Page 14 of Mayhem

He stayed where he was, eyes moving over whatever was on his phone. “Nothing different from what you have. His placement was standard until the protection order.”

“And before Aldrich?”

“Nothing that explains Desmond.”

That was the answer I kept coming back to. My father, Desmond Hansen, didn’t personally protect routine intake students. He didn’t need to. The Quorum already had systems for that, and Nichlas had been inside them before Desmond stepped in. There were levels to everything we did. People liked to pretend the word protection meant one thing because it was easier than understanding how much depended on the name attached to it.

A Quorum kid at Aldrich was covered because he belonged to us. That alone kept most people from doing anything stupid. Hansen protection was different. If my father put his name over someone, that became a promise people noticed.

I opened the sealed entry again. The access denial came up immediately.

Malakai looked over my shoulder this time. “You’ve tried that six times.”

“Five.”

“Six.”

“I counted.”

“So did I.”

I closed the window before I gave him the satisfaction of being right. “There’s an authorization number attached to it. It should cross-reference somewhere.”

“It doesn’t.”

“You checked?”

Malakai finally put his phone away and leaned closer to the screen. “I checked before I came in.”

Of course he had. I moved the mouse aside and let him take over. He pulled up the internal search, changed two fields, then ran the number through a different archive. Nothing came back except the same protection notation and Desmond’s approval.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“That’s what they left.”

The irritation that had been sitting under my skin all afternoon tightened. I wasn’t bothered because Nichlas was protected. Protection was part of the Quorum. If people couldn’t trust that the name above them meant something, the whole structure became useless. Favors only worked because there were consequences for ignoring them. Territory only worked because everyone knew who answered when someone crossed it. Protection was no different.

If Desmond said Nichlas was covered, then he was covered.

What pissed me off was being told to enforce something on my ground while being denied the reason for it. I closed the laptop halfway. “He’s not worth this.”

Malakai picked up the paper clip again, turning it between his fingers as he looked at Nichlas’ photograph. “Worth what?”

“My father’s attention.”

He gave the picture another second before setting it down. “Probably not.”

That was as close to agreement as I was getting from him. I pulled the file toward me again. Nichlas looked exactly like what he was: lanky, blond hair pulled back, glasses, expression too careful even in a student ID photo. I’d spoken to him enough times to know the picture was flattering. In person, he watched people before he answered them and folded the second anyone pushed hard enough. He had a Quorum tattoo and none of the confidence that usually came with knowing what stood behind it.

There were useful cowards. Nichlas might even be one of them. That still didn’t explain Desmond.

Malakai reached over and moved the file half an inch to the side so he could see the date beneath my hand. His attention stayed on the paperwork for a few seconds before he said, “The protection order came three days after his intake was finalized. Which means something happened after they accepted him.”

“Or someone finally told my father who he was.”

Malakai looked at me, and I could see him working through that without needing him to narrate it. That was why I kept him close. My other right hand, Ronan, would give me ten possibilities and enjoy every one of them. Kai usually waited until he had something worth saying.

Before either of us could get farther, the office door opened and Ronan walked in. Ronan came in with his phone still in his hand and shut the door behind him with his heel. He took one look at the file spread across my desk before dropping into the chair opposite me.