“But you’re no longer the heir. Why bother?”
“I’m sure my father hasn’t told anyone that I’m gone. He’s paranoid and doesn’t like for anyone to know his business. The only ones who would know about my absence would be those who witnessed it. And I’m sure half, if not most of them, are probably dead or locked up.”
Wincing, Sorcha closed her tablet and held it up against her chest. “That’s shitty.”
“Yes, it is. But it makes a lot of sense. If Antoine Dufresne saw any of the evidence, he’d believe that it led to me and he’d want my cute, adorable ass on a chopping block.”
She ignored his comment because he did have a cute, adorable ass. “Have you ever met Dufresne?”
“Many times. My father seldom deals with those he thinks less of. In the past, he sent me in to interface with the other organizations.”
“So you’re like an ambassador?”
“Exactly.” There was a foreign light in those amber eyes that told her he was still mulling all this as he paced back and forth like a feral predator.
“What else are you thinking?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “Originally, that the first murder was someone fucking with me.”
“Yeah…the whole ‘Fuck You, Ken’ scenario. Now you’re thinking your banishment is unrelated?”
“No… Not… Maybe… I don’t know. I can’t shake this feeling that everything’s related. But I’m not sure how. If someone is trying to break the treaties, what better way than to target the heirs?”
She set her tablet aside. “But why wait a year between your banishment and these deaths?”
“Exactly. But what if it’s not a year? Like I said, my father wouldn’t have sent out postcards to let anyone know I’m gone. Same with the other factions. What if other heirs are dead or missing and we just haven’t heard anything? Maybe it’s been going on, and no one has caught on to the pattern. Could have started even before my banishment. How would we know?”
That sent a chill down her spine. She wanted to deny it, but Luke was right. It made a lot of sense.
Except for one thing… “What’s the motive?”
“Oldest one out there…rule the world.”
Sorcha screwed her face up at his simple answer. “That’s a bit trite, don’t you think?”
“Occam's razor. Sometimes trite is the only answer. Besides, you’re not dealing with people. We’re talking about creatures who view people as food. They’d love nothing more than to have the ability to stick humanity into incubators like meat in a freezer or on farms where humans are treated as cattle.” He let out a bitter laugh. “Hell, my father would love nothing better than to take over every last bit of this planet and burn it to the ground for no other reason than to lay waste to everything the good Lord created.”
She didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Is that his ultimate plan?”
Putting his hands in his pockets, Luke sighed. “That was the plan when he got here. But he was stopped before he could do it. If he could reactivate his quest, he wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Again, I’m not here to sugarcoat the devil and say he’s just misunderstood. He’s not. He’s everything you’ve heard and worse. No one wants to dance with him unless they’re ready to be damned to a place much worse than anything a horror writer has ever conceived.”
Her head was starting to hurt. There were so many more predators out there than she’d ever known. Real ones that terrified her.
Think about work.
For some reason, murder was a safer topic. “Any chance I can nab a water from air?”
He snorted. “’Course.” He opened his palm and a bottle of water appeared before he offered it to her.
Nice. She’d love to have that ability. Taking the bottle, she took a sip before she returned to their topic at hand. “Okay. Assuming you’re right,” and she had no doubt that he was, “we need to speak with this girl…Amandine.”
“Already on it.” He showed her his phone where he’d used the IA database to pull up Amandine’s address.
She gave him an amused smirk and used his words. “Wouldn’t it be easier to call her?”
He shook his head. “The bolt factor is high with this one.”
“Thanks, Yoda.” And he dared to comment on her addiction to streaming networks. He quoted as many, if not more, movies as she did. “Shall we saddle up?”
