I thought I knew fear.
I’ve felt it so many times over the years that being scared seems like second nature at this point. But there’s something about leaving someone you care about in the line of fire that’s making it hard to breathe through the panic.
Perhaps I hadn’t allowed myself to consider just how much Storm means to me until right now, but the idea that he could be hurt, that he could be killed, really puts things into perspective.
No one says a word on the way back to the estate. Everett swaps between looking out the window of the SUV we piled into and typing on his phone at the speed of light.
Wynter is behind the wheel, a calm that I’m envious of radiates from her. How is she not freaking out right now?
Emerson and Snow seem mildly more concerned from their seats on either side of me, but honestly, I would expect a much higher level of worry for women whose husbands are in the middle of what may turn into a gunfight, and we left them with those scary looking guys everyone seemed to tiptoe around.
“Stop freaking out.” Wynter’s eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror. “It will only make tonight worse for you. When we get back to the estate we’re going to go and get changed while Everett activates the lockdown system. It’s really loud, so don’t worry when you hear it. Basically what it does is locks every door and window from both the inside and outside, and the only way in or out is for Everett to deactivate it. Once the system is in place and we’ve all changed, we will make our way into the panic room. It’s not small like the name would suggest and there’s plenty of games, movies, Netflix, you name it, we have it down there for times like these.” She gives me a warm smile as she checks the road ahead and glances back at me again. “We’ve all been where you are right now, Ayvah, but trust me when I say there’s no way Storm isn’t coming home to you. He didn’t wait thirty years to meet his woman just to die right when he gets her.”
Everett chuckles and for some reason I find myself following suit. Nothing about this situation is funny, but if you can’t laugh when you’ve somehow found yourself in the middle of a mafia family and they’re doing everything in their power to protect you, when can you?
Snow takes one of my hands in hers and squeezes. “We’ve been doing this a long time, Ayvah. I know it’s scary, and I know you’re scared for Storm, but he knows what he’s doing. I’m scared for my brothers and for Elijah, but I know there’s nothing on this earth that can drag any of them away from us.”
I let out a breath and try to settle my racing heart. I need to trust the people who have done this before. Just because it’s new and scary to me, doesn’t mean that’s actually how it is. I mean, I’m struggling to see how explosions and guns and an unknown threat aren’t terrifying, but I need to have faith in the people who know better than I do, even if everyone I’ve ever put my faith in has let me down.
“Do you think it’s just a coincidence this happened the night the Legion comes to see us?” Wynter asks.
He sighs and turns his attention to her, conflict warring in his eyes. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Do you think it’s a trap?”
“No. I don’t think so. From what I know of the Legion, they have a sordid past. Really dark, and I wouldn’t be surprised if trafficking has touched at least one of them in one way or another.”
“Then how does Annalise know they’re here?”
“A rat in their organization perhaps? They piss off the five families often enough I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them tipped her off in an attempt to get them out of the picture.”
“Can someone explain to me what they actually do?” Snow asks.
“They act as a gatekeeper to the underworld in New York. They’re loyal to no one, but the families can’t make a move without their say so. They take care of problems when they arise, turf wars and that kind of thing, and they’ll take out an entire family without blinking if they see fit,” Everett explains.
“And we’re getting into bed with these people?” She snaps.
“They killed Angelo and his cousins. We paid them to do it,” Wynter tells her.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Snow groans, her head falling back on the leather headrest. “Of course we employed some scary looking motherfuckers from New York to do our dirty work. That makes so much sense.” The sarcasm drips from her words, but no one else in the car seems at all concerned by her disbelief.
“We did what we had to do at the time. We didn’t know who we could trust so we had to bring in an external source, and funnily enough, hired hit men who aren’t loyal to anyone else are kind of hard to come by.” Wynter takes the turn off the highway toward the estate and looks over at Everett. “Have we sent the guards home already?”
“Yep. I ordered them to be off the premises by the time we return.”
“Why would we do that?” I ask, the panic that seemed to subside before hits me like a truck. Don’t we need as many people guarding us as possible? Aren’t we in danger?
“When we go into lockdown there’s no sense having them there,” Wynter explains. “Plus, we’ve had some… issues with staff double crossing us in the past. This way it alleviates that risk.”
I stare at her in the rearview mirror for long minutes, but nothing about her demeanor indicates she’s lying. It’s going to be a really fucking long night.
