Chapter 24 #3
"I'd like your permission," he said, voice low. "To hunt them down. To be the one who ends them." He pulled a flask from his coat pocket and drank deeply while he waited for Raven's reply.
Raven nodded once, slowly. "Nothing would make me happier; you honor me, San— and my father—. Follow me to my office. Let's lay some groundwork for a plan. But if you don't mind, there is something else I want you to look into for me first; I'd rather talk about it in private."
Raven placed his hand on his shoulder, guiding him out of the still crowded room, "He loved you; you know Raven.
He was just afraid to tell you, afraid someone else would see you as a weakness in him and try to take you away from him, like they did your mother.
He was like that —Hector, hard but dedicated. "
Raven's heart clenched, but it wasn't just in grief—but also fury at himself. At the silence he'd let continue between them over the years. If he'd said it, maybe they wouldn't have spent their last years circling each other like strangers with matching scars, afraid of love.
As they made their way to his office, his phone rang again. Unknown Caller. He didn't recognize the number flashing on his screen but answered anyway.
"Hello." He answered.
"Is this Mr. Raven Cordoba?" The female voice on the line asked.
"Yes, who's calling"? His words were impatient, his tolerance for the conversation already beginning to wane as he sat down at his desk. He motioned for Uncle San to take a seat across from him.
"This is nurse Diana Slaughter at Marina Del Rey Hospital."
"Of course, Diana. What can I do for you? I'm juggling a lot today." Raven's voice was clipped, professional. It was the kind of tone he reserved for strangers who didn't know better than to interrupt him.
He was familiar with Marina Del Rey Hospital. Too well.
He made donations there every year, quiet ones. No press, no plaques. Just envelopes and wire transfers, always in his mother's name.
It had been her cause—helping the uninsured, the forgotten, the ones who slipped through cracks no one bothered to seal.
She used to say the hospital was where dignity went to fight for its last breath. That fact was the only reason Raven was still on the line.
"We have a private matter we need to discuss with you regarding a family member. Is there any way I can get you to come to the hospital and visit with me?"
"Which family member?" Raven asked in a harsh tone; he didn't have time for this shit; he already had too much going on. He was ready to hang up the phone. The call had to be a donation call or something the Stallions had initiated. No, it was too early for that.
“Stoker Cordoba."
Raven stopped walking. She had his attention now. He'd just left Stoker only fifteen minutes ago, sent him to see to Mynx. There was no way something would have happened to land him in the hospital in that amount of time.
"I'll be there within the hour." Raven hung up the phone and texted Stoker.
7:52 A.M. Raven- Stoker, where are you?
7:53 A.M. Stoker - I decided Mynx's security was too precious to be left in anyone else's hands and left the mansion five minutes ago, en route to her place. I'll stay with her as long as I can to ensure her safety. My second will take over when you're ready for me.
Raven sat still, the weight of the nurse's words pressing against his chest. The hospital wanted to speak to him about Stoker—but Stoker wasn't there.
He'd just texted, saying he was en route to Mynx's place, where he was overseeing her security himself.
That wasn't a man lying in a hospital bed. That was a man in motion.
So, what the hell did Marina Del Rey want to talk to me about? Stoker was fine.
7:55 A. M. Raven- Thank you— I can't tell you how much that means to me. I'll check in soon.
The reply from Stoker lingered on Raven's screen like a contradiction.
He stared at the message, rereading it twice.
Left the mansion five minutes ago… staying with her as long as I can…
It didn't add up. Was someone else using Stoker's name? Or did the hospital have something to tell him they weren't comfortable saying over the phone?
Raven leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing. This could be it. The thread he'd been waiting to pull. The one that unraveled the truth about his father's death might reveal the killer.
He tapped the mic clipped to his collar.
"I need a car ready out front now. "The voice on the other end confirmed, no questions asked.
He stood and slipped his phone into his coat pocket. "We've just hit a snag in my plans, Uncle San. Come with me, there's something we need to check out. It's something we need to handle in person."
The hallway outside his office felt colder than it had earlier. Quieter.
Like the building itself, it was holding its breath, waiting for what was to come.
As he stepped into the elevator, he rechecked his phone. No new messages. No missed calls. He expected to hear from Lazlo, Raul's second, at any moment.
Just the silence of a morning that had turned sideways greeted him.
He didn't trust hospitals. Didn't trust timing like this. But he trusted Stoker.
And if someone were using his cousin's name to bait him, they'd learn quickly that Raven Cordoba didn't walk into traps—he dismantled them.
The elevator doors slid shut.
Raven adjusted his cuffs, straightened his collar, and prepared to meet whatever waited on the other side.
"You won't believe the phone call I just had."
"What was it? —about the Stallions?" San asked.
"No—oddly enough, it was about Stoker," Raven said, his voice low. "Uncle San, there's something I need to tell you, but it stays between us. I'm not ready for the other Kings to know."
He paused, letting the weight of those words settle between them.
"Doctor Emily ran the tox screen twice. My father didn't just die—he was killed by one of my mother's poisons."
Raven's jaw tightened.
"She doesn't think it's a coincidence. She thinks someone inside the Kings used it. Someone who knew exactly where to find the information about how to make and modify it to suit their own needs."
He stepped closer, his voice dropping lower.
"There are only four people with access to the journals that contain that formula. Four. And if Emily's right, one of them isn't just a traitor. They're family."
"So, Hector, of course, Shelby, Stoker, and you. "Uncle San paused, "That gives us only two possibilities, Shelby and Stoker—"
Raven nodded. "I was going to have you investigate them, look into their lives for the last few weeks. Until I got the phone call from Marina Del Rey Hospital saying they need to talk to me about a family member—Stoker—seemed pretty suspicious given the timing."
Uncle San looked at him in confusion. "But we just left Stoker in the terrace room."
"My point exactly. How can Stoker be in two places at once?" The two men entered the waiting car. Neither spoke again until they were within the car's privacy.
San adjusted his coat as he sat, wiggling himself into a comfortable spot before he spoke. Making sure to speak quietly enough for only Raven to hear, he leaned in and did.
"Maybe this is where I can be of use to you.
When we were young, your Uncle Mateo had a girlfriend—a beautiful girl—who loved Mateo and the very ground he walked on.
She wasn't exactly what your grandparents thought of as marriage material.
Not to mention the fact that your Uncle Mateo was betrothed to your Aunt Maria for some time before their affair, he claimed Grace was the love of his life, but after your grandfather threatened to disown him, he caved and left her.
"San checked to see if Raven was still following what he was saying.
He nodded for him to continue.
"There was this rumor when he did— that she was pregnant with twins.
The affair didn't stay a topic of discussion for long.
But I remember it clearly, because I found it odd that Maria announced the impending birth of Stoker not long after the rumors started.
No one ever saw or heard from Grace again.
We all assumed she'd been taken care of. "
Raven considered for a moment that his Aunt Maria and Uncle Mateo never had any other children.
Was it possible that Grace had given Mateo a child as a payoff for the life she wanted?
Many people before her had done the same.
Was it possible that each of the parents had had a child?
His mind was in overdrive at this point; there were so many potential reasons, all of which could be true.
Yet he felt in his gut that something was off with Stoker and had been for some time.
Raven's phone rang.
"Hello," Raven listened to the voice on the other end of the line.
His face turning to stone, he spoke into the phone with short, pointed responses.
He hung up the phone. And looked back to Uncle San," They've just found Uncle Mateo dead.
The associate who found him says it looks like he choked on his own fluids, his hand locked around his throat. "
"Poison—?" San said.
"That's what I'm thinking." Raven barely had time to breathe before the next blow landed.
"It gets worse. Uncle Tony's flight just landed in Mexico. He was strangled mid-air. One of the crew had to have taken him out. The Godfather's enforcers are trying to get them to talk, figure out who hired them. But no one's saying a word."
Uncle San exhaled slowly.
"At this point, it's clear Hector wasn't the target. The whole King's upper hierarchy was. That's three of our top men gone. Permanently."
He looked at Raven. "What are you thinking? Stallions? Or the serial killer we've been tracking?"
Raven shook his head. "I'm not sure about anything right now, Uncle San. What I do know is I need to see what the hospital wants and get out of here. Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated—and fast."
The hallways at Marina Del Rey were thick with bodies and noise. The emergency room lobby pulsed with impatience—babies cried, mothers murmured comfort, and the crowd exhaled in collective disappointment each time the triage nurse called a name that wasn't theirs.
Raven had gone straight to the desk, just as Nurse Diana had instructed. They paged her. Thirty minutes passed. No sign.
"Mr. Cordoba?"
The voice came from behind. Raven turned.
A woman stood there, her smile warm enough to cut through the static. Something about her presence made his shoulders drop, easing the tension of the moment slightly.
"Yes— I'm Raven."
"Right this way," she said, linking her arm through his and guiding him down the hallway with gentle insistence.
"Your mother and I were friends," she added, glancing up at him. "You look like her. It's in the eyes, I think."
Her smile was soft, unforced—something about her felt natural, like she belonged in the middle of this chaos. She eased Raven's tension if only for a moment.
"That's why I asked to call you myself," she continued. "We have a very delicate situation that needs your attention."
As they rounded the corner, Nurse Diana guided him into room 312, her arm still looped through his like she was anchoring him to something softer than the truth.
She pulled back the curtain with practiced ease.
"This gentleman says he's your cousin—Stoker Cordoba."
Raven's breath caught.
The man in the bed was asleep or sedated.
Raven inspected him closely. He resembled Stoker, but only faintly—like a sketch left out in the rain.
The bulk of his normal stature was gone.
His face had thinned; there were dark bags under his eyes.
Even his jawline looked unfamiliar, like it had surrendered something essential.
Raven stepped closer, eyes scanning the man's arms. The tattoos were all there—every symbol, every scar woven into ink and accounted for.
But something was wrong. Not just physically. This version of Stoker looked… like a ghost of himself.
Raven didn't speak. He just stared, waiting for the man to stir, or for the truth to fall from the sky on him. He supposed this could be Stoker.
The man began to stir. He jumped, startled by the sight of Raven at his bedside.
"Rave?" He said, his voice rough with sleep.
Raven stared at him in disbelief.
Nurse Diana stepped back, giving them space.
"I'll leave you two to sort things out," she said gently.
"But Mr. Cordoba, I want you to know—because of your donations, and your mother's as well—we haven't contacted the police.
We can move forward with doing so if you want us to, but I felt like you'd like that choice yourself. "
She glanced at the man in the bed, then back to Raven.
"I'll also share the information given to me by the man who brought him in. He found him eight miles outside town, in the middle of a wildlife refuge, said he nearly ran him over—he was passed out in the road."
Raven's jaw tightened.
"He woke up just long enough to ask for this hospital by name. Makes me think he knew what this place meant to your family."
She paused, her tone shifting.
"The rest isn't mine to judge. Medically speaking, Stoker's stable. Malnourished, dehydrated—badly. But the lab work suggests this wasn't recent. He's been suffering for a long time."
She stepped toward the door. "If you choose to leave with him, let me know. I'll see you out, make sure there are no questions."
"Thank you, Diana, if you ever need anything. The Kings are at your disposal; ask for me directly."
She smiled a knowing smile and quietly shut the door behind her when she left.