Page 111 of Wicked Brutal

That one still makes my skin crawl. “Victor asked Roman if he still had someone at customs.”

Dad straightens beside me. “Roman said?”

“Yes.”

“Anything else?”

“That Victor shouldn’t abuse it.”

Silence. Not shocked silence. Worse. The kind where every adult in the room has enough experience to understand exactly how bad that sentence could be without anybody needing to explain it.

I look at Arthur. “That’s what I gave you.”

“Yes.”

“And that’s what the feds ran.”

“Yes.”

“So now tell me what fucking hit.”

Arthur doesn’t chastise me this time. He reaches for the stack of papers beside his laptop. “More than one thing.” He slides the first page toward us. “Vaughn appears in material seized during the Anderson investigation.”

Xander leans forward. “Lucian?”

“Yes.”

“Same Vaughn?”

“We don’t know yet.” Another page. “Carlisle appears in material connected to Alastair Pennington.”

Kaiden’s expression goes cold. “Same Carlisle?”

“Again, not confirmed.” Arthur puts down another sheet. “Aster is the most significant.”

Clifford reaches for it. “What is it?”

“At least three things. Aster Holdings. Aster Foundation. And several financial accounts where Aster appears in the identifying material.”

My pulse kicks. “The foundation. Roman told Victor not to use the foundation because of Pennington.”

“Yes.”

Kaiden sits forward. “And Aster is in Pennington’s shit?”

“Yes.”

“Lucian?”

Arthur pauses. “Yes.” There it is. Nobody speaks. Arthur points farther down. “There is activity through Zurich.”

Theodore reaches for the page. “Connected to Aster?”

“Yes.”

“Geneva?”

“Still being traced.”