Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(79)

North put out a hand. He raised one finger like he was counting off. “We need to find out who took the Jeep.”

“Volto,” Nathan said. “I told them.”

“Yes, but who dropped it off?” North said. “Volto didn’t drop it off. Who drove it and parked it out front?” He raised another finger. “I don’t know why the food was switched out at all.”

“What was in the boxes in the truck?” Nathan asked.

“The same shit,” he said. “Meat. Lettuce. It’s like a one to one swap for the most part. Mostly produce. Although I didn’t have time to ask the guys why they agreed to swap it while I was sneaking back out.”

“Who were they?” Dr. Green asked.

“They have a warehouse near North Charleston,” he said. “That’s where I ended up. When I left, I noted the address. Victor tracked down the owners, who also own a couple of restaurants in the area.”

Dr. Green lifted his gaze from the laptop to North. His eyes were glazed over, lost in thought. “Doesn’t make sense. Taking food from a school to restaurants downtown? Did the food look old? Is he selling old food out the back?”

“And replacing it with restaurant food?” Nathan asked. “None of that makes sense at all.”

“Don’t ask me,” North said and lowered his hand from counting off. “There’s so much fucking going on, I don’t even know where to start. Like what the hell was Kota up to last night?”

Nathan’s face caught between being horrified and trying to calm himself down. He didn’t want to get North riled up about this.

Dr. Green refocused on Nathan. “Right, what was he doing at Lily’s?”

Shit. Nathan was hoping to keep that under the radar for the most part. But he’d have to tell them about it sooner or later.

Did it have to be now? With North?

Without facing either of them, he swung slowly in his chair. His jaw tensed as he spoke. “Kota went out to talk to her about Sang. We wanted to ask her...to see if Sang was really into...this. We didn’t expect everything to turn upside down like it did.”

North and Dr. Green were quiet for a long moment. Nathan kept looking at Mr. Blackbourne’s desk, hoping what he’d just said explained itself and he didn’t have to go further.

North eventually spoke, slow, dark, deep. “What do you mean, really into this?”

The tense air around them thickened immensely. Nathan dared to look him in the face, trying to be as delicate as possible. “We wanted to be sure Sang isn’t being influenced by us. If she’s really into this idea or if she’s being pressured because we want it.”

North’s hard face tightened at the mouth, his jaw shifting like he was grinding his teeth. His dark eyes wide.

Dr. Green snapped up before North took a lunging step at Nathan. Nathan jumped from his chair, backing away but not looking at his face any more. He was afraid of this.

North barked at him “What the hell are you fucking doing to us?”

Dr. Green put a palm on North’s chest to stop him from lunging. “Stop.” His voice drew in power, a lot like Mr. Blackbourne did. “Not here. Those cops will hear and will come in.”

“Let them,” North growled. “Before I tear his face off.”

Nathan didn’t take the threat seriously. North’s barking worried him more. Like Dr. Green said, they didn’t need attention. This was the wrong time and place for this. Not with everyone up in arms about what was going on.

“Calm down,” Dr. Green said. “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.” He kept a palm on North’s chest and slightly turned his head so he could look at Nathan. “Tell us. Why didn’t you tell us what you were doing?”

Nathan glared at North across the room. “I don’t know why you’re angry about it. Don’t you want to be sure?”

“I’m angry because you did it without asking us,” he pointed to his own chest. “You went behind our backs for this?”

“I wasn’t going to risk you all telling her about it,” he said. “Warning her. Or trying to influence her. Kota understood that.” He told them about the diary, how he read it, how Sang had wished to be normal and talked about getting married and having a normal family. “We needed to be sure. So Kota went to ask Lily to talk to Sang about this and be absolutely sure we aren’t influencing the decision. That’s all we wanted. To be sure.”

There was a long pause. Nathan sensed he’d probably not say it all right, but how could they not understand this? They even talked about this in the very beginning, not pushing Sang into any relationship, to let her approach them if it was going to happen.

Dr. Green’s face twisted. He dropped his hand from holding back North. “No. I change my mind. Go ahead and punch him.”

Nathan jerked back as North raised a fist, but he held back. He used it to point at Nathan’s face with a knuckle. “Give me a reason not to, Nathan. Just one. Because what you did was ask Lily to dissect Sang and not trust what she was telling us herself. You don’t trust her?”

Nathan wasn’t totally sure this wasn’t just North being tired and angry with him. What hurt was that Dr. Green was taking North’s side on this. It made him question everything he’d done up until this point. “I can’t do this unless I know,” Nathan said, taking a defensive stance against the wall. “And I can’t let all of you do this to her without knowing for sure she wants it.”