Page 23 of Shark’s Rise

“Yeah, but also the powder keg who’s holding Abstract Catering together.”

I grimaced. Scrubbed a hand up my jaw. “I fucking hate this,” I muttered. “I’m the reason that’s even having to happen. The cause of Abbigail being away from her business.”

The company that was her own version of Shark Enterprises. That she’d built with her bare hands and raw passion.

“Well, the sooner we can get her out of Twentynine Palms detention duty, the better.”

I almost questioned if the guy was referring to himself as much as Abbigail but decided I probably wouldn’t like the answer. Instead, I said, “I’ve had a brainstorm about the keyring. Maybe it can help.”

“Outstanding,” Elijah stated. “Because I’ve got something too, but it’s definitely only half the puzzle.”

“Let’s meet in the office when you’re back.”

“We’re pulling into the garage right now.”

A few minutes later, he and I sat at the desk in the study, looking at the computer monitor to which he’d connected his laptop. The gift from Terryn lay on the hardwood desk between us, and an image of the charm was on the display, blown up so the detail could be seen.

The symbols matched.

But right now, that was all we knew.

“So, talk to me, Banks. How did you find this online?” I asked.

“Easy.” Elijah shrugged. This was his wheelhouse, so he spoke like the discovery process was simple and reasonable and anyone could do it.

Except it wasn’t simple and easy. I paid him a ridiculous amount of money to do his job because he was at the top of heap at what he did.

“I scanned the charm, then searched for the image and found a handful that matched. Certain things about the image stand out, you see? Like the colors, the points here and here.” He motioned to the screen while he explained. “So, all of the supposed matches had those things in common. From there, it was a matter of weeding through the images and looking at the finer details and picking out the actual match. The words around the outside of the triangle were the key.”

Victori Sunt Spolia

Each word spanned the outside edges of a triangle, which served as the framework for a twine of laurel leaves.

“So were you able to locate this company? This is a logo for a company, right?” I leaned in closer to the monitor to read the small lettering around the logo.

“Unbelievable.” I shook my head as the growl emanated from the pit of my throat. I peered closer, just to make sure I was really right about this.

“What?” Elijah leaned in too. “What is it, man? Have you seen this symbol before?”

“I think so.” I steepled my hands. “But I don’t think it’s a symbol.”

“What is it, then?” He fidgeted with tension, struggling to be polite about it. “Because I’m still coming up empty on anything beyond the match. I’ve had a few hits, but every thread I follow comes up as a dead end. Big fucking wastes of time. It seems like they’re intentionally misleading.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“So you want to share with a brother?” Elijah rubbed the back of his neck, more open about his frustration. I understood his agony. We’d been friends for a long damn time, and like me, he was a take-charge fixer. He was as pissed as me that we hadn’t won this game yet.

But I sensed he’d be more enraged by what I had to share next.

“That’s not a symbol,” I asserted. “I think it’s a logo.”

Elijah narrowed his gaze at me. Swung it back to the monitor. “A…huh?”

“That phrase is in Latin.” I pointed at the screen. “It basically means, ‘to the victor goes the spoils.’ In the eighteen hundreds, it was more famous as ‘to the victor belong the spoils.’ Basically, the strongest person wins and takes all the treasure, right?”

I waited for Elijah’s nod. He didn’t take long for the acknowledgment.

“Earlier, I was sitting over by that window—”