“What else is being said by Mr. Christmas?” Zane asked Calliope.
There was the familiar sound of nails flying over keys. “He’s organizing them, helping them kill better, essentially building a little…hub of killers.”
“How many?” August asked suddenly, looking up from his work.
“How many what?” Calliope asked.
August glanced at Asa and Avi, then asked again, “How many killers are in his little hub?”
Calliope made a vague sound, then said, “The names have changed, but there are seven in both threads. I can’t tell you if they’re the same seven people, but we could posit that’s the case.”
Asa’s expression grew grim. “He knows about us.”
“What?” Thomas asked.
Asa’s voice was dangerously quiet. “They’re both the same man. And he knows what we do.”
“What do you do?” Lola asked.
“We kill people, really bad people,” Felix said, earning a wide-eyed look from Zane. Felix shrugged. “What? If Lola is going to be part of the family then she needs to know.”
“That should have been Dad’s decision,” Lucas said. Felix stood firm, his expression unapologetic.
“Well, she has to be family now,” Zane said. “I don’t want to kill her.”
Lola snorted. “Kill me? Good luck, little one.”
“We only kill really bad people…if that helps,” Zane said, uncertain.
Lola smirked, then looked at Felix, who nodded his head quickly. “Really,reallybad. The worst of the worst. Someone’s gotta do it, right?”
“I mean, it doesn’t hurt,” Lola said, surprisingly calm about the situation. “It actually explains a lot.”
“Can we focus?” Lucas said. “If Asa’s right, that means this guy isn’t just trying to destroy you, he’s trying to…counteract you. Create new players on the board anytime we take one out. Christ.”
“Have we totally ruled out Holly?” Avi asked out of nowhere.
“I mean, she’s dead so, yeah,” Zane said.
“Yeah, I know, but what if she had a child? A secret one nobody knew about? Maybe when she died, he learned about his dad and went digging?”
“There’s no record of her having any children,” Calliope said. “But I can do some digging.”
With that, she was gone.
“What do you say we take these boxes to go?” Thomas said. “We can have more eyes on these files at home in the war room.” To Lola, he said, “You’re welcome to come home with us. There’s plenty of room.”
“Please?” Felix said, eyes glinting.
Aiden arched a brow when Lola locked eyes with him. “Are we gonna have a problem now?” he asked. “I really don’t want to have problems with you. You’re my only friend.”
Lola snorted, then shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve wanted to put a bullet into a pedophile’s head instead of throwing them in prison for the fifteenth time? I’m more mad that you didn’t let me help than that you did it at all.”
Aiden’s shoulders sagged, then he hugged her.
Lola stiffened in his arms and patted his back like he was a stranger. “Okay, that’s enough of that,” she said, pushing him away. “So, are you taking me to the Mulvaney mansion?”
“Looks like we are,” Aiden agreed.
