Fear sluiced through him at the thought. How was he to find out who was responsible? How could he keep his family safe?

Charlie was at the hospital with Ava and Dad at the moment, and his mom was home with her friends, playing bridge. Everyone was protected... for now. Heading toward A.S., he looked at the red brick facade. He’d keep it casual, walk in, and say he had to leave as something had come up. No need to go into details, because he didn’t have any, and Mickey could be way off base. Please let Mickey be off base.

It wasn’t busy, but the fire roared and a few people sat around it eating snacks.

One of them could be.... Shut it down, Dylan.

“Everything okay, Dylan?”

“Sure.” He managed a nod to Piper. She was seated at a table with Joe and Bailey, who was holding Grace in her lap.

“That face says different,” she said, waving a hand at him.

He was absolutely not talking to anyone about this.

“You want a beer?” Joe asked.

“I need to get going actually, but thanks. I just have some stuff to do.” Keep it calm, you’re good at that, he reminded himself. No need to show anyone the panic that was clawing at his throat.

“Sure as hell looks like you could do with a drink. Coffee, maybe?”

“No, I’m good, but thanks.”

“Pip said you had a phone call that sounded a bit rough. That why you have to go?” Joe asked.

Back in New York, people didn’t care if he received bad phone calls or if he was having an off day. In fact, no one noticed much about how he was feeling because Dylan never showed any emotions, but here... hell, here he was an open book, it seemed.

“Is it bad news, Dylan?”

“It’s just something I need to deal with, Piper, so I’ll see you guys around.”

“We’re your friends, Dylan,” Joe said. “Friends are there for each other, so if whatever this is, is something that your friends can help you with, maybe you should let us.”

“It’s not,” he said in a voice that made Piper’s eyes widen. “I need to deal with this alone.”

He walked out then, away from the two Trainers he was sure could be classed as friends, and one of them... hell, one of them, he’d come to realize, was way more than that.

But the other realization he’d had as he’d looked down at Piper was that if someone was targeting his family to get at him, then they would only need to watch him with her to see how much she meant to Dylan, and he could never allow that to happen. So from now on, he’d be staying away from all Trainers, but especially Piper and Grace.