That was unexpected, judging by the look of surprise. “Not really. I’ll figure something out, though.”
Caius turned towards the door with a shouted, “Leon!”
A few moments later, Leon poked his head in, a few smudges of black soot on his face. “Yeah?”
“Can you keep him safe from retaliation from the Order?” Caius asked, motioning to the mage.
Leon’s eyebrows went up, but he nodded. “Sure.”
Max shrugged when the mage looked at him as if expecting an explanation. He didn’t know Leon, but he seemed nice enough, and Caius trusted him. “That was nice of you,” he said once they were gone.
“I’m hoping he’ll be an ally if we need him later.”
From the closet, Quinn let out a triumphant cry as the safe room door slid open, and Lukas reached inside to drag Max’s father out.
Max pressed back into Caius, his fingers aching where they were digging into Caius’ arm. He hardly noticed when Quinn stepped up beside him and wrapped an arm around him, too busy staring at where Lukas forced his father to his knees.
Quinn tugged, and Max followed without resistance as Quinn led him out of the room. “There a computer anywhere?”
It felt like forever before those words processed. When they did, Max nodded and headed down the hall to his room. He stopped outside the doorway, unable to stomach going in.
Quinn squeezed his shoulder before retrieving the laptop off the desk, then pulled Max back down the hall to an office.
Max flinched at the sharp retort of a gunshot followed by his sister’s scream, his heart hammering in his chest. When Quinn pulled him down to sit on his lap, Max slumped into him without protest. Quinn’s familiar, warm cinnamon scent soothed some of his nerves as he told himself his father wasn’t worth the guilt trying to drag him under.
His father was dead.
Finally, he was free.
Chapter 24
CAIUS TURNEDaway from Savino’s body and focused on the two women who had been in the safe room with him. One was Max’s sister, Angelica, and the other looked like Rena Schurz. He was tempted to take them both out after hearing the part Max’s own sister had played in his abduction, but before he could decide what to do, Ghost and her doll stepped into the room.
The older woman paled, her mouth going slack in shock. “No.”
Ghost stepped forward with a giddy laugh. “Hello, Mother.”
“Ana—”
Ghost snarled and snapped her fingers. The woman stopped speaking, her expression blanking like the doll’s, and Ghost turned an interested look on Angelica. “Well, aren’t you adorable. What are you doing with this one?” she asked, looking at Caius.
“Ask Max.”
She made a face like that was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. “No, I’m taking her.”
The man Ghost had come in with dropped to the floor, dead, though there were no external signs of trauma or injury. Angelica’s eyes went vacant, and Ghost turned for the door.
“Oh, if you have stock in Magierseele, I suggest you dump it,” she said, leaving with her two new dolls following sedately behind her.
Caius tried to dredge up any remorse for letting her go without a fight, but all he found was exhaustion. He eyed Savino’s cooling corpse and holstered his gun. He knew this wasn’t completely over; Savino had been at the top of the food chain. As soon as word of his death got out, others would be clamoring for his place.
“So,” Lukas said, “are you the new kingpin?”
Caius grimaced. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“No, but think about it. Most of your old pack wants you as their alpha, and we need a bigger pack if we’re going to survive here after this. And we’re notorious enough in the news that no one would be surprised if we took over.”
Caius sighed and rubbed his eyes. He must be more exhausted than he thought, because that made more sense than he wanted it to. “I’ll think about it,” he muttered, just to make sure Lukas didn’t try to come up with more reasons.
