Chapter 29
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
ASHER
Ivy has left traces of herself all over this house. A black hair tie looped around the lamp stem, a thumbnail nick in the coffee table from her little party tantrum. Counting each one keeps my fist out of Atlas’s face, since he won’t shut the fuck up.
Atlas paces across the rug, grinding snow from his boots. “I told you.” He spreads his hands. “I fucking told you not to let her run off.”
My fingers close around the armrest. “Shut the fuck up.”
“You stood there and watched her go.” Atlas kicks the rug, missing by half an inch. “Barefoot. In a storm. After she just figured out who the fuck you are.”
I stop rocking. “You’re one shitty comment away from me fucking you up, Atlas.”
Atlas stops behind the sofa. “You’re sitting still. That’s fucking terrifying. How the fuck is doing the opposite of what we should be doing keeping you calm?”
“It’s working,” I tell him. “I’m only considering one murder.”
His mouth twists. “Hilarious.”
Someone hammers on the front door.
Atlas reaches inside his coat.
I rise, the chair still rocking without me. “If you shoot whoever found her, I’ll be annoyed.”
“If they hurt her, you’ll be more than annoyed,” Atlas mutters, following me into the hall.
I unlock the door and pull it open.
Leon stands on the step, Punk at his left in a beanie. Luce grips Punk’s elbow, and Jord shoves to the front of them, fury hardening his face.
“What is happening?”
“I’m sure your friends have a lot to tell you,” I say to Jord, lifting a brow at Leon.
“Shut up, Delacroix,” Leon snaps, pushing inside with the rest trailing behind him.
I slam the door shut.
“Why the fuck did you let her run?” Leon asks, clinking bottles at the bar in the corner of the living room.
Here we go. Another fucking round of questions.
“I didn’t,” I say, snatching the freshly poured whiskey and dropping back into the rocking chair. “I was going to get her but she was gone.”
“Hmmm.” Punk gives me a slow nod. “Sounds about right. But why the fuck did she run in the first place!”
I pause with the glass at my mouth. Punk’s face loses color.
“Because she made me.”
Silence. That’s what the fuck I thought.
Luce blows out a breath, dropping onto the back of the sofa. “Okay. Think. Is it possible that he caught her?”
“Surely not,” Punk says, shaking her head, while Jord’s eyes swing between his friends, desperate to piece it all together. “If he did,” she continues. “We would know by now, right? Emeric is far too fucking theatrical to not make a scene by now.”
“It’s been thirty-five minutes,” I say, hissing through the burn. “Don’t count him out too soon.”
Luce’s gaze narrows on me. “Now, you’re awfully fucking calm, Asher. May I ask why?”
“You may.” I shrug, emptying the glass down my throat. “But I won’t tell you.”
“Oh, this is a thing he does when he’s trying to stay logical,” Atlas adds, sarcasm riding under it. “I’m sure he’s going to explode sooner or later.”
I won’t. He knows that.
“He won’t,” Leon murmurs, unbuttoning his jacket and lowering himself onto the sofa, eyes on me. “Even as kids he never did.”
Punk taps furiously at her keyboard.
“Okay that’s it!” Jord shouts, shoving off the wall. “What the fuck is going on and why do you all know each other?”
I open my mouth to answer, and someone knocks again.
“Fuck!” Punk screams, slamming her laptop. “I can’t get in anywhere near where he is!”
I head for the front door and let our newest guest in while Punk blabbers about being a failure.
I wave a hand toward her. “I bring you someone who does know how to get in over there.” Everyone turns to the woman beside me. “Meet Amélie Monét.”
Amélie smiles, but I know I’m gonna get an earful later.
“Ivy’s mother,” I add.
“Great,” Luce snaps, turning her back to Amelie. “Just what we need. A fucking deadbeat.”
“That’s it!” Jord yells. “Where the fuck is my friend and why the fuck are you all liars!”
I glare at Leon. “Explain the shit to him before he starts giving me a headache.”
Leon doesn’t move. He studies Jord for a beat, giving the poor bastard one final breath before dropping his entire life into a blender.
“Emeric is Ivy’s father,” Leon says, resting his forearms on his knees. “He trained her as a child, buried commands in her head, and spent years sending us jobs so he could keep her close.”
Jord’s mouth opens.
Punk lifts one finger from her laptop. “And Asher runs the Delacroix house.”
Jord turns toward me, his face going blank. “Runs it how?”
I roll the empty glass between my palms. “Le Parrain.”
“Supreme leader,” Luce adds, aiming the words at Jord while her stare stays fixed on Amélie. “Since nobody in this room seems fond of plain fucking English.”
Amélie walks past her and puts a silver case on the dining table. “Plain English tends to upset people.”
Luce follows, muttering, “Your existence upsets me.”
Amélie flips the latches. Inside sits a slim black terminal, three encrypted drives, and enough illegal hardware to get a normal person buried under federal charges.
Punk drags her chair beside Amélie, flipping her laptop open again, teal hair slipping from beneath her beanie as she leans over the case. “You built a closed relay?”
“I built six,”Amélie answers, connecting a cable to Punk’s laptop. “Emeric knows the first four.”
Luce gives her another hard look. “Gold star for motherhood.”
Amélie’s hand stalls over the keyboard.
Punk clears her throat, sliding a drive into place. “I’m going to act like we’re not one insult away from becoming a crime scene.”
The front door bangs open, blowing snow across the entry tiles.
Khloe storms inside with ice stuck to her lashes, kicking the door shut behind her. “Still no tracks past what we know. The wind’s filling everything.”
My chair hits the floor. “Where did you look?”
“Tree line, springs, ridge, eastern access road.” Khloe digs into her coat, pulling out a phone. “Found this, though.”
She tosses it.
I catch Ivy’s phone against my chest.
Snow packs the cracked corner of the case. Her lock screen stays black when I press the button, and a thin smear of blood marks the volume switch. Mine, hers, anyone’s. Every answer ends with me killing someone.
“Where exactly?” I ask, turning the phone over.
Khloe strips off one glove with her teeth. “Fifty yards into the forest, screen down.”
“So she dropped it while running,” Atlas says from behind me.
Khloe shakes her head. “Her footprints stop after that point. There was some blood...”
Leon rises from the sofa. “We’re on a timer.”
I lift my eyes to him, closing my fist around Ivy’s phone.
Leon looks across the room. “If Emeric has her, we’re all dead if he unleashes her. Ivy won’t hesitate, and no amount of les amants maudits is gonna change that.”
Yeah. I’m beginning to think he’s right.