JAX
“Found the painting.”
What should’ve been good news fell flat in the wake of our unwelcome discovery. It had taken Nate less than ten minutes to locate the painting. He was still nattering in our ears like the obnoxious prick he was, uncaring of our resounding silence.
Nate’s shocking lack of awareness lasted until we reached the dining room on the second floor. A long stone table beneath a deer antler chandelier seemed oddly fitting for the occasion.
“Is this thing on? Hello?” Nate’s voice pitched in annoyance. “Come on. This has to be some kind of record. I bet Big Foot is seething right now—”
“Will you shut up?” Zola’s voice interrupted. I knew it was a bad idea to pair them together, but I’d stupidly hoped Zola would keep him in line. Manage his mania. The only other person I trusted was Madoc, but he was currently occupied with frog-marching our hostage into the room.
Olivia.
A short, heart-faced blonde with shockingly toned legs and a backpack full of secrets.
Stormy gray eyes that brimmed with lies.
I knew a swindler when I saw one. Hell, we were the masters of it.
I didn’t trust a single thing she said. I definitely wouldn’t be moved by those crocodile tears (even if it made her face screw up in a strangely endearing way).
Madoc dropped her into the chair at the end of the table, directly opposite me at the head. Callum remained by the door, his arms crossed like a hired guard. Ryle hesitated, catching Madoc’s maskless face, and shot me a hopeful look.
I nodded. Ryle pulled back a chair and collapsed in a heap, then swiped off his mask. His pallor was still concerning. The seasickness had probably wiped him of all his electrolytes.
A chocolate bar was thrown across the table as Madoc took his seat to my immediate right. Ryle gave it a wary look as he caught it beneath his palm. I didn’t blame him.
“Eat,” Madoc said.
Ryle opened his mouth to argue, then his eyes flicked to our guest, and he promptly took it without complaint. We didn’t fight in front of outsiders. Not even Nate broke that cardinal rule.
Plus, Madoc never shared. It wasn’t a gift to be taken lightly.
I dumped the binder onto the table. Olivia’s whole body flinched. It was clearly important to her, and that gave me leverage. Her face hardened, like she knew what I was thinking.
Of course she did. Like recognized like.
Might as well show her my true colors. I reached up and yanked my mask off. Her eyes widened, then dropped quickly. I was programmed to spot fear—to exploit it where necessary—and she was terrified.
“Are you going to kill me now?” she asked in a small voice.
“Depends if you behave.”
Her lips puckered in. “That’s not reassuring.”
“Watch me not give a fuck.” I jabbed my finger hard on the binder. She winced, then glared at me like I struck her instead. “The girl, Molly. Who was she to you?”
She lifted her head and glared at me coolly, clearly concocting another bullshit story.
“…My sister.” She said stiffly. But her voice cracked. “She went missing two years ago.”
Silence fell thick and heavy in the room.
If it was sympathy she wanted, she’d be sorely disappointed. We all had sob stories.
“That it?” I asked bluntly.
She scowled at my insincerity.
“You have five minutes,” I warned her. She recoiled in her chair like preparing for a blow. “Don’t mince your words. Convince me not to kill you.”
Don’t lie, I added in my head.
She didn’t know about Callum, who could read body language like a natural profiler. Or Madoc and his eidetic memory.
Olivia stood and smoothed down her shirt, as if she were about to conduct a business meeting. I sat down and kicked up my boots on the table. She glared at them like they personally offended her. Good.
“My sister, Molly Wood, went missing in October two years ago,” she said in a clear voice. “There has been no contact since. Not a single text, phone call, or online post. And no ransom.”
“You think she was kidnapped?”
She nodded. “I think there’s a reason she hasn’t come back.”
Beside me, Madoc straightened.
Olivia chewed her lip and then caught herself and straightened. She gave me preppy good girl vibes, the kind of girl who preened and fussed over her image. But in the next breath, she sighed loudly and said: “I’m probably fucking crazy for doing this.”
My brows lifted in surprise. Her swearing was like hearing a toddler swear. Adorable. “Doing what exactly?”
“This,” she said, gesturing around us. “Breaking in. I was desperate. I didn’t—I had no other options. I went to the police, and they opened a case, but nothing’s come of it. They think she’s just on some long-winded vacation.”
Girls like her probably did spontaneous shit like that all the time.
Something on my face must’ve tipped her off, because her eyes sharpened.
“She’s not on vacation,” she said shortly.
“Nobody just decides to cut off everyone and disappear. Especially not her. She had a fellowship at Columbia. She worked hard for that spot.”
“Three minutes. Get to the point.”
She huffed irritably. “I need more than three minutes.”
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, then held up my fingers, counting down.
“I decided to investigate it myself,” she said, quicker now. “I managed to piece together some of her last known whereabouts.”
“Here?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“You hesitated.”
“I’m nervous!” she snapped.
I liked her nervous. My lips twitched into a grin. “Two minutes.”
“God!” She hissed in frustration, then collected herself. “I found Molly’s diary. She wrote about some guy she met at a party a few weeks before she went missing. He offered to take her on a trip. Somewhere warm and private.”
“But she never wrote his name or what he looked like. She just left early Sunday morning and took a car service to the airport. The driver said she was acting weird. Squirrelly, like she was on something.”
I arched a brow. “Was she?”
Her face pinched. “Not a chance. Molly wouldn’t touch drugs with a ten-foot pole. She doesn’t even trust caffeine.” She took a breath. “I think she was scared. I think she didn’t want to go, but maybe he had something on her.”
She paused, then, and the room waited.
Her eyes bounced up. “ So I bribed a cop—”
“You what?” I burst out laughing. There was no way.
The little con artist shrugged, like it was nothing. She had money, a cute smile, and perky tits. She’d be hard-pressed to find a man who wouldn’t fold.
“The cop managed to track her cellphone to a tower in Puerto Morelos. That’s where she disappeared.”
“A hostage with a cellphone,” Madoc spoke up for the first time. Olivia’s eyes slid to him, looking nervous. Madoc had that effect. “Sloppy.”
That made her glare. “Molly is the responsible one. She never went out, never did anything. It doesn’t add up.”
Her shoulders dipped. “I’m the only one looking for her. My parents are in denial. I’m all she’s got.”
Slowly, I slid the binder over to Madoc. Her head snapped up, tracking the movement with diamond cutter intensity.
“And that brings you here,” I summed up. “With a backpack full of secrets and a stolen watch.”
Her cheeks flushed hot with shame. “Obviously, the watch was a mistake. I had a moment. That moment has passed.” She bristled. “I was going to put it back eventually.”
Callum’s fingers flexed on his bicep. Lie. I didn’t call her out on it.
Olivia opened her mouth, then froze, looking alarmed. She glanced toward the door right as Nate swaggered in. His eyes were bright, and his hair was mussed. Zola swooped in after him, perfectly immaculate, like they hadn’t just fucked somewhere in the mansion.
Nate opened his mouth but caught my pointed look and wisely shut his trap. Zola manhandled him into a chair. He gave her a sappy, lovestruck look.
The painting was notably absent.
The look Olivia shot me was ten streaks of betrayal. “I didn’t realize there were more of you.”
I shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
“I don’t want to repeat myself.”
“Then don’t. I’ll catch them up.”
She didn’t like that, but I didn’t care. We were on a timer. And my patience was wearing thin.
“Fine,” she said, speaking to the room, but fixed on me. “I did some more digging. Found some other missing girls who were last seen in Puerto Morelos. Open the binder, near the back.”
Using his new knife, Madoc flipped open the binder. There was a bunch of news articles and official-looking reports in the back. A glance confirmed they weren’t public documents.
What exactly did she give this dirty cop?
“Look at the news article,” Olivia prompted. “A luxury yacht capsized a few years ago, not far from here. Six females and two males drowned. All between the ages of seventeen and twenty-three.”
Madoc scanned it quickly, downloading it into his super-brain. His face gave nothing.
“I cross-checked it with the autopsy reports,” Olivia went on, bouncing on her toes. My mouth twitched again. “Those girls had bruises on their wrists and ankles, like they’d been restrained. But not the men.”
“And Salvadore?” I pressed her.
Olivia jutted her chin smugly. “The yacht was leased from his company.”
“That’s a reach,” I said, disappointed when that made her stop bouncing. “He probably owns half the companies in the peninsula. The guy is a rainmaker. It’s not enough.”
She huffed in anger. “It’s more than anyone else has! Keep reading. You’ll find investigation reports from the families of the missing girls. Two of them mention this island.” She flapped her hands dramatically. “Coincidence? I think not.”
Madoc gave me a look. He agreed. Not that it changed anything.
“So what’s the plan here?” I asked her. “Walk me through it.”
“I’m here to find proof,” she said confidently. “I know he won’t be back until Sunday morning. That gives me enough time to search this place.”
“And if you find nothing? What then?”
That made her pause.
Then her eyes found mine, hard and determined. “I will find something.”
My gut twinged. I didn’t believe in fate, and I wasn’t superstitious. But something was off about her. The pain flared deeper in my gut. Listen to it. My instincts were rarely wrong.
I swung my feet to the floor and stood, my chain toppling over with a loud bang. Olivia flinched, crossing her arms nervously.
“You complicate things.” I heard my father in my voice. His quiet baritone of fury.
She swallowed. “I know,” she said. “But I’m not asking you for anything. You can just pretend I’m not here.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Why not?”
“You’ve seen our faces.”
She bristled at that. “I didn’t ask you to take off your masks. Besides, you’re all totally forgettable. Just faceless blobs to me.”
Nate jerked in offense while Callum snorted a quiet laugh into his fist.
“You like to play rogue detective.” I raised my brows pointedly. “How do I know you won’t start hunting us?”
A wry smile crossed her face. “I can only hunt one monster at a time.”
“That’s—” My throat clicked as bile rushed up. Shit.
“Don’t move,” I growled at her and retreated to the door. “I’ll decide what to do with you when I get back.”
“Do with me?” I heard her only faintly as I rushed to the nearest bathroom. Luckily, there were a dozen of them. The porcelain clattered as I dropped to my knees and finally purged the demon-sandwich. Sweat dripped into my eyes as I heaved myself into oblivion.
The bathroom door opened. A large body muscled in, closed the door, and leaned against it.
“You good, chief?”
“Fucking ace.”
“You look it.” Callum shook my shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, Jax. I got a plan.”