The email was from a sender with an unusual email address, [email protected], and there was a logo of a winged insect at the top of the page.
“What thefuckis that?” I said, disgusted as I pointed to the logo. I never did well around bugs.
“A dobsonfly,” Hudson stated, shaking his head. “Which is funny, considering that the hellgrammite,” He moved his finger to the email address. “Is the larva stage of the dobsonfly.” When I gave him a raised eyebrow, he just added, “My dad used to take me fishing with hellgrammite bait.”
“Who gives a shit,” Wrage scoffed. “What does this have to do with Wrex?”
Hudson rolled his shoulders. “Because, this is the hate group. It says ‘Hellgrammites, rejoice!’ so I’m assuming that’s the name they’re giving themselves. They don’t mention anything in their email about a location, but it talks about how they need to stand together and keep the world creature free. I’m going to trace this email address when I get back to work, get my best guys on it. We can figure out where the hell it’s coming from and who else is connected.”
“So…it was sent to Max because…” I didn’t, couldn’t, say it. I needed to hear Hudson confirm what was already painfully clear.
“He’s an active member of this hate group.”
Chapter 23
Spendingthe evening in the police station hadn’t been on my itinerary for the day, but I was grateful for it. Anything to help figure out what the fuck was going on.
In the span of the past twenty-four hours, I’d gone from finding out that my casual hookup had gone missing and that my assistant for the better part of my career as a member of the House might have something to do with it. I wanted to hold out hope that Maxim wasn’t connected, that it was some kind of mistake, but his emails were pretty damning and Hudson wasn’t letting it go.
Not that he should, because he’d made some headway by the time a few more hours had gone by. Wrage and I had persisted to join him at the police station, needing to have updates on the apparent hate group that was behind the petrylle kidnappings. Hudson had told us that it might take some time for one of his best tech guys to find something, but he’d struck gold after we’d only been there an hour.
Hudson walked back to his desk, where Wrage and I were both waiting on antsy feet. It humbled me that no one at the police station had gawked at Wrage when he’d entered it, which had made me wonder how often Orbs walked through these hallowed halls. But as Hudson approached us with a folder, I knew that the night was about to get a hell of a lot more involved.
“So?” Wrage blurted out before I could.
Hudson nodded. “It’s Maxim. He’s involved somehow. We traced the IP address and it’s connected to a warehouse under the name Stacy Kachowski.”
“Stacy?”
My mind blurred, numbing itself as a form of protection from any more tragedy befalling it. Now I was being told that not only was Maxim connected to this hate group but so was his girlfriend?
“We’re already getting a warrant for Maxim and Stacy’s apartment.” Hudson lowered his head. “But before that, can you try calling him?”
My brow furrowed. “You want me to try calling him now that we know?”
“If he answers, great. If not, we’ll know that he at least suspects that we know.”
“And you expect me to be able to keep calm if he answers?”
Hudson had way too much faith in me. He hadn’t been in my head for the past month while I’d been ping ponging back and forth about my feelings about Wrex. I briefly closed my eyes at the mention of his name. I couldn’t dwell on that, not when he was missing and I was actively pursuing what had happened to him. I could only handle thinking about this as a board member, not as the guy who’s favorite petrylle had gone missing.
“I’ll be right here if he answers,” Hudson assured me with a glazing stare. “You’ll be fine, just put it on speaker.”
“And if he doesn’t answer?” Wrage asked.
“Then we move forward with the warrant and storm the warehouse.”
With their eyes staring expectation into my temples, I fluidly pulled out my phone from my pocket, hesitating as I found Maxim’s name. This hellgrammite group…it just was too soon to think about Maxim being with them. I knew that anyone could be capable of great evil, but I thought the same about people being capable of great good. I’d always thought that Maxim was part of the latter.
This wasn’t about Maxim. This was about the petrylle. This was about Wrex. My heart felt like it was squeezed when I thought about his name again, lurching in the palm of an invisible hand. I needed to do this and as fast as I could.
I tapped on Maxim’s name on my phone and put it on speaker and held out my cell in my hand like I was cradling it. I didn’t think that he’d answer, but he proved me wrong when I heard a click on the other end.
“Hey boss,” The casual way that he spoke gave me an inclination of where his head was at. He had no idea that we knew anything at all. “Everything okay?”
Glancing over at Hudson, I was suddenly very glad that Maxim was on speaker. He mouthed what he wanted me to say and I recited it plainly. “I know about the Hellgrammites.”
The silence was so much worse than if Maxim had denied it all. Because the silence was more confirming than anything. That was all I’d needed to confirm that Maxim was in league with these pieces of shit.
