Flo crossed the room and placed her wrinkled hands on either side of his face. She tilted it down toward her, then to the left and right as if she were inspecting him, but Cort couldn’t guess at what she was seeing. “Darnedest thing. I swear I feel like if we just bop you on the side of the head a few times we can just knock everything into alignment,” she muttered softly.
Grey grabbed her hands and carefully removed them from his face. “Let’s not. I’m not one of those old television sets with the rabbit ears.”
Flo sighed heavily and nodded even though Grey couldn’t see it. “You’re right. Back to business.” She turned so that she could see all the other men standing around the room. “You’ve got another brother close. You need to go fetch him before trouble finds him. You’ll need Grey with you to spot him.”
“Like I said earlier, blind,” Grey said between clenched teeth.
Jo jumped in with a quick glare at Flo as she spoke to Grey. “Yes, but you didn’t use your eyes to find Lucien at first, did you? You can find your brother without your eyes now. We know it.”
Cort wanted to know what the fuck they all were talking about with this brother stuff and Grey finding this guy without seeing him. Turning his gaze on Grey’s friends, not one of them looked happy about this arrangement. Of course that was forgotten in the face of Clay’s next words.
“This is a bad idea. Whenever we find a brother, trouble is there. It’s too dangerous for Grey to be there. He can’t effectively protect himself.” Clay winced and turned his gaze to Grey. “I’m sorry, Grey.”
“No apology necessary. It’s the truth. I don’t want one of you getting killed because I’m in the way.”
“No!” Willie howled. “Grey has to go. It’s the only way you’ll find him. Please!”
The silence extended as there were a lot of exchanged looks and unspoken questions that Cort didn’t understand.
“We could do it fast,” Lucien offered. “Maybe two teams like you did with me. Grey stayed away from the scuffle that time.”
“True, but I wanted to leave someone behind with Dane and Wiley this time after the attack we suffered last week,” Clay murmured thoughtfully.
Grey pressed his lips together in a hard line, and Cort’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t like that look. Grey was actually considering this.
“A quick snatch and run. Two cars,” Grey barked. “Clay stays with me. We pull our battery trick and I find this guy. Lucien grabs him while Clay stuffs me back in the car before going to back up Lucien. Once the guy is in hand, we run.”
“Why am I staying behind?” Baer complained.
“Because you have the best chance of leaving the house still standing if there’s a problem,” Clay replied.
“Oh. Yeah. True,” Baer agreed.
Clay frowned for a moment, and Cort swore his heart stopped when the man finally nodded. “We can make this work.” Clay then looked at Cort, his expression stern like Flo’s. “Cort, I’m sorry but Grey will have to cut his session short today—”
“No,” he snapped.
“I’m sorry—”
“You’re right. I should have said ‘Hell, no!’ Do you seriously think I’m going to let Grey walk out of here and into a dangerous situation? Y’all are talking in this crazy code. I get you don’t want me to know your business and I’m fine with that, but Grey’s safety is my number-one priority. You’re not putting him in danger on my watch.”
“Did you know your accent gets incredibly thick when you’re angry?” Grey said with the cutest grin on his face. Cort was sure he would have melted into a useless puddle if he wasn’t already pissed.
“Not now, Grey,” he grumbled, returning his attention to Clay, who was clearly the leader of this insane mob.
“Cort, this isn’t a decision I’m making lightly. I don’t want anything to happen to Grey, but the aunts have made it clear he needs to come with us. We need to bring our missing brother home safely. I will do everything within my power to keep Grey safe.” To his credit, Clay didn’t look happy about this arrangement one little bit. He looked genuinely worried for Grey.
“Fine. Then if Grey’s going, I’m going with him,” Cort announced, ready to dig his heels in even deeper.
“Grey, can you…” Clay started with a snarl.
“What? What do you think I can do here?” Grey snapped, waving at his eyes. Cort couldn’t guess at what that was about, but Clay finally threw his hands up.
“Fine. Grey and Cort are with me in the SUV. Lucien will follow in the Porsche.” He pointed at the grinning Black man. “You’re running distraction and interference.”
“Where is our brother?” Grey asked.
“The beach. He was drawn to the waves,” Willie said easily.