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I could feel the fury and disbelief radiating off Declan from the other side of his desk. I kept my head high, meeting his gaze. Behind me, Will and Trent stood several steps back as if trying to keep their distance from us. I couldn’t blame them. None of this was their fault, anyway.

“Are you out of your mind?” Declan growled at me. He glanced behind me to look at Will and Trent. “Please tell me this is some sort of elaborate prank.”

“Nope,” Will answered.

“We were as surprised as you are,” Trent said. “It kinda came out of nowhere.”

Declan turned back toward me, his eyes burning with rage.

“I did what I did,” I said, folding my arms, refusing to break eye contact.

“You abandoned the mission,” he snarled. “And agreed to back off. For a kid you haven’t seen in over ten years.”

“She’s not a kid. She’s a woman,” I retorted. “And a woman who desperately needed to get out of there.”

“You don’t know that,” he barked. He marched around his desk to stand in front of me. Since we were kids, I had only seen him truly pissed off a handful of times, and the last time was when an asshole had kidnapped his mate. I knew I was treading in hot water. Still, I held my ground.

“Yes, I do,” I argued back. “It was bad. She was…” I trailed off, trying to find the words to describe how she had seemed like a shell of herself. Everything about her had screamed she needed rescuing. I didn’t regret it, but trying to explain that logic was harder than I thought.

“For all you know, she was perfectly happy, and you just dragged her out of her life because of a selfish whim,” he growled. “If she had wanted to leave, she could have done so any number of times without your help.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, based on her meek, servile manner around Reacher and her father. I got the feeling she didn’t have much say in her daily life. Before I could say any of this, however, Declan had launched back into his tirade.

“And that’s not including the fact that you negotiated with a guy who is under investigation by the Council,” Declan continued. “Do you realize how that looks? If the council gets wind of this, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

“I had to do it,” I shot back, folding my arms.

“Why? Because she was Mira’s friend?” He shook his head. “I remember this Audrey girl from when she lived in the pack. She knew how to handle herself. She didn’t need rescuing, now or then.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, based on the way she had looked and how she had acted around Reacher and her father, but I kept my mouth shut as I tried to figure out the best way to go about this. I knew I was walking on the thinnest of ice.

I had never told Declan what had happened with Audrey when we were kids. I hadn’t known how, especially after she vanished right after. He didn’t know the entire story, and I didn’t feel particularly inclined to tell him all of it, either. Partially because it was private and not just my story to tell but also because of the lingering shame of how things had ended.

“You didn’t see her, Declan,” I argued, trying to avoid bringing up the past. “She was in a bad way. Just…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain the hollow look in her eyes, how she looked like she hadn’t eaten a good meal in months. How she seemed to flinch the second anyone so much as glanced at her. She was a shell of the woman I used to know. If it hadn’t been for the fact that my wolf had recognized her scent after all these years, and that I saw her face in my head whenever I thought about her, I didn’t think I would have recognized her.

But I didn’t know how to articulate any of that without revealing the entire story, and I wasn’t about to do that.

“In Jackson’s defense, it did seem like she needed to get out of here,” Will said from where he leaned against the back wall. “She seemed pretty skittish and afraid of both her father and Reacher. I got the impression they weren’t exactly the kindest to her.” He gave Declan a pointed look that conveyed precisely what he meant by that.

Declan’s shoulders eased. His gaze flicked between myself and Will. Will had always been the one of us most inclined to stick to the rules of the mission. The fact that he was on my side seemed to mollify Declan a bit.

“You still fucked up,” he said to me. “What you did was incredibly selfish and short-minded.”

“Heard you say that before,” I said, trying to make light of the situation. At Declan’s glower, I raised my hands. “Sorry. Bad timing.”

“Very,” he agreed. “And we still have a huge problem on our hands. Because based on everything I’ve heard in the last fifteen minutes, Reacher is bad news, and we need to do something about him before he gets even worse. But because of the way things went down, we have very little evidence and don’t have an easy way of getting it from here on out. Not without risking Audrey’s life. And that’s the least of our problems when it comes to this mission now.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find what we need,” I argued.

“The point still stands that you made an agreement with Reacher,” Declan said. “And he won’t take kindly to you breaking that deal. It could set off a bigger conflict. But we still need to investigate him. Only now, instead of going through the easy channels that would have made all our lives easier, we have to do this more covertly, and in a way that won’t make it seem like you’re breaking the bargain. The instant Reacher smells something’s off, he’ll come for Audrey and her daughter and cause all sorts of chaos that I don’t want to deal with.”

“I could sit this one out,” I suggested, though the idea disgusted me to my core. I wanted to be the one to nail Reacher after everything he had done to Audrey. Still, if that was the best way to get him behind bars, then that’s what I would do.

As soon as I said the words, Declan’s eyes blazed. “Oh, no. This is your mess, Jackson. You got us into it. I don’t care how noble your intentions were, but the point stands that we wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation if it weren’t for your actions. So you’re going to be the one to fix it. You have to find a way to complete the mission to my satisfaction without breaking your agreement with Reacher. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“Good news is we aren’t entirely in the dark,” Will chimed in. “I managed to put up some cameras while we were there.”

“Are they hidden well?” Declan asked.

Will gave him a look that said, Are you serious?

Declan raised his hands. “You’re right. Sorry for doubting.”

“I think there are some loopholes I can use,” I said. “Mostly, Reacher just wanted me out of his town. The implication was I would stop investigating them, but all I said was that I would leave. We can investigate from here and figure out what he’s planning without going back.”

Declan’s jaw worked as he contemplated this. “It might be okay. But he’s going to retaliate even if you follow the letter of the law and not the spirit. Still, that’s at least some leeway. I’d still recommend keeping a low profile while you look into it.”

“Was already planning on it,” I said.

Nodding, Declan said, “Good. Keep it that way. Now get out of here before I change my mind about killing you for that moronic stunt.”

We walked out of the office. Glancing over, I noticed Rose very pointedly not looking at us as she focused on something particularly fascinating on her computer. Trent strolled over to engage her in conversation. While he did that, I cracked my neck, relishing the sound of it popping, then headed down the hall, Will following after me.

“Honestly went a bit better than I expected,” I told him.

“I agree.” He cracked a rare grin. “I was expecting him to tear you a new one by the end of it.”

“So did I,” I muttered.

“No use dwelling on it now,” he pointed out, strolling down the hall. “We’ve got bigger problems than Declan’s temper on our hands at the moment.”

I appreciated that he didn’t mention that a large portion of that problem was my fault.

“Thanks, by the way,” I said. “For sticking up for me.”

“Yeah, well, when you work with someone for a decade, you’ll do stupid things sometimes,” Will said, folding his arms. “I stuck up for you because I saw what she looked like and could see the way those two treated her from a mile off. But what I don’t get is what makes her so special.”

I blinked, my brow furrowing. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that any number of women could have walked into that room, looking the way Audrey did, and you wouldn’t have backed down. You wouldn’t have deviated from the mission. But you did for her. I want to know why.”

“You know why,” I said. “It’s because I knew her when we were kids.”

But Will was already shaking his head. “I didn’t believe that bullshit for a second, even when you were trying to sell it before the ceremony. It’s more than that, and we both know it. There’s something about her that makes her special. After sticking up for you back there, I deserve some sort of explanation. So tell me.”

I took a deep breath. Will was right. He deserved the truth, or at least part of it. I wasn’t going to tell him everything, but after everything, I could at least explain part of it. Besides, if I didn’t, he would keep hounding me until I gave him some sort of answer.

“I have to right an old wrong,” I finally said. “And that was the first step.”

He studied me for a long time, his face expressionless as he contemplated the words. “I just hope you know what you’re doing, Jackson,” he said. “Because if you don’t, we’re all going to be in a world of trouble.”

“Yeah,” I said, meeting his gaze. “I know.”

***

Delicious smells wafted toward me the second I opened the door to my house. It was such an unfamiliar experience that my entire body went on alert for a brief moment, preparing to confront an intruder dumb enough to cook in my house. Then my body relaxed as my wolf noticed Audrey’s scent mixed in with the mouthwatering aromas. My stomach growled.

I kicked off my shoes, about to drape my jacket over the stair banister like I always did. Then I noticed the usual spot for my jacket had a small kid’s coat occupying it instead. My gaze flickered to the nearby wall, and I saw that new shoes had appeared along it.

Multiple feminine pairs of shoes lined neatly next to the front door felt strange. I’d been a bachelor for so long that the little reminders that I no longer lived alone kept surprising me over and over again. Seeing them made me smile, though. The house was great, but it had always seemed too big, like I was a lone pea rattling around in a can. Having others live here made it feel right. Homey, even.

I followed the smells to the kitchen. Audrey had her back to me, and I noticed her phone was blaring music from its speaker. She hadn’t noticed me yet. Her hips swayed back and forth to the music, and I couldn’t help myself from admiring her figure.

“We have a sound system through the house that you can connect to Bluetooth if you’d rather not blow out the speakers on your phone,” I said over the din of sizzling oil and what sounded like jazz.

Audrey gasped, jumping backward and rounding on me. Her eyes were wide and frightened.

“Sorry, sorry,” I said, putting my hands up. “It’s just me. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She shot me a glare that was half-annoyed, half-chagrined. “I didn’t think you’d be home yet, that’s all,” she muttered. “I’m still in the middle of cooking. I’m sorry it wasn’t ready when you got here.”

I frowned. “Why would you be sorry? Just knowing that I’m about to have a hot meal I didn’t cook myself is fantastic. It’s a nice surprise.”

Her brow furrowed. “Surprise? I figured you would…” She trailed off before she finished the sentence, but I got the gist without her finishing the statement.

“Do you think I expect you to cook for me now that you’re here?” I asked.

She raised her head and met my gaze. “Honestly, Jackson, I don’t know what you expect,” she said. “I don’t know why you brought me here in the first place.”

Running my fingers through my hair, still trying to sort out my thoughts, I scrambled to figure out what to say. “I saw you needed to get out of there, so I did what I thought was best,” I finally said.

Her jaw set, and she folded her arms. “You could have just asked me if I wanted to get out of there, you know,” she pointed out.

I let out a short exhale. “Maybe you’re right,” I allowed. “But I didn’t exactly have a private moment to chat with you, and if Reacher had known that I knew who you were, he would have made getting you out of there a hell of a lot more difficult. He’s the kind of guy who likes leverage. So I had to act quickly and in a way that didn’t give away that I knew who you were.”

Her lips pursed, and I could sense that she wanted to say more. Then she seemed to lose her nerve, and her arms flopped back by her sides. “It doesn’t matter,” she murmured. “I’m here now.”

“You are, and you’re safe. Though I’m not going to lie, being in the same house as someone who is clearly afraid of me is a little unsettling,” I joked.

Her eyes widened, and she took several steps back until her back was against the counter. “I’m not afraid of you,” she stammered in what was clearly a lie. “You just startled me. That’s all.”

“You’ve never been a very good liar,” I teased, then sobered when her expression remained unchanged. “If you tell me why you’re so afraid, I can help. I want you to be happy here, not petrified.”

“I’m not—I mean, I am happy,” she said, her eyes darting all over the place as if looking for an excuse to end the conversation.

“If you aren’t, then tell me. I want you to enjoy your time here. How can I help?”

The music halted, replaced by a vibrating and ringing. Audrey looked at her phone and instantly paled, going even whiter than she had been moments earlier.

“I have to take this,” she muttered. “Um, could you look after the sauce?” Then, before I could even ask her who was calling or why she was picking up when the caller clearly terrified her, she snatched her phone and scurried away, heading in the direction of her room.

Standing beside the gently bubbling pot of tomato sauce, I stared after her, wondering what the hell was really going on here.