Page 33 of One for the Money

Feeling triumphant, I flipped the screen around to show the other two. Bear looked over the list of unsolved crimes in that city having to do with forgeries, but leads dried up roughly seven years ago.

“One of the twins decided to branch out and start his own business,” I explained when Erik seemed incredibly lost. “If he’s this good, then he doesn’t need Trent. I think the evil twin did it to create a false trail if the family ever came looking for them. Oh, this hunt is going to be way more fun than I expected.”

With this one bit of information, it gave me a whiff of the evil twin’s scent, and now the hunt was on. Diving into all the law enforcement databases as well as reaching out to contacts, I was able to cobble together the evil twin’s MO. He went by the name Coronis, and his signature was hiding a raven somewhere in his work. I suppose it was fitting since his father named his sons after Greek gods, and ravens were known as their messengers.

“I need another pin marking a town called Gramsby in Hasnad,” I called out.

Bear had left to work his own connections regarding Coronis, and I put Erik to work marking out where Coronis was thought to have struck. I had to hand it to the man, he knew how to get around and stay under the radar. Most of these sightings were given to me by other criminals or rumors. For now, I would put them all on the maps and see if a pattern emerged. I had Erik use red for confirmed forgeries by law enforcement, blue for criminals, and yellow for rumors. This way, it was easier to disregard things that didn’t make sense.

What I’d been surprised by was the fact he didn’t just stick close to Nepreea. He ventured out all over the Eastern continent. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t like to limit my options either, so I had little birdies in pretty much every country on every continent. Since becoming a known ally to Astin and the Caprioni Family, which was based out of Mansara, I gained even more connections in the Western Hemisphere.

“Von, are you seeing this?” Erik asked, which had me spinning around.

It was easy to figure out what he was talking about, and I knew why it was happening even if he didn’t. Standing, I walked over, gazing at the giant empty space in the middle of Nepreea. Grabbing five green pins, I placed them in the correct spot to mark out the territories of the five families. Coronis avoided these areas, creating a void, but confirmed I was absolutely following the right trail.

“Seems Coronis is smart enough to know sticking his head in the mouth of a lion isn’t a good idea,” I murmured, then noticed a smaller void in Trian. “Huh, that’s where Serena is from,” I commented, pointing out the spot.

“Serena?” Erik asked.

“Stepmother, I suppose you could call her,” I added. “But why would he go out of his way to avoid that area? He’s done jobs in Trian, just not within a hundred-mile radius of the capital where Serena’s from. What about his nasty, evil stepmother does he know that I don’t?”

“Should I really be the one helping you with this?” Erik asked.

I glanced at him and waved off his concern. “You’re really not grasping the fact that if I think you’re too high of a risk, I’ll just kill you. There’s a lot of truth to the saying ‘dead men tell no tales.’ ”

Turning my attention to the map, I found two other small voids, so small most would miss them. However, I wasn’t like most people, and I knew how to think like a criminal. You don’t pull jobs in territories you know will get you killed or too close to home. Coronis had been a busy, busy boy over the years, but he never let his work drift too close to where he was hiding out. In fact, the more I looked at things, the more obvious it was where he’d been living since he started his deviant career.

“Von,” Erik yelled, breaking my concentration.

Whirling around, I had my blade in hand and pressed the tip under Erik’s chin. “You really need to stop talking while I’m thinking if you plan to make it through today.”

To his credit, he didn’t even flinch. He simply held up my phone and showed me I’d missed a call. “I just didn’t want you to miss something that might be important.”

Easing up on the blade, I snatched my phone, unlocked the screen, and found it was Ivy. Carelessly, I flung my knife at the maps, watched it hit the location I believed Coronis was hiding out, and called my bestie gal pal back.

“Sup, Poison?” I greeted when the call connected.

“Word is you have a rather hefty bounty on your head, sweets,” Ivy shared.

“If you’re referring to the mill and a half, I personally feel slighted,” I said as I walked over to my mini refrigerator and pulled out an energy drink.

“Sweety, while I agree your value in this world is priceless, this isn’t the time to be flippant,” Ivy scolded. “Hound told me what he was doing on his end, but I know for a fact at least three people have taken the job.”

With my phone clenched between my ear and shoulder, I popped open the drink and chugged half of it down. The cold, crispy taste of the liquid felt like it was burning my nose hairs as I swallowed. I knew I should be more worried than I was, but part of my charm was just not giving a fuck until the problem was staring me down.

Letting out an impressive belch, I flopped onto my cactus chair. “Did the benefactor leave a name on the hit?”

“The Fair Lady, but most refer to her as The Lady,” Ivy answered. “Seems she’s been a known bankroller for the criminal world. She’s helped fund some startups that have become major players, thanks to her connections.”

I knew Ivy was still talking, but hearing the name triggered a memory that had been lingering on the edges of my mind. Suddenly, I was transported back to that night with my back pressed to the side of the car listening to the two men inside talk.

“Did you think we were going to live? Our lady sent us on this job as punishment for failure. The Lady doesn’t accept failure.”

The phone nearly fell out of my hand as the missing moments before the car bomb went off replayed. He’d called her The Lady. What were the chances more than one person used that moniker and had it out for me? They’d been sent to kill me and nearly did if it hadn’t been for Bear and Erik. My mind raced as I gathered the fragments of information I’d put together today. A woman named The Lady was trying to kill me, for how long, there was no way to tell. However, the bounty didn’t show up until the men she’d sent failed.

How did she know I was still alive? There was no doubt she had an informant in law enforcement—any criminal made that their first priority. So The Lady probably was told about the car bomb and only two dead bodies found at the location. If I were in her shoes, I’d work under the impression I was still alive until proof of my death was given. The question now was how to move forward—play dead or pretend to be ignorant?

Fingers gripped my jaw and forced me to lift my head until I met concerned-looking amber eyes. “Come back, little siren. Focus on the sound of my voice and the feel of my touch… let it ground you.”