Page 80 of Commit

He tenses. “Ivy is different.”

“Why, ‘cause she’s yours?”

“Alright, fuckers, calm down.” Kenzo sighs. You know things are going to shit when Kenzo is the voice of reason.

“I had to fight her just to let me buy her clothes. She didn’t marry me for my money, Atlas. So you can just forget that right now. She married me because I blackmailed her. I’m ninety percent sure she hates me.”

Atlas relaxes. “Okay, good.”

“I need new friends,” Kenzo mutters.

“I hate to put this in your head, but if this person has it out for you, you might need to keep a closer eye on your girl.”

“Fuck, I never thought they might target her.” I run my fingers through my hair and pull my phone out to check the cameras.

“Or she could be involved. The timing of her coming into your life seems more suspicious than coincidental now.”

I pause and look up at Kenzo.

“Are you high? She’s an eighteen-year-old high school student. She has no idea what I really do for a living. For fuck’s sake, she thinks I drive Atlas’s ass around all day. She sure as hell wouldn’t know about an old target’s wife or who my army buddies were.”

“Stranger things have happened. In our world, we tend to underestimate women when they’re often stronger than we think.”

I shake my head and look at Atlas. He shrugs. “Ivy shot me.”

“Trix drugged me. Though, to be fair, I drugged her first. Oh, and she’s the real Bone Keeper.”

I blink, then turn back to Atlas, who doesn’t look surprised at all. Of course, Atlas knows. That motherfucker knows everything.

“But she’s so…”

“Badass, I know.” He smiles proudly.

I was thinking fragile, but I don’t share that, still kind of stunned.

“You need to look into her. Should have done it before you married her. But if the search comes back bad, there’s nothing a bullet won’t fix.”

“Careful, Atlas,” I warn him. He might be my boss, but it’s only on paper. I work for him because I choose to, and he pays well, not because I need to.

He gets up and pours himself another glass of whiskey and downs it before he can say anything else that will make me want to shoot him.

“We checked out her father. He has a rap sheet a mile long. He was in and out of prison for more than a decade of her life. How the fuck she ended up in his custody is beyond me, especially since he’s not on the birth certificate.”

“A simple blood test would take care of that, but can you blame the mom for not listing him? She probably thought she was doing the kid a favor,” Kenzo says.

“I looked into his connection to the hit-and-run, and my sources tell me it has nothing to do with the loan shark he owed money to. Word on the street is he goes after the source, not the families,” I tell them, not bothering to listen to their response as I scan through all the cameras in the house, frowning when I can’t find Starling.

“What’s wrong?” Kenzo asks.

“I can’t find her,” I mutter.

“Isn’t she at school?” he drawls, making Atlas chuckle.

“Maybe, but we didn’t get in till six-thirty this morning.”

I call her cell, but she doesn’t answer. I call her again and leave her a tense message to call me back.

“Call the high school,” Atlas suggests when he sees I’m worried.