PRIEST STEPPED OFF the elevator at Mitchell & Madison and went straight to his office. Luckily, Cole and Logan were both out right now, and Priest was unlikely to be disturbed. Considering what he had to do, that was a good fucking thing.

He shut the door and headed straight to his filing cabinet, where he unlocked the bottom drawer and grabbed the piece of paper he’d scrawled Henri’s number on.

As he slammed the drawer shut, Priest shut his eyes and immediately saw an image of Robbie’s face as it had been just before he’d left him and Julien back at the restaurant. In startling detail, he recalled rosy cheeks that had turned ashen and blue eyes, usually so full of joy, filled with uncertainty and…betrayal.

Lies. They were the one thing Priest couldn’t abide, and he had been adamant from the beginning that Robbie be honest with them and they would do the same—and the look in Robbie’s eyes today, as the truth about Priest’s parentage came to light, made it clear that Robbie felt Priest had not lived up to his end of the bargain.

As Priest sat there, he told himself for the hundredth time he hadn’t lied about Jimmy—he just hadn’t told Robbie about it yet due to the circumstances surrounding the fucker.

If Jimmy was merely rotting in a cell for the rest of his life the way he was supposed to be, Priest would’ve told Robbie all about his miserable childhood back at the beginning of all of this. But with the news of Jimmy’s possible parole, and the weekend in L.A., the time to talk about this hadn’t exactly presented itself. Not in any suitable way.

Priest cursed and reached for the phone, doing as Henri had instructed and calling him on a private line. He needed to find out how the fuck Jimmy’s hearing had been leaked to the press. He’d certainly thought about it, but in the end decided against it, knowing that would make him no better than the man behind bars, because this would most certainly put a target on Jimmy’s back—not that Priest cared about that. He was more concerned with the fact his whole fucking life from birth to age seven was about to be up for public consumption all over again.

Just as that thought entered his mind, the phone connected, and before Henri could get more than his name out, Priest said, “What the fuck is going on down there, Henri?”

“So nice to hear from you too, Priest.”

Priest refused to feel shitty about his greeting as he turned his chair around and stared out the window. “I was just thinking the exact opposite about you.”

Henri sighed, and Priest could imagine him running a hand over his shaved head. “I assume you heard or—”

“I saw it on the afternoon fucking news.”

“Yeah, my offices are currently working on finding out who leaked the information— Wait, you didn’t…”

“Fuck you,” Priest said through clenched teeth.

“Hey, I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I’d be surprised, since you and I both know how this will likely end now. But I wouldn’t blame you. I’m thinking someone who doesn’t like Jimmy all that well got the scoop. Let’s face it, he’s not lacking for enemies. But you can bet Jimmy’s not resting too comfortably tonight.”

Good, Priest thought, and shook his head. “This is totally fucked. You know that, don’t you?”

“I do,” Henri said. “Are you okay?”

Priest ran a hand around to the back of his neck and squeezed it until it hurt. He didn’t want this man asking him that. “I’m fine.”

“Is Julien there?”

“No. He’s at home. But you told me to call from here. So here I am.”

“Nice to know you can at least follow an order if it’s to keep those you love safe.”

Those he loved… Priest shut his eyes and let Julien’s face come to mind. His worried expression, the concern that had been written all over his handsome face. And then an image of Robbie replaced it, sitting in the library back in L.A., cradling Julien in his arms.

“Don’t fucking start with me, Henri. I’m not in the mood.”

“Then go home,” Henri said. “Go home and let Julien know the deal. Be careful, keep an eye out, and all of that. And let me see what I can find on my end.”

“You aren’t finding shit.”

“And you are being a dick. Just remember, I’m the one who stayed here and dealt with this shit. You left, Joel.”

And because he was right, and Priest didn’t want to hear it, he hung up and glared at the phone. The last thing he wanted to think about was Jimmy being free and walking around amongst the general population again. The fact that that was even an option was ludicrous. But apparently someone high up had a career to make, and getting the new head of the New Orleans’s crime ring behind bars was more important than keeping an old killer off the streets.

Must be nice not to worry about that at night, Priest thought. To be able to go to sleep and not see rooms with blood on the floor, to hear the screams of men you’d never imagine screaming as they pleaded for their lives. That must be nice to be able to rest easy.

Not that he would know. He hadn’t slept easy for years. Not since he was seven. That was when his childhood had ended, when his innocence had been taken away from him, and even with Jimmy behind bars, Priest had never been able to escape him. Now Jimmy was about to be set free.

The monster who truly was evil incarnate was about to walk out into the light of day, and Priest couldn’t help but remember his words, remember the look of anger and betrayal on his face the day they’d dragged him away.

Maybe this leak was for the best after all, because if Jimmy really was dead and buried, Priest could finally shut the door on his wretched past once and for all.

ROBBIE STARED OUT the window of the Range Rover as Julien drove them home in silence, and as he watched the cars passing them by, he tried to focus on them and not the twisted knot in his stomach, which made him feel as though he wanted to vomit.

His mind was still reeling from the bomb Priest had just dropped at the brewhouse, and Robbie still hadn’t worked out how to speak to ask anything of importance.

Jimmy Donovan is Priest’s…dad? How is that even possible?

It made no sense at all. The man was a murderer. Not only a murderer, but one of the most infamous in the nation. As that thought hit him, Robbie clutched at his stomach and heard Julien say, “Do you need me to pull over, princesse?”

God, this felt like déjà vu. Hadn’t Julien said the exact same thing when he’d driven Robbie home after his nonna’s fall? Yeah, he had, and then he’d taken Robbie home to Priest, and the two of them had made Robbie feel safe, made him feel special, and now it turned out one of those men was the son of a— Oh my God. Priest is the son of Jimmy Donovan.

As the documentaries he’d seen scattered on cable over the years flashed through his mind, one very important and devastating fact glared out at him in all its red-haired glory.

The little boy who had witnessed—shit, it was too horrifying to even think—that had been…Priest? But not Priest, because that wasn’t his name, was it?

“Robbie?” Julien’s voice cut through Robbie’s jumbled thoughts. “Do you need me to pull over?”

But Robbie remembered Priest’s words—Go straight home—and shook his head.

“Did you…” Robbie said, and then licked his suddenly dry lips. “Have you… I mean, have you always known about…”

“His father?”

“Yes,” Robbie said, even as his entire body rebelled at the idea that someone like Priest had come from such a monster.

“Oui, he told me when things got serious between us.”

The comment was an innocent one, all things considered, but it cut deeper than Robbie expected, and the sting of it had him turning away. He didn’t want Julien to see how much it hurt him that Priest didn’t consider him—them—serious.

“Princesse?” Julien said, but Robbie shook his head. He didn’t want to show his hand just yet, or feel any more vulnerable or stupid than he already did.

But then Julien said, “Robert,” and the serious tone was so unlike him that Robbie found himself responding despite himself.

He looked over to see Julien turning into their parking garage, and said, “What?”

“He was going to tell you.”

Robbie ground his teeth together but remained silent as Julien wove them down to their spot and parked. The air in the car was tense, and Robbie hated that. He wanted to be understanding about this, and knew he probably should be, but this revelation was too much. It was…unfathomable.

“Priest found out about Jimmy’s parole the night you moved in.”

Robbie’s mind backtracked to that night. To the worry on Julien’s face when he opened the door, and the distracted light in Priest’s eyes when Robbie had gone to him in the bathroom. But never could he have imagined that this had been that chaos roiling through him.

“He was waiting to hear more details before he told you. If the situation had been different, he would’ve already talked to you about it.”

Robbie swallowed, trying to make sense of everything he was hearing, and then Julien said, “He’s still the same man he’s always been, princesse.”

Robbie knew that. In his mind, he knew that Priest was exactly the same person he’d come to know and trust implicitly over these past few weeks, but… “I feel like I know nothing about him. And everything I thought I knew feels like a lie. Even his last name. The name I call him. That’s a lie.”

“Non, it’s not. He chose that name for a very particular reason, and as for Jimmy? He’s been out of Priest’s life for a very long time. Since he was a little boy.”

“But he’s not, is he? Not really,” Robbie said, as he stared across the car into Julien’s questioning eyes. “He’s the reason Priest doesn’t sleep. He’s the reason he never slows down, never stops, never has peace. Jimmy ruined that little boy.”

Julien brought their hands up to his lips and kissed Robbie’s knuckles. “Or he made him fight to be the man he is now,” Julien said. “This is a shock, I understand that.”

Robbie shook his head as Priest’s words from that intimate moment the two of them had shared back in L.A. came rushing back to him: There has to be trust, honesty, and total transparency…or this kind of relationship won’t work.

“I need to,” Robbie drew his hand away and shoved open the door to the SUV. “I need to think about this. It’s not a conversation I can have right now.”

Julien nodded and climbed out also, and as he walked around the front of the vehicle, Robbie noticed he was looking around them, and he felt his pulse spike. What is he checking for?

“Let’s go upstairs,” Julien said, and held out his hand. “Priest should be home soon, and you can ask him anything you like.”

Robbie crossed his arms over his chest and followed Julien as they walked over and got in the elevator, and as he watched the doors shut, he couldn’t help but wonder what other secrets the two men he’d fallen in love with were keeping from him—and was he ready to hear them?