Chapter One Word
One Word
Max
She didn’t cringe away. I touched Fiona’s hand, and she neither flinched nor screamed. This means I can make progress.
Slowly and carefully, but it’s possible.
The fact that I have to meet with Vex this afternoon only drives me crazier because I have to leave Fiona and rely on War’s kids.
Ruin, Reck, Rath, Rend, Rift, Raid, and Rush walk into the bakery. Will it be standing by the time their shift is over?
This is stupid. Fiona will hate me for siccing these kids on her. Then again, are they really that bad compared to the dozens of street kids that funnel through here each day?
Rend shoves Ruin and trips Reck as they walk up to my table.
Yes. Yes, they are. “Don’t break anything while I’m gone.”
“Where are the hot girls?” Ruin asks as he falls into a chair.
I roll my eyes. “If you get kicked off of Willow Street, I’m going to work out with you for the next six months.”
“Uncle Max,” Reck whines.
“It’s that or tell your mom.”
All the boys get quiet.
“That’s what I thought.” Annika scares me, too.
Fiona walks over to the table.
Perfect timing. I wanted to say goodbye before I left. “Hey, Fiona. These are my nephews.”
“Hey, boys.” She gives them a friendly smile.
As a unit, the boys’ jaws drop.
Which would be cute if they weren’t gawking at my woman. “Manners,” I bark out.
“Hello,” they say in unison.
“If they give you any trouble, you let me know. This should cover their food.” I set three-hundred-dollar bills on the table.
“I’m sure they’ll have a good time. What can I get you, boys?”
I can’t help feeling just a little disappointed that she didn’t say goodbye. Have I made any progress with her?
***
“What have you found?” Vex stalks into my secret lair.
It’s really just a warehouse in a vast sea of warehouses that I own, with a setup to ensure ultimate privacy while hiding my power usage, but secret lair sounds so much cooler.
“Nothing. I told you it would take a while to sort through the amount of data we’re looking at.
” I want to find Marlie as much as Vex does.
“We traced the aliens’ van to a helicopter outside of the city.
Then it disappeared. They were smart. There were no tail markings.
Out of tens of thousands of the same make helicopters in the country, we’re looking for a scratch on one.
It’s not like they registered a flight plan or came up on any radars.
I have an algorithm searching for helicopter noises and then eliminating them from our list. But even that is hard to do because they could have fixed the scratch during routine maintenance. ”
Vex starts pacing. “There has to be something else we can do. A thread we can pull. A lead I can follow up on.”
“Whoever took her was smart. And it likely wasn’t Plant.”
“Yeah, but he was in on it. I know it.”
Vex isn’t going to want to hear this. “I think we need to pull in more assets.”
“No.”
That stubbornness will get him killed one day. “I’m not talking about the cops. I’m talking about people we trust.”
Vex stalks away. “I don’t trust anyone.”
That’s not true, even though he might think that. “I might have a brother.”
Vex stops and turns around. “What does that mean?”
“Some kid says he’s my brother and that Mom and him are in danger.”
“How can I help?”
“And that proves my point.” I grin at him.
“Don’t irritate me, or I’ll shoot you.”
“Your wife won’t like that.” It was a cheap shot, but I took it anyway. Is that how I look when I think about Fiona?
“We don’t need anyone else.”
“Then you’re happy waiting to find her.” That was another low blow. But with all his connections, Aleksei Kamenev is bound to be able to find something out about a human trafficker.
“We can dig into the women’s shelters again. Someone’s got to know something.”
“And you know who might be able to help with that? Aleksei. His father was one of the biggest human traffickers in the world.”
“So was my father. That’s the exact reason I don’t trust him.” Vex has valid reasons trust anyone.
“By those standards, I shouldn’t trust you. Aleksei has done everything in his power to get out of the trade. Including risking his and his family’s lives. Kamenev can help. You already agreed to let him in on the DNA lab.” Talking to Vex is like talking to a wall. How does Dahlia do it?
“He’s got skin in the game.”
“Like Aleksei Kamenev would ever let his kids’ DNA anywhere near a site like that. You’ve known Maddox half of your life, and you aren’t even letting him know everything we know. This would be so much easier if we worked it together.”
“Fine. Bring him in. But if Marlie dies…” Vex has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“If she dies, you’ll have done everything you could to save her.” A text comes in. It’s one word from a number I don’t know.
Yes.
The kid wasn’t lying.
“What just happened? Did your dog die or something?”
“The kid wasn’t lying.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have a brother.” I have a brother.
“You’re certain?”
“The DNA results just came in.” I have a brother.
My mother lied.
And now she’s in danger.