She looked between us all, clearly steeling her spine. Taking a shaky breath, she nodded. “Sure. I know that he means something to you all; otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. I don’t… I would never try and cut him off from his family. I know what it's like to be alone in the world, and I don’t want that for him, ever.”

Something relaxed in my chest at her soft words.

Rigby nodded encouragingly. “Just name a time and place.”

She dragged her eyes from Rigby to me, and swallowed hard. “CPS is dropping off Huey this afternoon, so how about tomorrow morning? At the Cheeky Javelina cafe?”

Rigby nodded, making a note of it in his phone. He pulled out his business card. “This is my number, in case you need anything beforehand. We’ll see you there at about ten?”

She nodded and hopped into a rickety old Mazda. I mean, it had to be twenty years old.

That wasn’t safe for Huey.

I hated this. Hated that his life and safety were going to be in the hands of a woman I didn’t know. What if she was a psycho? Foster care had taught me that not all sociopaths were identifiable. Sometimes, they were sweet, motherly types on the outside.

We watched her drive away, and Rigby huffed. “You fuckers are useless. Could you be any more ominous?”

He climbed into the back seat of the Range Rover. Rigby mightn’t have grown up with Alana, but he’d been my best friend since we were rookies, and when we were both called up for the same team, it had felt like fate. He’d adopted her as an honorary little sister, and had been there through her pregnancy too. Had held Huey in his huge arms as a tiny newborn. Cried at her funeral only a few weeks later.

He mightn’t have the same history with her as Devan and I, but he’d loved her—of that I had no doubt.

I climbed into the driver’s seat, Devan sliding into the passenger seat beside me. Staring through the windshield, I asked, “So, what do we do?”

Rigby and I both looked at Devan. He was so fucking smart. To look at him, you’d think he was some kind of shady bastard. He’d seen things growing up—we all had—and it still affected him today. So he had that coldness that put people off, and the brains to make you run around in circles before you even knew what was happening. He’d been investing money since I first went pro. He’d taken half of my first contract’s pay, and invested it.