Chapter 54 THE BLACK BOOK GOODBYE
Maxwell’s lips twitch. He takes the divorce papers, his gaze contemplative. “Do you know what he’s planning?”
I think back to the last few weeks—snippets I overheard when The Syndicate was in our home. The hushed whispers about the phantom. The stolen evidence. Gabriel Caruso’s visit.
Something’s there. A missing piece—a crucial one.
My scalp prickles. I shove my hand into my pocket for my phone, ready to comb through Elias’s prior texts for clues.
But my fingers bump into something solid and small.
The lighter.
Gasping, I quickly pull it out, the warm café lighting reflecting the delicate engraving on it.
“Why do you have his lighter?” Rex asks, hand reaching out. “Doesn’t he carry that damn thing everywhere? Let me see.”
Something niggles in my chest as I hand it over.
My mind is trying to tell me something—words I don’t understand, a code I haven’t noticed.
What is it?
Rex flicks the lighter on. A flame bursts.
“It’s heavy,” he murmurs, shaking it.
“The craftsmanship is beautiful,” Scarlett whispers. “The flowers, the vines. How it swirls around his name—”
My gaze snaps up. I snatch the lighter back, my heart thundering like the storm outside.
Hand trembling, I lift it toward the light, fingertips grazing the small indentations I noticed before. Like pinpricks. Almost like—
“A key,” I whisper. My thumb drags over the tiny marks. “These are keyholes. They have to be.”
“But where’s the key?” Aria nudges closer. “Do you know?”
My mind swirls through the options. The mansion is a labyrinth, not to mention the catacombs underneath St. Michael’s I haven’t explored.
It could be anywhere.
But why would he give this to me if he doesn’t think I can open it?
“Has he left you anything—a gift, something inconsequential?” Maxwell asks, his gray eyes sharp.
His words click.
I wrench the emerald pendant off my neck.
This and the music box are my most prized possessions from him. Both are symbols of his eternal love.
Flipping the pendant around, my breath freezes when I see small protruding marks I wrote off before.
I always thought they were handcrafted imperfections.
My vision sharpens, laser-focused on the lighter and my pendant. I hold my breath.
I snap the pendant against the marks on the lighter.
Click. A perfect match.
“Holy shit,” Rex mutters. “You’ve had that necklace forever.”
“He gave you the key years ago,” Maxwell murmurs, disbelief clear in his voice. “The fucking dealer of secrets.”
But I twist and shake the lighter. Nothing opens. The pendant unlocked something, but it isn’t enough.
There’s another missing piece.
Teeth snagging my lip, I rack my mind.
It’s a puzzle, just like the ones he’s sent me over the years.
My chest tightens. Tears sting my eyes again. Decades wasted, and I had no idea who he was all this time.
But I know he left this for me because he believed I could solve it.
I trace the vines, the delicate petals of the roses, his name carved on the bottom.
ELIAS KENT
My fingers still. I press down.
A small click. A shift. Just like the Japanese secret boxes he sent before.
These are levers. They shift and slide. Since it didn’t budge before, the pendant key must’ve triggered the mechanism.
If I rearrange the letters into the right order, it’ll unlock.
But what’s the sequence?
Sweat beads on my upper lip. I start shifting letters.
SAINT EKE
Nothing happens.
“The motherfucker. Why can’t he ever be straightforward?” Rex mutters.
I snort, the stress and absurdity of the situation finally hitting home. Aria dashes off somewhere.
“If he were an open book, he wouldn’t be alive,” Maxwell says.
Aria reappears with paper and pens. “Here, we can figure this out.”
Tension rises, silence falls. The only sounds are pens scratching on paper and occasional curses.
“Three hundred sixty-two thousand, eight hundred eighty,” Rex grumbles.
“What?” I spare him a glance.
“The number of combinations you can make with nine letters.”
We gape at him.
“What? I may be a party animal, but I’m smart. A genius really—”
“Ugh.” I roll my eyes, a smile twitching my lips. I miss my siblings.
“Silent Eke?” Maxwell furrows his brow. “God knows the man makes no sound.”
I try it. Still nothing.
“An Elks Tie!” Aria yells.
We stare at her, and she grimaces. “I don’t know. I’m a nurse, not a wordsmith.”
I try that too. Nothing.
“Ink Least.” Scarlett holds up her paper. “Does that mean anything?”
“No.” That combo doesn’t work. I slide the letters back into the original position.
ELIAS KENT
“It’s something else, something—”
Then suddenly—clarity.
I slap my forehead.
“What?” That can be Rex or the girls. I don’t know because my quaking pulse eclipses all sounds.
“I’m so stupid,” I whisper, more for myself than for others. “He told me who he was all along.”
My fingers tremble as I rearrange the letters once more.
The most obvious answer.
KIAN LESTE
“Holy shit. He’s your Kian? The guy you dated in Chicago in high school?” Rex asks.
Click.
I nod, a sob wrenching out of my throat.
A tiny compartment pops open at the bottom.
A micro SD card tumbles out.
“Let me get my laptop.” Scarlett scrambles off the seat.
“Elias Kent was always Kian Leste,” I whisper.
It’s so obvious and yet well hidden. An anagram. How did I ever miss this?
A laptop appears before me, and I glance up.
“You’ve got this,” Maxwell says.
I slide the memory card into the slot, and a folder appears on the screen.
In it are thousands of files.
Photos. Ledgers. Videos. More folders sorted by the names of politicians, CEOs, and world leaders. There’s something here on everyone.
I snap the laptop shut and yank the card free.
I won’t risk them. The fewer people know about this, the better. The info will put a target on their heads.
“I have to go.” I bolt out of the booth, hand fisting the items.
“Hold on. What’s on the drive? Where are you going?” Maxwell hollers as I dash to the exit.
“I’ll explain later. Go home. Protect your families.”
Turning at the threshold, I flash them a wobbly smile. “I love you all. Stay safe.”
Outside, sleet pelts from the sky. John opens the car door.
“Back to the house,” I tell him. The engine roars to life.
I make a call.
“Special Agent Clarke.”
“I might have what you need,” I murmur. “But I need your help right now.”
“I’ll meet you at your place in twenty,” he answers and hangs up.
My heart beats a rickety rhythm. I unfurl my fist, staring at what the Shadow King left me.
Elias gave me his black book of secrets.
His leverage against the world.