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Held under lock and key.

Then I peered back out, my heart pressing full as Trevan and Silas did one of those man shoulder-clap embraces before both of their gazes slanted in the store’s direction.

I felt the piercing intensity of it. Like they could spot me through the window, but with the sun shining down, there was little chance they could actually make me out.

I still felt it, though. The power of their care. The weight they held on their shoulders.

“Don’t let them fool you. They’re not as bad as they look,” I muttered.

Since I knew about the grounds where they sometimes buried bodies, I wouldn’t go as far as to call them softies.

More news reports coming in about the grisly discovery of fifteen men slain in Portland last night.

Speculation made that each attack was connected.

The restaurateur tied to a drug ring that the authorities had never exposed.

Now, the guys rolled in as if nothing had happened.

Or maybe their presence did nothing but scream murder.

Penny reached out and gave a squeeze to my hand, and her voice deepened in emphasis. “Don’t worry, Elena. I’m not fooled.”

TWENTY-THREE

TREVAN

“How is it looking?” The demand slashed off my tongue before I even made it to where Silas swung off his bike.

The same kind of energy I was feeling radiated back.

All but the guilt I was sure was written all over my face.

What I’d let happen this morning in Elena’s bed.

The weight of it sat like a truck had fallen off a riser at the shop and had crushed me flat.

I swallowed around it as my oldest friend moved in my direction. He took my hand in a hard shake as he tugged me forward and clapped me on the back.

“Everything is being tied to his second in command. A mutiny that went south.”

It was exactly the way we staged it.

The entire organization crushed in one fell blow.

“That’s what I want to hear,” I said on a heavy exhale.

But the relief didn’t last for long.

“And was Cash able to dig up anything on Elena’s apartment footage?” The words rolled out beneath my breath.

Silas locked onto what I was referring to, and he glanced across the street at Elena’s store before his attention was pinned back on me.

“Cash is evaluating it. Whoever it was knew what they were doing and made sure to remain unrecognizable.”

My gaze turned toward the store.

Energy radiated out.