I pulled out my phone again, shooting a text to the chat.
Me: Did we ever find out where Lucas got his Nightwalker from?
Grayson: Please don’t fucking tell me that asshole is somehow involved in all this.
Jake: I’ll have to pull his file. Why? You have a connection?
Me: Possibly. Nothing definitive.
“Are you texting Margo?”
“Nope.”
“Oh. Who are you texting?”
I shoved my phone into my back pocket. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, Adams. There’s going to be someone from Red Snake here tomorrow morning to install some additional security to your system.”
“What?”
I turned toward the door, ignoring him.
“What the hell do you mean?” he called out to me as I walked out.
I was ready to be back upstairs with Margo, to give Grayson a debrief, kick him the fuck out, and finish what I started with her. As I headed out the back, my cock twitched at the thought of being inside her again, feeling her body submit to mine, melt into me as I gave her everything I had.
Fuck.
I rounded the corner of the building, eyes and ears alert as I scanned the parking lot. Gordon coming to Astoria was another problem entirely, and it had me considering whether I shouldtake her to a safe house. After what happened with Carrie, and seeing how it tore Grayson apart from the inside out, I wasn’t going to take any chances with Margo.
Keeping her out of the line of a fire was a priority.
“Hayes?”
I halted, my shoulders tensing as my eyes landed on a familiar pile of snow-blond coils on top of a pretty head. Carrie was standing beside Grayson’s truck, wrapped up in her bright yellow puffer coat, staring at me in disbelief.
“Carrie,” I greeted, tipping my head to her.
How in the fuck was I going to navigate this?
She looked up at Margo’s apartment and the warm light coming from her living room window and back to me. Her blue eyes were shining, tears of confusion and betrayal filling them. “What’s going on? Grayson told me he had to leave for a job.”
I cleared my throat and took a step toward her. “Yes, he did.”
“Then why is he at Margo’s?” she demanded to know. “Why are you here?”
Carrie wasn’t a stupid person. She could easily put two and two together if she wanted to. But right now, in this small alleyway between the docks and the Buoy, she didn’t want to do that. She wanted me to spell it out for her—to give up the lie that Margo had begged everyone at Red Snake to maintain.
“Carrie, I need you to listen to me,” I began, taking another step.
She shook her head. “No. I want you to tell me what the hell is going on. Right now, Hayes.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Go home, Carrie,” I ordered. “Go back to your warm bed with your orange cat. Your fiancé will be there soon.”
Her voice was small then. I hadn’t heard her voice like that since I found the girls in the shed. “Margo’s in danger, isn’t she?”