“Just in case,” she’d said in the store, frowning at the heels she’d wanted to buy. I see her on the far side of the room now, talking with two other members of Saint’s Angels, whose names I don’t recall. There are five here total, pulled off operations in California and Arizona to come offer protection during the press conference. Ronan, of course, is conspicuously absent. He’s leading the team that’s breaching Joseph Blackstone’s home today, and I’m on pins and needles waiting for the outcome.
Devlin must be, too, but he’s not showing it.
Brandy, of course doesn’t know any of that is going on, but even so, she’s been edgy all evening. She’d come decked out in a backless red dress that Christopher had noticed when they were window shopping one day. She’d accessorized with a darling cocktail bag of her own design, something she’d been working up recently to add to the BB Bags inventory.
I don’t see either of them, though, and I’m hoping Brandy found him and they’re off in a corner together. He’d texted her this morning to say that something came up with his editor and he’d meet her here. But as of a half hour ago, he still hadn’t shown up, and the last time I saw Brandy, she’d looked both irritated and worried.
All the other guests, however, seem to be enjoying the drinks and desserts offered from the stations and the waiters circulating among the crowd. In addition to familiar faces from various news bureaus, I see local businessmen, and community leaders such as Chief Randall. Lamar is here, and it breaks my heart to see the pain on his face when he glances around this room filled with couples. I’ve checked on him several times, though, and each time he tells me that he’s fine. That it hurts, but that he’ll get through it. I know that’s true, I just wish I could help.
I draw a breath, forcing my thoughts away from Lamar’s loss. I look around the room again, taking it in with a neutral eye and decide that it really is perfect. “I wasn’t sure at first,” I tell Devlin. “About not having tables, I mean. But it works.” The room has only a few cocktail style tables scattered around, primarily to aid reporters who might actually still be taking notes with pen and paper.
“I think so, too,” he says. “Tamra’s thinking was that a seated speech suggests something intense and weighty, whereas cocktails are among friends.”
“And while your content is definitely intense, you want everyone to see you as you. Not as some billionaire big shot.”
“Not exactly how I’d have put it, but yes.”
The wall of glass that looks out over the ocean has been pushed aside, allowing for people to mingle on the stone patio. We head that way now, and Devlin doesn’t have to tell me why. The patio overlooks the tidal pools—our tidal pools. And he’ll want that in his mind before he talks, a reminder about why he’s going public tonight. So that hopefully the enemies of his past will back down, making the life he has now a safer one. For him, for me, and for everyone he cares about.
“I think this is going very well,” Tamra says as she comes over to greet Devlin and me. “Of course I’m not surprised. We may not be advertising it as such, but everyone realizes that this is the first event since the Humanitarian Award was pulled. They want to know what you have to say for yourself.”
Devlin smirks. “Don’t worry. I have plenty to say for myself.”
Tamra laughs. “Well, I would’ve liked to have had a preview of your speech, but I for one will be in the audience with bated breath.”
She presses her hand to his shoulder in a maternal gesture, and I realize again how long they’ve known each other, and how much she’s seen Devlin overcome. Of everyone who knows him, she’s probably the least worried about the revelation that he’s The Wolf’s son negatively impacting him. After all, she’s seen him survive almost everything.
“About that,” I say when she leaves to work the room some more.
“About what?” Devlin asks.
“Having something to say. I want to start releasing a series of articles about you. A follow-up to the talk you’re giving tonight, breaking down your background and what you’re doing with the foundation. I was thinking we could release them on the foundation’s website.”
“El, baby, I’m not sure I—”
“We need to control the