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“I feel the same way about Hawk.” Mia sighed as she poured more coffee into our mugs. “I don’t know what the hell they’re going to do.”

I took the mug in both hands and let the warmth seep into me. Outside, Striker and Cassidy were watching Bella, Dylan, and Zoey play in the backyard. “Did you know about this guy before all this? This Thames guy?”

Mia’s eyebrows raised just a little, like she was surprised to hear me say his name. “Steph told you about it?”

“Not a whole lot. He definitely made it sound… complicated.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Mia said.

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you this,” Mia muttered. “Especially if Steph hasn’t.”

I rolled my eyes. “This might shock you, but Steph hasn’t had a lot of time to catch me up on the details. I feel like I only get a handful of minutes with him a day.”

“Fair point,” Mia said and took a sip of her coffee. “Well, if I were in your position, I’d want to know too.

“His name is Thames Walsh. He was known around Lakeview, even though he wasn’t part of the clan, and didn’t live in the town proper. He’s a trafficker.”

“Like Steph’s former gun guys?”

“Worse than that,” Mia said. “He trafficked in everything. Weapons. Drugs. People. Women.”

I set the coffee aside as bile rose in my throat. “Seriously?”

She nodded. “Everyone in the clan was warned about him, and he was never present at any events. I heard he could be a real charmer. So, that was part of what he did. He liked his women…” She wrinkled her nose. “Unconscious.”

“Oh my god,” I whispered, stunned.

“I know,” she said. “Everyone was relieved when he skipped town. Or, really, when he was run off. Ace refused to work with him, and when Thames started to disrespect that order, he was out of here. I think to a different territory to the west. They had some kind of truce.”

“But now that Sean is working with Thames, things have changed.”

“Exactly. Ace and Hawk are trying to figure out what exactly Sean has offered Thames. It has to be something big to gethim to risk nullifying the truce. Or maybe Thames has gathered enough power of his own that he thinks he has the strength to take on Lakeview.” She scoffed. “As if.”

“And once they figure out the offer Sean made?”

“Ace will try to beat it,” Mia said. “Convince him to back out of his deal with Sean.”

My stomach dropped. “So he’s going to deal with this guy? Thistrafficker?”

“I don’t know,” Mia said. “I know he has to let Thames knowheknows about the deal. Maybe that’ll be enough to get Thames to back off.” She scowled. “I don’t like it, either. I hate the thought of Hawk meeting with this scumbag like it’s a regular business deal. I can always tell when they’re talking about him—I get all these knots in my stomach.” She rubbed her palm over her heart like it hurt.

“From the bond?” I asked. “You can feel it?”

“His really strong emotions, yeah,” she said. “That makes me feel better about it. I know Hawk won’t do any real dealings with this guy, because I can feel how much he hates it.”

“I wish I had that with Steph. He’s so… distant. I don’t know what he needs.”

“It’s tough. It’s like a rock and a hard place.”

“I trust Steph,” I said. “But what kind of deal is he going to have to make? How many more people are going to suffer just to try to stay a step ahead of Sean?”

“We have no way of knowing that,” Mia said. “Hell, the guys are already scrambling to figure out what to do. There’s nothing you and I can do, not really. All we can do is support our mates and hope for the best.”

That wasn’t enough for me. I couldn’t just stand around andhopethings would get better. Not when Steph was considering working with a trafficker.

Not when there was something I could actually do this time. I didn’t know if Steph would like it, but it seemed like we were running out of options. If Steph worked with this Thames guy, the clan might never recover from the guilt and the shame.Hemight never recover.