast?” Finn asks, like he could possibly outrun a vampire.
“Good. Not Cheetah Legs and I will take the side. Be careful,” Marcus says.
Briar and I have to weave through bodies of panicked people to get to the front. Someone probably triggered an alarm, but the panic of the crowd is doing nothing but creating pure chaos.
Inside the building, Briar takes the right and I take the left, looking into each store as we carefully move along.
It’s hard when we don’t have time to thoroughly check each store. We’re just rushing through in case the vampire has a human down somewhere and we can stop them before they kill someone. A woman runs up to us and points at a jewelry store. “He’s in there! Hurry!”
I rush forward as I use my transceiver to call out to the others. “We have a woman claiming he’s in a jewelry shop. We’re moving toward it to verify.”
“Understood,” Marcus says.
We slow to a walk as we near it. I hear glass break a moment before the vampire lunges out from behind the counter and tackles Briar straight to the ground. He tears into her throat a moment before I pull him free from her. He whirls on me and tries attacking me, but he’s weak and I manage to shove him down to the ground.
“Briar, are you alright?” I ask as I keep him down.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she says as she rushes up to me to see that I have him pinned on his stomach. I hold his arms down as she nods toward the shop. “I’m going to see if he had a victim back there.”
“Thank you.”
The vampire’s snarling and growling like a wild animal and I find that his arms feel brittle. When I roll him onto his back, I’m taken aback by the way he looks. Skin is morbidly stretched across his bones, cheeks gaunt and hollowed. He snarls and snaps, and that’s when I piece together the features enough to realize that I know this face.
“Corbyn?” I ask.
There’s a minor hesitation where his eyes meet mine until Finn steps onto the scene and Corbyn’s eyes lock on to him. He starts thrashing and growling, teeth snapping as he fights to get to him—the only human within sight.
“What the hell?” Finn asks. “Is that Grant? Isn’t he the man who went missing over five months ago?”
“How interesting,” Claude says as he walks in. “I take it the past isn’t wanting to stay quiet anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Marcus asks, but Claude doesn’t say anything.
“Let’s get an ambulance called—” Finn starts.
“Wait,” I say, cutting him off.
They look at me as I keep the man pinned down. I glance between Alexei and Claude, the two who know my secret. I wonder if they’ve told each other.
But I can’t keep this from them any longer. “Someone obviously did this to him and they’ll probably want him dead if they find out he’s free, so we need to keep him someplace secure.”
“The VRC can handle it,” Marcus assures me as he reaches for Corbyn.
“No,” I say.
“What do you mean no?” Marcus asks, hackles immediately rising.
“For…” Fuck. “For months I’ve been dealing with this fucking case alone.”
“What case?” Marcus asks.
“The Huang Case. This is connected. It’s all connected to the underground blood market they have going on. This man knows about it, and when I started looking into him and pinpointing stuff he’d done, he was taken. There’s someone either in the VRC or the state law enforcement that is part of it and is hiding things. Just like blaming Tabitha Herald for the case. They knew I was looking into it as well, and they tried to kill me.”
“When?” Finn asks in shock.
“A few months ago,” Alexei says. “I… was called and I arrived after they were gone where I found him horribly torn up. They clearly mean business.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Finn asks, looking a bit hurt.
I sigh, because I know I should have trusted him, but it became so tricky. “Because I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t… they’re targeting River too.”
“River?” Marcus asks.
“That guy who came in for questioning, right? The one who we speculated was the person who killed Huang,” Finn says.
“I don’t want to do this now. I don’t know who is listening or from where. I don’t know who to trust. I just know that if we hand Corbyn over, they’ll kill him. And I’ve tried for months to quietly figure out what’s going on, but everything is locked down so fucking tightly I can’t get anything out of them. The only way we’re going to get information is from Corbyn.”
“Corbyn? You mean Grant?” Briar asks.
“His real name is Corbyn Handler. He was probably taken and starved by the vampire who turned him,” Claude says.
Alexei turns his narrowed eyes on Claude. “Hold up. You knew about this too?”
“It was before we were together. But I agree with Bentley. Someone big is pulling the strings, and if we’re not careful, we’re all going to end up dead.”
And I couldn’t let that happen. “I’ve already had multiple warnings. The first was my suspension and the second was them trying to kill me and River. The third time, I know they will kill me, River, or River’s family. I hate pulling any of you in on this.”
“So who do we trust Corbyn with?” Marcus asks.
“The human department,” Finn decides. “Deputy Chief Burns would help us out. If this is all true, there’d be no one from the human department involved. We’ll tell them they can’t let any vampires see him besides Marcus. They’ll keep him safe. And then, DeGray, we’re going to have a nice long talk where you explain in what world you thought you couldn’t trust us with all of this.”
Finn steps away to call the department he used to work with as Briar heads over to the food court and returns with blood that she holds up to Corbyn’s lips. He groans as he drinks. Hopefully, it’ll make him a bit more compliant and less likely to try to eat the humans who will be coming to help.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER THIRTY 
RIVER
“What are we doing?” I ask as Bentley zips me up tightly and then covers me in three blankets before stuffing me into the car.
“Trying not to let you burn.”
“Yes. I got that much, but where are we going? We rarely go anywhere, and I can tell something’s wrong.”
“I promise everything is fine,” he says as he starts driving. I can’t see anything from under my blanket fort, so I just sigh and lean to the left until I feel his shoulder. He squeezes me against him as he quietly drives.
And when we arrive at wherever it is, he gets out of the vehicle and comes around to get me. I’m shuffled inside like some blanket-wearing monster since I’m young enough the sun is most definitely not my friend.
Once I’m pulled into a room, I can hear multiple other people, which confuses me greatly until Bentley pulls the blanket off and I look around.
“What the hell have you done?” the scary vampire asks.
Bentley stands tall as I question if the scary one is going to eat us. “I don’t care who finds out. I don’t care if I lose my badge. I don’t care if I go to prison for manslaughter. I need your help to finish this. River was one of the humans taken and thrown into this underground human trafficking ring and we need to stop it. Right now, that’s most important and then you guys can toss me to the wolves.”
There’s silence as the faces stare at me, two of which I don’t even recognize.
“It’s not his fault!” I blurt out. “I made him.”
Bentley shakes his head. “You were dying on an operating table; you didn’t make me do anything.”
I give him a very pointed look, but he has his stubborn face on. There’s a lot of silence as people stare at me and I stare back. Then Claude steps over to me and grabs me in a hug. “He was too cute to die.”
“You knew?” Marcus asks in disbelief.
“Alexei knew first!” Claude says, instantly throwing the blame onto Alexei who gives him a glare.
Finn throws his arms into the air. “And no one told me? What the hell, guys. You know I’m the nicest of the crew and least likely to care about anything and no one told me? I… I… thought you guys loved me the most, and here you were keeping secrets from me. I get keeping secrets from Marcus, I mean, look at him.”
Marcus folds his arms over his chest, and I stare at the human while wondering if he just wants to be eaten. He has to, right?
“Please, I don’t want Bentley in trouble over this. Please?” I ask, not quite sure who I should be begging but Marcus seems the scariest, so I aim my plea toward him.
He sighs and turns to look at one of the others.
The man steps forward and holds a hand out to me, which I shake. “I’m Brooks, deputy chief of the VRC. I know we met earlier, but I don’t think I introduced myself to you,” he says, which makes me look at Bentley in horror. Did he have to ask him too? It’s like he’s loving the risks. “Let’s all sit down and start from the beginning.”
“This is Briar who you might have met, and this is my father, Orin,” Finn says as he waves at them.
So with Bentley’s encouragement, I start from the beginning and tell them everything I know. Bentley and Claude jump in throughout it and before long, the whole group kicks into high gear as they begin to share thoughts and ideas.
“We basically can’t let it get back to anyone in the VRC or anywhere else,” Brooks says.
“We have power in numbers, so if we keep Bentley and River with me, I can protect them,” Marcus says.
“I’ll help,” Claude offers.
“Yeah… sure,” Alexei says.
It makes me happy to know that they’d be willing to protect me, but I can’t stop thinking about what I want to protect. “But what about my family? Wouldn’t they just target them? I mean… if they did, they’d draw me right out. I can’t let something happen to them because of me.”
“We can get them out of their home and into protection. We’ll keep their location under wraps,” Finn assures me.
“Okay. Will they know why?” I ask.
“You and DeGray could speak to them along with the crew that’s going to be taking care of them,” Brooks says.
My stomach tightens at the thought. “But… they think I’m dead.”
“Are you not planning on telling them you’re alive?” Finn asks. “Wasn’t the fear of your upcoming death the reason you didn’t tell them? You have nothing to hold you back now.”
I nod, but I’m also afraid of what I’ll say to them.
Brooks waves his phone. “I have confirmation that we can go speak to Corbyn once they have things set. It’ll probably be morning before we can. You guys will do that as a team. I’ll get something figured out for River’s family. River, if you want to speak to them, do it now and then get ready to go with the others to speak with Corbyn.”
“Me too?” I ask.
“We already know that Corbyn is more truthful with you. If you don’t mind seeing him, it’d be best if you could go,” Bentley says. “No one at that department is going to realize right away that you’re an illegal vampire, especially when you’re with us.”
I nod. “Okay. Let’s do this. I want to put an end to this.”
“I just wish you guys would have told me,” Finn says again. “I would have done everything I could to have helped you. But I get why you kept it to yourselves. Next time, just know I’m here to help you. And that goes with any of you assholes.”
“Stop threatening people,” Finn’s father, Orin, says. “Remember when I said that’s not how you make friends?”
Finn looks up at his father while waving at Marcus. “Marcus loves me threatening him.”
“It’s very cute,” Marcus says.
“See?” Finn says before rushing up next to me. He goes to grab me but before he can, Bentley squeezes between us.
“Let’s not tempt the baby vampire with your blood.”
“I’m not scared. I’m like lightning,” he says as he grabs Bentley in a headlock. “And if I need to be saved, watch. Marc—”
Bentley is already shoved off before Finn can even finish saying his name.
“See? Instant hero. Sometimes, I’m pretty sure he just likes to show off. I’ll give you guys a call when we’re set to meet with Corbyn,” Finn says. “I do have one question. When I asked Alexei about you, DeGray, he said you’d been dating someone for three years, but you guys haven’t been together that long.”
Alexei shrugs. “I guess I didn’t want you questioning DeGray and finding out anything. And I wanted you to back off.”
Finn snorts. “Me? Back off? Never!”
“Exactly,” Alexei says, then I’m bound up in blankets again before being taken outside.
      
The moment Bentley shuts the car off, I pull the seat back and lay it as flat as I can and hide under the blankets he’d been using to hide my body. It’s dark out, so hiding isn’t needed, but I’m sure it’ll save me somehow.
“Um… I’m… a bit confused on what is happening,” Bentley says.
“I’m cocooning… becoming a butterfly. Batfly, I mean. So I can just like flutter around and be like, look at me! I’m a bat! Please pretend I didn’t ruin your lives!”
Bentley uncovers me and looks down into my eyes. “You didn’t ruin lives, Corbyn did. You had no control at all over what they did, understand?”
“Maybe… no… yes… nope.”
“Your family is going to be so excited to see you.”
I start breathing heavily as Bentley stares at me.
“You’re a vampire. Vampires don’t hyperventilate.”
“This one does,” I say as I pant. “What if they’re like ‘Ew, vampire, gross, disgusting’?”
Bentley raises an eyebrow. “Um… if your family is as amazing as you always tell me they are, they won’t.”
“Do I just walk up? Do I run up? Do I jump out of a box? What the fuck do I—”
BAM.
I leap out of my seat and scream, which is clearly quite vampire-like of me. Bentley seems to not have much concern as the door is torn open and I’m forcefully ripped out of the vehicle—or I would have been if my seat belt didn’t suck me back in.
“Oh my god, oh my fucking god,” Clay says as he practically climbs on top of me. He pulls back and starts patting my face. “River? River? You’re River? I’m not like petting some random person, right? Oh my god, River.”
At the sight of my brother, I forget all about that other nonsense and just grab onto him and probably crush his ribs a bit in the process because I feel like I have to squeeze him and hold him to me.
“What the fuck is going on?” Clay asks. “River? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“I-I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry. I… fucking missed you,” I cry.
“Do Mom and Dad know? What the hell is going on?”
“I can explain everything—” But I’m not quite sure how.
Clay grabs me and heaves me out from under the seat belt and just starts dragging me off toward the house. Mom must have seen something going on because she’s standing in the doorway looking at us in confusion before running toward us screaming something.
“You guys are going to get hit by a car! Get off the road!” Bentley says as he urges us away from our family reunion in the middle of the street.
“River?” Mom asks as she tears Clay off me to look at me. Then she just starts sobbing and then Clay is sobbing and then there’s Dad, and then I’m sobbing and Bentley is doing everything he can to just get us off the road.
“River, is it really you? Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?” Mom asks.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, River. Don’t apologize,” Bentley says.
Mom looks over at Bentley. “Mesh Man?” she asks in confusion. “What the hell is going on? Oh my god, River…”
“You guys can’t tell anyone I’m alive,” I say.
Mom finally looks at me and appears shocked. “You’re a vampire.”
“Are you cured?” Dad asks, like the vampire thing wasn’t of concern. “Is the tumor gone?”
“How are you alive?”
“Did Mesh Man turn you?”
“Why did they tell us you died?”
“Where have you been—”
Bentley puts his hands up. “Hold on. Let’s go in the house away from people who can see us and just talk this over.” He ushers us inside. Before I can sit anywhere, Mom, Dad, and Clay all clamber onto the couch where they pin me down between them, squeezing me from every direction as Amara sees me and lets out a cry and then jumps into the mix.
“You were with him the last time, weren’t you?” Mom asks Bentley, then turns to me. “That’s why Amara was so upset. She paced the house all night long and kept whining for you. Why didn’t you say something to me?”
I wanted to. She’ll never understand how much I wanted to. “Because I was still dying. You guys… you guys had already gone through me dying once; I didn’t want to put you through that again if I was just going to die in a month or whatever.”
Mom pins me with her gaze, her dark eyes staring into mine. “I don’t care how many times I had to go through it. If it meant even one more minute with you, I would’ve gone through it again and again.”
My eyes start watering again as I shake my head. “I’m sorry… I just couldn’t do it to you.”
Mom grabs my face, which is hard when there are so many body parts and dog parts surrounding me. “It doesn’t matter what happens, you can always come back to us,” she says. “Please tell us everything.”
So I do with Bentley’s help. For some reason, it’s harder telling them than anyone else I’ve told. I would think I’d be used to the story by now but seeing my family’s devastated faces makes it so much worse. I don’t tell them about Huang, though. I don’t want them to feel like it’s their fault I killed a man. I just wanted to keep them safe.
“So I know this isn’t ideal, but there’s a man who is going to be taking all three of you someplace safe. They’ll deal with your workplaces and it’ll just be for a little bit, until this is finished,” I explain when I’m finally done with the whole story.
“And you’re going with us,” Mom says. It’s not a question.
“No, Mom, I have to stop this. I have to end it. I can’t let this rule my life. I know I don’t ever want to leave your sight again either… but I have to.”
“No, someone else can handle it. You need to be with me. You’re not leaving ever again.”
“I’ll never be safe again if we don’t end this. So please, Mom, just don’t make this harder on me. I know it sucks, but it’s what has to happen,” I say, never wanting to leave this couch but knowing I have to.
“We’ll talk about it,” she decides, which is something she says when she doesn’t plan on talking about anything, but she’s not going to get much of a choice. Especially after we ship my family off with some protective services program.
“We need to wrap up things shortly and get them out of harm’s way until we figure something else out,” Bentley says.
“Okay,” I say as I hug them all again.
“No, you need to stay with us,” Dad says anxiously. “There’s no option here.”
I squeeze his hand. “I can’t go with you guys. But as soon as this is over, we can see each other as much as we want. I’ve been really good at not eating people.”
Dad gives me a narrow-eyed look. “You have no choice but to go with us.”
“I can run faster than you now,” I say.
“You could before too,” he says as he folds his arms over his chest. “Doesn’t mean you don’t have to listen.”
“I know, but you guys have to trust me this time. Please.”
I’m still not sure they trust me but when protective services come to take them away, I watch them go despite how hard it is. Why is it so fucking hard when I know they’re going someplace safe?
Bentley squeezes me tightly. “It’ll be okay.”
“Thank you.” I lean into him and give him a kiss before heading out to the car because we have shit to do.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE 
RIVER
Sitting across from this Corbyn is strange. He’s ghastly looking as he stares longingly at Finn. He’s at least been fed enough that Bentley says he looks better than he did. I can’t imagine what he looked like before if this is better.
“Corbyn, I know you want to get back at them for doing what they did to you. For doing so many horrible things to you. So why don’t we work together and end them?” I plead with him.
He nods slowly. “Yes… fine. Fine. End it,” he says, and I think we’re all surprised by the immediate agreement.
“Why did you refuse to before?” I ask curiously.
“I wanted a human to ruin their lives. They think humans are so weak and they have no fear of them, so they take from humans and they destroy. I wanted to mold you into the perfect human to ruin their lives. I wanted them to see that a human was something to fear because he kept me for years and thought I was nothing more than a toy for him to play with.”
“Who did?” Bentley asks.
“Bowman.”
“The chief of police?” Finn asks in surprise.
“God, you look delicious,” he says as he holds a bottle of blood before him. He takes a sip while just staring at Finn.
“Bowman, the chief of police?” Finn repeats.
“Yes, yes. That one. He’s the one who bought me. He keeps the other vampires safe who are involved in this while he does his best to destroy me. He killed my wife, he molded me into this fucking… monster, and when he thought he broke me enough or got sick of me or some bullshit, he changed me into a vampire because he thought he could use me to bring more people into his sick fucking game. Between him and Governor White, they have the whole state locked down. They have control of all of it. You guys aren’t going to get anything but killed.” He laughs, but it’s a cold laugh. It’s the laugh of someone who’s just given up.
“What happened to you when you went missing?” Marcus asks.
“Oh, after Detective Dick over here started looking into me,” he says as he eyes Bentley while rocking in his chair. His hand movements are jerky, and he seems like something beyond a vampire. Something more dead or inhuman. “Bowman got word of what I was up to and grabbed me. He locked me up and he tortured me until I told him just enough to sate him. Then he would only feed me enough to keep me alive. I wanted to die. I wanted him to just kill me, but that’d be too nice for a man like him. Far too fucking nice. He had one of his ‘kids’ take care of me and I managed to get free. I don’t know where I was going, but the moment I smelled all those humans, I couldn’t control myself. This whole thing is a fucking joke. There’s a whole fucking group of them and they’re going to kill us and there ain’t a damn thing I or any of you can do. We’re all gonna die!”
“Not if we can stop them,” Bentley says. “Just give us something. Give us the location of the sale. Give us anything.”
“Oh, I can give you names, address, the whole fucking thing, but who are you going to go to that’ll believe you over them?” Corbyn asks.
“You were just one man, it’s no wonder why you didn’t think anyone would believe you, but we’re an essential part of the VRC,” Finn assures him. “We can go national level if we need to skip state. We’ll get documented proof.”
“You’re going to have a fucking hell of a time getting into the sale. It might help if you have a human to sell,” he says as his eyes shift over to Finn. “And you two,” he says as he points at Alexei and Marcus, “are fucking terrifying so they might like you two.”
“I’ll get in,” Marcus says, extremely certain.
Corbyn cackles some more and I’m almost positive he’s lost his mind.
“Why… if you went through so much. Why did you put me through all that?” I ask, and his smile immediately falls.
“I did what I was trained to do. I bought myself a little human like I was supposed to because if I didn’t do what they wanted, they’d make me. But when I realized what a little fighter you were, I started to imagine their fucking faces when I would sic you on them. And oh, their misery over a human killing them! Oh, how devastating for them!”
I’m not sure about his logic, but I guess when fear and the desperation to live begin to drive you, actions don’t always make sense. Doing as he had asked didn’t always make sense in my mind either, but I let the fear of him hurting my family rule me. Now that I know where he was in all of this, I know that he probably had no way of killing off my family if I’d killed him or gotten him arrested. It was all a mind game he threw me into.
But now, we were going to end this.
The moment Marcus pushes open the door to the outside world, he hesitates, and I see why. There are countless police cars—which wouldn’t be at all strange if they weren’t in arch formation. There’s what looks like half the vampire police force waiting just outside and I can’t tell if they’re with the VRC or a different department, since I don’t know any of them very well.
“Bentley DeGray, come out with your hands up,” one says toward the front.
Marcus sets a hand on Claude’s chest and pushes him into me. “Claude, take Finn and River and go. I’ll deal with this,” he says.
Finn hesitates but when Claude pulls him, he does his best to tuck his body against mine like he’s planning on hiding me. He ushers me back into the police department and hurries me toward the stairs. “This way.”
“Are they going to arrest Bentley because of me?” I ask as I hesitate. Claude grabs my wrist and starts dragging me after him, leaving me no chance to run back so I can tell them it’s not Bentley’s fault, it’s all mine. “Did they find out?”
“We don’t know at this point, but we need to get you away,” Finn says.
“Yes, but if I—”
Claude sets a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You need to think rationally, River. These people know we’ve put Corbyn somewhere they can’t reach him without the public eye. They’re pissed. They’re not just going to go, ‘Oh, you claim it’s your fault, let’s let everyone go and have a big party!’ If I had to guess, this has nothing to do with him changing you and everything to do with us getting closer to stopping their fucked-up trafficking.”
I nod, realizing that I was practically losing my mind and willing to jump out and turn myself in to keep Bentley safe. I just hate that I’m dragging him through all of this.
“In here,” Finn says as he hurriedly takes a left and pushes me along with him. Then he zips into a small room where he shuts the door. “We’ll take a moment and hide here. I’m going to call Orin to pick us up in case they’re watching our cars.”
“You’re not concerned about Marcus?” I ask.
He flips through his phone. “Of course I am, but they’re not going to make a big public deal of it like they’re doing and then hurt him. I’m surprised they’re going this far when they’re wanting to keep the whole ordeal as quiet as possible. I’m sure they have something stupid they’re going to try to claim they’re arresting DeGray for, and I’m sure Marcus is going to make a big enough fuss they’re going to arrest him too and Alexei will likely jump right into it as well.”
“Those two are very hot-headed when someone they care about is being targeted,” Claude says.
When Finn is finished with his father, he calls Brooks who sounds very displeased through the phone but assures Finn he’ll take care of it.
When Orin arrives, we sneak out the back, but there’s no sign of the cars or any of the others as Orin swings around front to see.
“We’ll just stay at my place,” Orin says, sounding far too excited. “Ah yes. My place is definitely best. River, do you need anything?”
“Can… Can I get my cat? In case they nose through the house or something?” I ask. “I also have my computer with a lot of stuff about them written on it.”
“Of course, of course,” Orin says as he heads toward it.