That was as close to begging as Lavinia got. This was important to her—and I would have followed that advice regardless. I nodded. “Agreed.”
She nodded in return, spinning around to leave without another word.
I collapsed back down onto West’s chest, snuggling against him. Part of me wanted to ask what their thoughts were, if Emilia would find anything valuable on who was reporting to my bondmate.
A larger part of me wanted to curl up and forget about all that for now.
Benjamin’s emotions were still battering me, my rebuilt walls not keeping all of him out. The dam threatened to break from any small crack. If he called again, I would fall to pieces.
I needed cuddles, and comfort, and maybe to call Dr. Jalisco to talk about this.
First, cuddles.
“Do you want a snack, princess?” Conrad asked. “I can get you something from the kitchen.”
My stomach growled. I’d only had the scone for breakfast, and I hadn’t gotten lunch yet.
“I want soup, please.” I picked something basic on purpose, not knowing what my stomach could handle right now. “Chicken noodle soup and toast.”
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Coming right up.”
Mercer wrapped himself around me as Conrad left the room. Relaxing into my alpha cuddle sandwich, I let the tears fall again until my eyes were finally dry.
After soup, more crying, and a shower, someone else pounded on my door. They didn’t wait for a response before turning the knob and pushing inside.
“Are you alright, darling?” Jurah asked, rushing over to the nest where I was laying between Conrad and Mercer.
There’s truly no privacy whatsoever in this place.
What if we were having sex?
Then again, the door hadn’t been locked, so being caught would have been partially our fault. Only partially. Something to keep in mind the next time they ravished me in my nest.
I nodded, going up on my knees and hugging him tightly. “Yes, fine.”
I hadn’t visited him since arriving home. My fathers knew by now that we’d performed a heist without their knowledge or approval, and at first I’d been avoiding their chastisement. Then, my plans to see them had been derailed by Benjamin’s call.
Mom had probably told all my fathers not to harass me on my first day home, or I would have been caught in a conversation the second I walked in the front door.
With how worried Jurah was about me, I felt bad for not seeking him out sooner.
“We’re going to find the traitor who is giving information to that bastard,” Jurah promised in a low growl. “They’ll suffer severe consequences for their actions.”
With a mafia family, ‘severe consequences’ meant torture followed by cement shoes and a trip to the bottom of the bay. Maybe if I’d been less broken, I would have requested something on the softer side of punishments.
As it was, I was starting to acknowledge that this was the world I lived in. Benjamin had pulled me into it whether I wanted to be or not, and if I tried to play clean…
We couldn’t win.
“Make sure to ask them why they’re doing it, when you find them,” I requested quietly. “Are they being paid? Do they actually support the O’Connors? I want to know.”
Jurah sighed, patting down my hair. “I’ll ask, but sometimes there isn’t much of a reason.”
“Thank you.”
Mercer cleared his throat behind me. “While you’re here, Sir, can I ask about the relationship you have with the O’Connor family?”
Sitting down on the bed, Jurah scanned Mercer. Conrad had retreated to the far end of the bed, half hiding in the pillows and blankets, and West was acting disinterested in the conversation. But Mercer was sitting right behind me, clearly paying total attention to what we said to each other.
