“Then we can talk about how you missed work yesterday.” I give Everett a pointed look.
“You missed your internship. Are you okay?” Fiona gets closer to the boy. “I can ask Max to leave if you want to talk to me privately.”
Everett opens his mouth and closes it again.
“Everett, do you want me to leave?” I stare him dead in the eye.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll talk to him.” Everett shakes his head.
“If you change your mind, I’ll be right inside.” Fiona gives me a look that feels more like a warning than a goodbye and walks inside.
“We need to talk.” I need answers.
“Not here. There are video cameras everywhere. It isn’t safe.” Everett motions to the one placed in plain sight. There are others hidden. The Adders have this whole place wired.
I pull out my phone and hack into their system. It takes no time at all since I designed it. With a few clicks, I turn off the audio recording in our area and position the cameras away from our faces. “They can’t hear us now. What happened? Why did you run away?”
He starts pacing. “Because it’s dangerous for us to be together. She’s safe with you. But if they ever find her…if they find us together. They’ll kill her and take me back. I can’t let that happen. She can’t die in front of me again.”
This kid is either completely delusional or believes every word of what he’s saying. “That’s exactly why you need to come back. My family can protect you. And we can protect her easier if we know who or what we’re protecting her from.”
“Ask her. Then hide. Because you aren’t strong enough to protect her from them, even with Maddox’s help. They will wipe you out without hesitation.” He shakes his head. “I’ve watched them kill entire villages and towns. Babies and all. They don’tcare. You and your family will be nothing to them. Nothing but a little blip for their assassins to take care of. No, I need to walk away, and you need to hide her better. Somewhere small. Off-grid, maybe. You’re a billionaire, right? You can make that happen. Buy her some deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Mom can’t die.” He turns his head, and a DNA test becomes moot.
Three little moles sit right next to his ear. Hope has those exact same moles. I have them. We both got them from Mom. Everett is my brother.
Dad is going to lose his mind. Then kill someone. Or a lot of people.
Mom lied.
Mom is in danger.
“Tell me who.”
Everett shakes his head. “No. No. No. It’s not safe. I told you that. You can’t fight them.”
I stand up and walk in front of him, stopping his pacing. “You don’t know what I’m capable of.”
“It doesn’t matter. I know what they’re capable of. And you aren’t them. You aren’t pure evil. That’s what you’d need…and a large army to stop them.”
We aren’t large, though we have connections everywhere. With the Bratva, Cattaneo Family, and Maddox’s guys, we’re a small but deadly army.
First, I need information. Lots of it.
But to get that information, I need Everett or Mom to talk. “Then help me make her safe.”
“What?” Everett’s body stops shaking.
“Come back to work with me. We both know you’re good. With some training, you could be one of the best in the world—“
“I already am. I hacked your system, didn’t I?”
The attitude I like. “You hacked a phone. You didn’t even come close to hacking my system.” No one ever has.
“What do you want me to help you do?”
“Make Mom invisible.”
Everett grins. “That won’t be easy.”
