Chapter Twenty-four
Aaliyah
“ H oney, I’m home,” I call out as I step into the house, a grin on my lips.
“Which one of us are you calling honey?” Tyson asks, leaning in the doorway that leads to the living room.
I shrug. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Not really.” He pushes away from the doorway and closes the distance to pull me into his arms for a kiss. “I assume things went well?”
I nod as I smile up at him. “Took them both out without a problem. Getting multiple at once is kind of nice. Where’s River? I’m surprised she didn’t come out to greet me.”
Tyson nods toward the stairs, a smirk painting his lips. “She wouldn’t stop calling Archer demon daddy, so he and Naomi took her upstairs to punish her.”
“Now, that’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing,” I say, pulling away and heading for the stairs.
Reid laughs as he walks down the stairs toward me. “That’s what I said, but they wouldn’t let me join, so I just stood outside the door and jerked off. It sounds like they’re all done, so I decided to come downstairs.”
Tyson sighs, running a hand over his face. “Please tell me you didn’t, baby boy.”
“I would, but then I’d be lying, and we both know how you feel about me lying to you.”
I try to hold back my laughter—I really do—but I fail spectacularly. Reid scoops me into arms as soon as he reaches me, grinning down at me before kissing me as he spins us in a circle. “You get me, don’t you, angel?”
“Yup. I probably would’ve done the same thing if I was here.” I’m still laughing when he sets me down on my feet.
“What’s so funny?” Hayes asks as he joins us in the entryway, coming over and kissing me.
“Reid decided that since Archer wouldn’t let him join them to watch River’s punishment that he’d stand outside the door and jerk off.”
Hayes rolls his eyes. “I wish I could say I’m more surprised. Duckie, you’re going to need to behave better or you’re going to end up being the one punished.”
“That can definitely be arranged,” Archer’s voice is stern.
I spin around to see him and Naomi leading a grinning River down the stairs. “Looks like our girl had a good time.”
River hums as she hops down the remaining steps and bounces over to throw her arms around me. “The best time.”
“Because good girls get rewards,” Naomi says with a smirk. “And my pretty girl took her punishments like the good girl she usually is.”
“Yeah, that.” River smirks, mischief dancing in her eyes. “But now that you’re home, I need to share what I found tonight before I got distracted.”
She dances into the living room, gesturing for us to follow her as she grabs her tablet. As we all get settled, she continues to mess with the tablet before sitting beside me.
“I still don’t have any names, and this information was really hard to come by, but I found out that the drug ring is being run by not one, not two, but three people.” River grins, finally looking up from the tablet. “I have my program running the information on all four webs—the human and supernatural webs, plus both dark webs. I don’t know if knowing this will help us find more information, but it looks like it hasn’t found anything yet.”
“Maybe not, but that’s amazing that you were able to find out that much.” I squeeze her leg.
Reid leans forward. “I also have a program running that’s looking for areas where kelpies. dryads, nymphs, or dragons have gone missing. I’m hoping that we can find some kind of pattern that’ll give us a better idea of where they might be. Or at least how they’re choosing who they’re kidnapping now that we know the ingredients necessary to make the drugs.”
“That’s smart,” Hayes says, nodding. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner.”
“Probably because we’ve been too busy hunting down the other names on the list to eliminate them,” Naomi offers. “Now, we just need to figure out who these three people are, and then we can end this.”
“With any luck, the guild will end up sending me them as targets. That’s definitely made it much easier for us.” I laugh, looking around as if I assume a card is just going to appear. “Well, it was worth a shot.”
My stomach chooses then to growl, sending all of us into peels of laughter.
“What is it with you and killing people?” Hayes grumps as he pushes to his feet. “You always come back hungry. Come on, Reid. Let’s get some food going.”
“I’ll help,” Naomi says as she stands, quickly following them to the kitchen.
Glancing at the others, I stand as well. “Let’s keep them company while they’re cooking. I like to torture myself by smelling the deliciousness.”
The others follow me without complaint, and we’re soon gathered around the island as we watch the three of them cook. I don’t know what they’re making, but it already smells amazing.
“What are we going to do until we find out who the top bosses are?” I ask, focusing on Tyson.
He shrugs. “Hope that River’s or Reid’s programs find something for us? It took us a couple of years to find the information we had. Meeting you sped up our timeline a lot. You might have been joking when you were looking for a card with all three names on it, but whoever you work for might just be our best bet.”
I still haven’t told them about the guild. They all know I work for someone, and they know how my jobs appear. It’s not that I don’t trust them. I just feel like it puts them in more danger if they know exactly who I work for. It might not sound logical, but it’s just a feeling in my gut. Luckily, none of them seem to care that I haven’t told them.
It probably doesn’t matter to them to have a name. It’s not like it changes anything. I’m still an assassin, and my jobs still come from someone else.
“Ummm… Foxy girl? I think this is for you.”
I look up in time to see Hayes holding a black card out to me. At my frown, he laughs. “It must’ve been on the counter. We moved everything so we’d have more room for prep, but I didn’t notice it until now.”
I take it from him, heart pounding. Did the guild find the three bosses for us? Can we finally end this all?
Archibald Ashby Rashid Amin Nadia Amin $10,000,000 A drop of blood to accept. Rip card in half to decline.
I swallow, staring at the names. There are a lot of people in the world named Rashid and Nadia. There’s no reason to be freaking out right now.
Ignoring the rapid beating of my heart, I grab the dagger at my hip, run my finger across the tip, and press it to the card. It disappears as information fills my mind, and my worst fears are confirmed.
“Motherfucker.” I jump to my feet so quickly, I knock the stool to the floor.
“Love, are you alright?” Archer reaches for me, but I step out of his reach.
Running a hand down my face, I force myself to look up at the others. “The good news is I have the names of the bosses —Archibald Ashby, Rashid Amin, and Nadia Amin. Apparently, my parents have chosen a new last name for themselves and decided to get into the drug trade. We’re so fucked.”
My head is pounding, thoughts swirling around with the massive info dump the guild just sent my way, and it’s all too much. Ignoring the others calling out for me, I spin on my heel and head for the back door. Kira yips, following me out into the backyard and into the forest.
I just need to get away from it all.