Proof of Life (The Potentate of Atlanta #4) - Hailey Edwards Page 0,50
him three more treats as I stood where the bar used to be. “Do your thing.”
Straining my eyes for the telltale gleam of another clue, I was reminded of the glint that saved my life.
“The night the bar was bombed, I was standing outside on my phone when I saw this glint. I was going to check it out when the place exploded.”
Ambrose was fast, but one day he wouldn’t be fast enough. That was simple math and plain truth.
“Bishop reviewed the footage from that night. He said it resembled a flashbang. The kind the pack uses.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I should have told you sooner, but there was Claudia and then the challenge and then…”
The news about Boaz and Addie had been my true breaking point.
“We’re all under a lot of stress.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Things are going to slip through the cracks.” He reached for his phone. “Every enforcer is required to sign out their gear at the start of a shift and must account for it before they go home.”
“Our mole won’t be that careless.”
They would steal a replacement from another enforcer or from the supply room to stay under the radar.
“It won’t hurt to check.”
“Every clue leads us that much closer,” I agreed. “That extra bit of distance probably saved my life.”
“You think they lured you away.” He searched my face. “You think someone was protecting you.”
I think I was desperate to connect dots, to forge connections, to make this nightmare make sense.
“It has to mean something.” I flashed Boaz’s ring. “This has to mean something.”
Or else it meant nothing, and I was unraveling faster than a ball of yarn in a roomful of kittens.
“The same person protecting you might have also protected your family.”
His tone came out questioning. He was asking me if that’s what I thought…what I hoped…had happened.
“I don’t know.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “Maybe?”
Ambrose reported in and shook his head. Then he coiled around Midas’s shoulders like a mink stole.
Midas had the good grace not to shudder, as Bishop would have, but then again, he was curious about the other man in my life. Maybe he really didn’t mind cozying up with Ambrose for my sake.
“We need to identify the bomber.” Midas led me with light fingers on my elbow to the corner where he called us a Swyft for the ride home. “It’s the only way we’re going to get our answers.”
“You’re right.” I leaned against his side. “Ares left a handful of seconds before I saw the glint at the bar.” I wrestled my phone from my pocket and shot her a text. “I need to ask if she noticed anything unusual.”
Yet another ball I had dropped while juggling so many, each its own mini ticking time bomb.
“Do you want to eat before we go home?” Midas glanced at me. “Ford did bring us burgers.”
“We can eat those later.” I recalled our guests. “Let’s pick up something hot for Linus and Grier too.”
“Does he eat?”
“Only when she makes him.” I snorted. “Mostly she eats his food too, except for a bite or two.”
“One of the many reasons she gets along so well with Lethe.”
Once our Swyft driver arrived, we gave him the Faraday’s address, and I ordered pizzas online.
With dinner handled, I texted Ares to ask if she had noticed anything peculiar at the bar that night.
She replied with a disappointing no, but she had been farther away than me from the explosion.
Bad news must travel fast, because Hank didn’t so much as squint at me funny when we passed him.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he murmured as the door shut behind me, but I heard him.
Midas and I waited for our order in the lobby, and I was glad no one was around to push condolences on me. I was too afraid in my current mood that I would push them back, and no good little potentate went around instigating shoving matches.
When the food arrived, I tipped the delivery girl then asked her to bring the extra meat pizza on top out to Hank. Poor guy never left his post these days. The least I could do was feed him in thanks for his efforts to keep the residents safe.
And no, I wasn’t going soft because he was decent to me one whole time.
Back up in the loft, we found Linus standing before the windows, a phone pressed to his ear. Grier sat on the couch with pages