“Are you seriously threatening Ellie’s pet?” Landon asks, scoffing. I can hear the amusement in his voice.
“No threats,” Zane assures him. Then, in a darker voice, he adds, “Just promises.”
“Okay, psychopath. Sit the fuck down before you get your face bitten off,” Ryker rasps.
That threat seems to work. Zane backs away, continuing to eye the dog warily, and reclaims his seat between Landon and Ryker. Tension still reverberates through him, but at least he forgot the reason for his initial outburst.
Until Raymond speaks.
“I think Dominic and Ellie should go.”
The cries of outrage are instantaneous. Anger imbues the air, lifting the hairs on both of my arms. I’m not afraid of any of these men—not even my uncle—but, individually, they’re forces of nature, terrifying and unpredictable. Together, they’re a storm, a tempest, designed to obliterate entire worlds. You have no choice but to hold on for dear life and pray you survive the decimation.
“We would make sure they’re prepared and protected.” Raymond has to raise his voice to be heard over the onslaught of angry voices. “All we need is irrefutable proof of what POP has been up to. Once we get that, we can give the information to the correct people and take down the organization once and for all.”
“You already said that wouldn’t work,” I point out, my ribs cinching tight.
Dominic nods, his jaw clenched tightly. “If we take down the organization but not the leaders, they’ll just rebuild. If we take down the leaders but not the organization, they’ll find new ones.”
“We need to take out both, obviously,” Raymond says. “At the same time.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” Landon folds his arms over his chest, his fingers twitching. I can tell he wants to do something—pace, fight, scream—but his injury prohibits him from doing anything but sitting there, fuming. “Have Ellie and Dominic wear video cameras and wires?”
“That wouldn’t work.” Dominic releases a scoffing sound and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Everyone wears masks and cloaks there. It would be impossible to identify anyone.”
“Then we find their membership roster,” I say, ideas frothing in my mind. Beckett was able to trace the IP addresses back to known members, but if we can find information on every single person who has ever participated in one of POP’s games? That would be the holy grail.
“The Divine One has damning information on every single member in the organization,” Raymond points out. “It’s what Senator Reece was working on before he got… Well…” Raymond scrubs a hand down his face as another uncomfortable silence permeates the room, this one laced with something akin to guilt.
Senator Reece helped us the best he could…before he sacrificed himself in an attempt to save us. The last time I saw him, he was bruised, bloodied, and naked, forced to fight to the death against other prisoners.
I have no idea if he’s still alive, and I hate myself for allowing him to be taken in the first place.
“We still have that list Reece gave us,” Beckett says. It’s the same list we’ve been using to hunt these monsters, one death at a time.
“It’s only a list of names,” Raymond says with a mocking scoff. “No damning evidence.”
“We have IP addresses—” Beckett begins, but Raymond cuts him off with a flippant wave of his hand.
“It doesn’t matter. That won’t hold up.” Raymond pushes away from the wall and begins to pace, his jaw clenching and unclenching repeatedly. “What we need is The Divine One’s list of collateral.”
“Okay, so we get this list. Then what? How do we take down The Divine One herself?” Landon asks, but Raymondeither ignores him or doesn’t hear him. He continues to pace, seemingly lost in thought.
An idea occurs to me, a tiny nugget that grows and festers the longer I think it through.
“Fischer,” I whisper, my throat clogging, emotions barraging me from every direction. My skin suddenly feels too tight, and I scratch absently at the inside of my wrist.
Every gaze fastens on mine. Even Raymond stops his incessant pacing to blink down at me.
“Fischer,” I say, louder this time. “If The Divine One—Aria—is truly training him to take over for her, wouldn’t he have access to this elusive list of collateral?”
“Nobody has seen Fischer in months, Ellie,” Landon says gently, reiterating what I already know.
Surprisingly, despite disappearing off the face of the earth, there has been no investigation into his disappearance. The state senate made an announcement that he was taking time away to deal with “personal matters.” And that was that. Nobody asked questions or demanded answers, despite his being a semi-public figure.
It’s fucking terrifying.
POP’s reach goes beyond my comprehension. It expands in all directions, reaching into every shadowy corner and crevice, plucking at the dark secrets that people thought would remain hidden.
