His words hit like ice water, deluging my desire and banishing it to the ether. They must have done the same for Constantine because he immediately lifted his head, stealing his mouth from mine to face his brother-in-law.

The hall was too narrow for the two of us to stand side by side, so Constantine stood at an angle, making space for me to look at Hudson, ensuring I was part of the conversation as well.

“Is that a good or bad thing?” I took hold of his hand as Izzy strode up behind her husband.

“Both-ish?” Not the most encouraging response from her.

Constantine had eased the burden of my mental stress load, only for his sister to bring it back and double down, electrifying my worries.

“Where’s Lennon? Aurora has to know where the mercenaries have her by now.” Constantine tightened his grip on my hand. “Unless you’re about to tell me the theory we confirmed an hour ago, that she’s behind all of this, is wrong.”

“Carmello told Sebastian what we already knew—Daniel’s his son, and they began talking around Christmastime after his wife died. And it was only over encrypted messages. Aside from telling Aurora she had a half brother, he wasn’t ready for anyone else to know about Daniel,” she clarified. “After some encouragement by Emilia, Aurora finally admitted her father told her about Daniel, and she’d started talking to her brother as well over an encrypted chat app. She befriended Daniel and made him feel like he could trust her. You know, the sibling-he-never-had-and-always-wanted kind of thing.”

“With plans to sabotage the kid like we assumed,” Hudson said bitterly,

Izzy continued with her explanation. “She confessed that Daniel had told her about Lennon dating Colin and his jealousy. Daniel already knew about The League at this point. His father had told him. So, when Daniel mentioned to Aurora that Colin’s uncle worked at The Sapphire Hotel, she devised a plan and a promise to him. She offered to handle Colin for him, but she’d need a favor in return.”

“Set up the meeting with the Sicilians to abduct Colin,” Constantine said in a low voice. “Did Daniel have any clue what he was getting himself into? What about Jamie?”

“She only told Daniel he’d earn his father’s approval by helping her, which was all he wanted. Well, all he wanted aside from Lennon.” She continued, “As we guessed, she threatened to kill Jamie’s dad if he didn’t help out as well.”

“As we suspected, Daniel never gave anyone the heads-up he’d been detained by us before the rave. He was too scared,” Hudson added. “Just crossed his fingers the mafia would handle us for him.”

“So, what I’m hearing is we’re right,” Constantine said under his breath. “Why haven’t you answered my question and told me where Lennon is?”