Page 38 of Redemption

“I don’t know,” Alaric replies. “It doesn’t make any sense. Blake built up a strong following very quickly, and a really dangerous one who wanted to expand the business past the art and antiques. Liam might have just been protecting his life. Blake would have happily killed him. He was incredibly unstable.”

“Maybe,” Atlas says, his voice strong and contemplative despite the emotional revelation. “Thank you for letting me know that you’re looking into it. Could you keep me updated? I want to know what you find out.”

“Of course,” Alaric replies, sounding surprised.

Trick clears his throat. “Alright, so we’re on standby for the next twelve days.”

“Yes. I know Elijah’s heading back in the next few days, and I think we can all agree that you guys can take some off. I’ll send you over the details as we get them. We’ll be heading over to the safe houses only the day before to give Hunt less of a chance to realize we’re there. Liam is apparently already in town, so he’s keeping an eye on things. I’ll be meeting up with him over the next twelve days to go over the plan. I did try to tell him not to make himself so much of a nuisance that they try to take him out early, but whether he’ll listen or not is questionable.”

I try not to smile, that’s pretty fucking funny, actually.

“Okay, we’ve asked Raid and his team to come along as our direct backup. With the potential threat to Ever, none of us want to take the risk of someone getting to her,” Trick explains.

“I was going to suggest that you call them in, so that’s fine,” Alaric agrees. “I’ll work on everything on my end, and I’ll let you know the details and if there are any changes.”

“Thanks, man,” Riot replies for all of us.

“Bye, guys,” Alaric says as he hangs up the phone immediately.

“Are you okay?” I ask Atlas as soon as Alaric’s gone.

Atlas nods. “Yeah, I am, actually. We all said that something wasn’t quite sitting right with the Liam situation and everything that’s happened in the past. It’s actually a bit reassuring that Alaric is looking into it. I don’t think I would trust anyone else to.”

“That makes sense,” Jensen says. He adds thoughtfully, “Alaric knows Liam better than anyone else. In theory, that should mean that Liam isn’t going to be able to play him as well as he can play everyone else.”

“That’s what worries me,” Cash says with a slight grimace. He clarifies, “The in-theory part.”

“Yeah, me too,” Atlas agrees. He shifts me in his lap, so I’m facing everyone else and sitting sideways instead, but doesn’t let go of me.

“Maybe we can just check in on Alaric more?” I suggest. Alaric is an uncle to all of us, and we’re all concerned about him.

I think I’m more concerned about him because he doesn’t have the backup that Atlas does. He has us, and we will be there for him. Of course we will, but he doesn’t have a team, or a close family he can go home to and talk it all through without holding anything back. He has D, Ryan, and Maria. Sure, but they’re all spread everywhere.

It worries me. He spends so much time looking after everyone else and making sure that everyone else is happy that I’m not sure he remembers to do the same for himself.

“We could, but you know what Alaric is like with staying in touch. It’s pretty much always on his terms,” Luc points out, answering my question and bringing me out of my thoughts.

“We should get D and Ryan in on it,” Jensen suggests. “They’ll know what to do and how to handle it if Alaric does start to fall for whatever Liam is playing.”

“They know Liam too,” Atlas points out. “Extremely well.”

“I’m not being funny, but I would be far more likely to listen to you guys than my nephew, if I had one,” Jensen replies, making a good point.

“Yeah, I would too actually,” Trick agrees.

Atlas pulls out his phone, shifting me in his lap to do so and then resettling me. “I’ll text them now and give them a heads up. Ryan’s got all that shit going on at Blackbreak and D is pretty busy with his own shit, but I’m sure they’ll keep an eye. I know they stay in contact regularly.”

“We’ll keep an eye on the situation as well, just in case,” Trick offers. “We need to call Mr. R and fill him in on the plan. I’m sure Alaric’s done it, but just in case.”

Atlas’s phone buzzes on the table, and he picks it up, reading the text quickly. “Huh.”

“What?” Riot asks curiously.

“Apparently, D is doing some deals with Liam at the moment, so he said he would keep an eye on it from both sides,” Atlas explains with surprise coloring his tone.

“Well, that’s slightly concerning,” Rafe mutters.

“It gets worse,” Atlas says and then frowns, “or better. I don’t fucking know. Liam’s helping Ryan at Blackbreak, apparently, some idiot students are trying to resurrect the old Phoenix Society, and Liam is helping Ryan weed out the students who are doing it and any outside sources that are trying to as well.”