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I swallow the dryness that’s suddenly in my throat. I don’t want her to take this the wrong way, but she’s gone mad. “And you’re going to do it?”
“Who better than me?”
“I can think of a hundred people more suited than you to do that job.”
“Thanks,” she says dryly.
I look to the others for help. Leo, obviously, is down with the plan, so the only other person in the room with some sense is Alaric. I shoot him a pleading look. “I think…it’s a terrible plan,” he says, shrugging. “But it would get us answers sooner. Maybe.”
“Then why did we even go through the trouble of getting the stupid secrets?” I yell, getting to my feet and gesturing toward the counter where the journal lies.
Eden gets off her stool. “Ollie… We didn’t know some of the pieces of the puzzle until we heard from Keegan last night. We’ve been piecing this together little by little, and look what happened… It took too long, and now my father is dead, too.” Her eyes shine.
“We don’t know that it’s related,” I interject.
She stares at me like she can’t believe those words came out of my mouth. “I know you’re scared. I’m not exactly dancing on cloud nine about it either, but I want this done. The longer we stay in, the worse things could get.”
“Yeah, and bad things could happen if we poke the wrong bear, too.”
“Either way, we’re poking a bear.”
Leo sighs. “Any way we go about this is dangerous. None of these guys are going to let us off the hook easily. We may be able to come to a truce, but we have to make sure we have some pretty big leverage. With Cabot, we have his secret. With Forbes, we have considerably more…especially if Keegan helps us.”
Alaric perks up at that. “He’s on the outs now, but you know Leon wants nothing more than for his son to come back into the fold.”
“Exactly,” Leo says.
“And?”
“If Keegan has access to financials and business files, we could do a lot of damage.”
“That’sifKeegan will help us.”
Eden’s eyes go hard. “If his father had anything to do with Dee’s death, he’ll be on board. If he’s not, then he didn’t love her like he said he did.”
Images of throwing Eden over my shoulder and hiking it right to a private jet jump into my brain again. She’ll never go for it, though. She’s the most determined person I’ve ever met. “This is mental,” I say, plopping into my chair.
“You don’t have to help,” Eden reassures.
I give her a blank look. “Where you go, I go. If you’re going to waltz into Casa Forbes like you own the place, I’ll be by your side. Hell, I’ll even let you borrow my rope.”
“Zip ties are the new thing,” Leo offers. “Rope is too brittle.” Everyone peers over at him, and he shrugs. “Just saying. We don’t want to look like amateurs.”
“How much experience do you have with this?” I ask, narrowing my gaze at him.
His eyes darken. “I was my grandfather’s asset. How much experience do you think I have?”
Eden peers at all of us. “Listen, I want to make it clear that just because I—”
Alaric stands. “This is where you tell us we don’t have to be part of any of this. Save your breath. All of us are going to be right there with you, and if you want us to go after Forbes, let’s do it. What do we have to lose?”
“Only everything,” I mutter. But then I catch Eden’s stare, and I know that besides us, she’s already lost almost everything.
But she’s my whole world. She always has been. Moving forward with this plan is going against my mission to keep her safe.
Before she realized she had feelings for me, I took every scrap she would give me. Hell, I even took without her knowing. And now she just wants me to be okay with putting herself in jeopardy.
She walks forward. “Ollie, you are my best friend. My soulmate. I promise that after all of this is done, I will never, ever, ever put myself in jeopardy again. You can buy us a house and build a ten-foot wall with barbed wire and security in every corner. I’ll even drive a tank around if it means you won’t worry.” She swallows and stares at me for the longest time and damn her for doing it. “I’ll go to that island with you. Hell, I’ll even live there with you, but let me get my shot at Leon Forbes. I need to do this.”