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“Jamie, if you want to talk to them, then let’s do it.”

Take Nix along?

“Hell, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.” Leo shakes his head. “I’ll go with you.”

“Grayson needs that MRI tomorrow, and then I’ve got to do five minutes of research at the library. That means Nix is with us,” Finn offers.

Lauren had come through and got them into the small Were hospital attached to the university.

“Okay, I’ll stay here,” Luca says when no one asks, and he slips from Finn’s lap under the table until he pops up in Jay’s lap as well.

“Ro and I have unfinished business.”

“What? I have to go with…”

“No, Rowan. Unless you’re coming with me and Leo to the country club and are on your best behavior, you can stay and protect the den.”

“Fine,” he says, and Jay isn’t sure which part was a deterrent or an incentive.

That just leaves Gideon undecided. With Jay and the chance to see the Rhodes suffer, go with Nix to protect their omega, or stay at home with his soulmate and miss the action for someaction.

“Well, love?”

Grayson chuckles and begins to clear the table while Gideon mulls it over. “Decisions, decisions.”

“I’m with Nix. I can’t take the chance that Carnell has eyes everywhere.”

It’s the first anyone has said about Nix being Carnell’s target—both at the house before the fight with Hayes, and when they’d arrived in Clearwater.

“Really? That’s not what I thought you were going to choose.” Leo loads the dishwasher and starts washing the bacon pans.

“Me either,” Rowan smirks. “Thought he’d have chosen to torment Rhodes.”

Nix sighs. “If you’re going to try to talk to them at the club, Jamie, you’re going to have to find a way in. It’s pretty exclusive, no?”

“Shit, yeah. Leo, do you think Margot could get us passes? Visiting rock band wants to play a round?”

“That’s a great idea.” Leo dries his hands on a towel and rubs them together in anticipation, making no secret that he enjoys a round of golf.

“You are notactuallyplaying golf.” Finn chuckles when Leo’s face falls. He’s such a little shit sometimes.

“Why are you so mean to me?” Leo moans, but still picks up the burner phone to make the call. “What’s the name of the club, and what am I telling her?”

Leo wanders off to make the call, and Nix grinds down on Jay’s lap to get his attention again.

“Are you sure you want to do this in a public place?”

Jay had considered that, too. “At least they won’t make a scene.” He shrugs.

Why Nix looks skeptical, Jay can only guess. “If you say so. But the members might make a big deal about you and Leo being guests. What if Carnell hears?”

“At the very least, your parents might tell him themselves. What will you do then?” Finn asks.

“Carnell isn’t interested in me or Leo. It’s Nix, for whatever reason. Look at Hayes. Look at his attempts to abduct him when we got here. Dill Pickle said it was Nix he was after.”

Nix jerks in his arms at the mention of the intruder he’d met outside the gates.

“Sorry, Baby.”