Page 36

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I’m glad I spotted you. I was actually about to call you with something I think you want to see.” Sarah glanced around the street as if searching out any spying eyes. “Come back with me to our spot and I’ll fill you in.”

I motioned for Sarah to lead the way before following her through the familiar alleys and twists and turns I’d learned in the time I spent with the Urchins. It seemed she’d added a fewextras in the years since I’d been with the Horsemen. That or she was extra paranoid about someone following us back to the rundown warehouse the Urchins called home.

Sarah didn’t relax until we were inside the building, her people standing guard by the doors. Raising her hand to signal me to wait, she cupped the other around her mouth.

“Yo, Twist! Get your ass down here!”

Footsteps pounded on the metal flooring above us, echoing through the warehouse as a boy who couldn’t have been older than fourteen appeared at the top of the steps. He held a stack of papers in his hand as he made his way down the steps, moving to join us. I ran my eyes over him again, noting how young he was.

“L, this is my Second, Twist. Twist, this is L.”

“Let me guess, your real name is Oliver.” I snorted.

“Yeah, so what of it?” His voice was deeper than I expected, causing me to take a closer look at him.

“Wait a minute. I know you… You tried to get into Temptat!on last year and caused a scene when our doorman confiscated your fake ID.”

Sarah snickered, a sly smile forming on her lips.

“I’m twenty-three asshole, and your man stole my fucking license. You owe me forty bucks. I still haven’t replaced the thing after that shit.”

“No way you’re twenty-three.” I shot back, causing Sarah to bust into a full belly laugh.

Twist looked between us with a scowl before thrusting the stack of papers toward me. “Fuck both of you. I’m a grown ass man, not a fucking child.”

“You do realize I’m a fucking Horseman and you just told me to fuck off, right? I could have your head for that.” I drawled, crossing my arms in front of my chest instead of taking the papers from him.

“Yeah, well double fuck you, man. Youstillowe me a license.” He shot back, handing off the stack to Sarah instead.

The kid had balls, and instead of pissing me off like it should have, I was impressed. “How about a job instead of a license, Twist?” I grinned, causing Sarah to punch me in the gut.

“He has a job already, Leighton. Now do you want this intel or not? I’m happy to send it to your man that put word out y’all were looking for anything suspicious around Theodore Abrams if you’d prefer.”

“Give it to me.” I replied, rubbing a hand over my abdomen where she’d hit me.

Sarah handed over the stack of pictures printed off on regular paper. I had half a mind to complain about the printing medium, but the photos were at least in color. Good ol’ Uncle Theo was meeting on a street corner with a shady-looking guy I didn’t recognize. There were several snapshots of him handing over something small to the guy, but I couldn’t determine what it was.

“How does this help me?” I asked Sarah, flipping through the pages again.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, moving to my side and jabbing her pointer at the shady guy in the picture. “That guy right there is working with the Russians. He’s not a made man by any means as far as we can tell, but he’s still on their payroll. Now, what mister prosecutor here is doing with a Russian mobster is anyone’s guess, but it sure is suspicious.”

My eyebrows shot up, nearly touching my hairline. I couldn’t help but wonder if this guy was connected to the same family my dearly departed parents had tried to marry me into. As far as I knew, the Russians didn’t have any other business in Sacona, let alone business that required a clandestine meeting with a prosecutor.

“Fuck, thatissuspicious.” I hissed through my teeth before glancing up at Sarah. “What do you want for this intel?”

“For you? Nothing. You may have moved on from the Urchins a long time ago, Leighton, but you’re still family and family looks out for each other.”

Chapter Twenty

Craig

“Bunny, we cleared your father when we started digging into everything.” I said, settling onto the couch and pulling Victoria along with me.

She thrust a handful of papers into my face, the rest spilling onto the floor from her lap. “I’m not his daughter, Craig. It explains so much.” She choked back a sob, swiping a hand across her face to clear the tears away. “He basically vanished on me after my mom died and after the Gala, when I thought… When you guys were the ones I thought… He didn’t put up any sort of fight to keep me safe from you. He just threatened to pull his donation from the center if I didn’t go along with you all as my bodyguards. Aside from a few voicemails immediately after my house blew up, I haven’t heard anything from him. What kind of father does that?”

I put my arm around her and tucked her into my side as carefully as possible. “We intimidated the hell out of him to get ourselves into position as your bodyguards. We’ve come far enough for both of us to admit we were all wrong about each other. I can’t tell you why he hasn’t tried finding you since the manor, Bunny, but I promise, he was clean when we checked him out. Nothing at all to indicate he’s behind the whole mess.”

I could see in her tear-filled eyes she wanted to argue the point, but Leighton stormed into the living room before she could utter a word.