Page 7 of Power of Shadow

Closing my eyes for a second, I sigh. I would prefer not to consider that right now. I can’t. Not when there’s another life I have to save.

“Where is she? Where could she be?” The warning in my voice is clear. Suppressed emotions bubble up inside me.

“Are you talking about... My God, you haven’t found her?”

“Would you be here now if I’d found my sister? What use would you be to me?”

“How do you know she’s still alive?” Timothy asks, but I decide to ignore him.

At first, I grit my teeth, but then I explode, “You were his best friend when I was a child. You saw each other every day; you were business partners. Together, you stole, killed, raped. Don’t tell me he didn’t tell you this one thing!”

Timothy shifts and turns to face me.

“Ryker, understand that your father isn’t just a regular madman. It’s no accident that he’s at the top of the Pact and the food chain. I don’t have to explain to you how powerful he is and what he can do.”

“Are you afraid he’ll kill you? Or that I’ll kill you? As far as I know, your days are numbered anyway.”

“You have no idea how happy that makes me, but that’s beside the point. The point is that your father is a master of this game, a master of the plan. She was a means to an end for him. She was a means of controlling you and your mom, your weakness...”

“That’s how I know she’s alive,” I growl, baring my teeth.

After these words, despite the rising nausea, I look him straight in the eye.

“He still controls you, doesn’t he? Boy, I really don’t know where she could be. I’d like to help you, but I’m at a dead end. All I know is that General Matthews helped him back then, but none of them ever said a word about it.”

I don’t let on, even though his words hit me like a tsunami. The news that Matthews has his hand in this is valuable. I’ve paid private detectives a fortune to find even the slightest trace of my sister, and his name has never come up.

Pain throbs in my temple.

With a nimble movement, I get up from the couch and head for the exit. But before I reach the door, I stop. Without turning my head, I say loud enough for my words to cut through the music, “Tell my mother to take a front-row seat when I kill her husband.”

I want to add a lot more, but I think she knows it herself.

“I’ll tell her. You can be sure of that,” Timothy promises, clearly aware of his limited time in this world.

My fingers curl into a fist. “If I find out you lied to me, you’ll be praying that bullet was meant for you and not my mom.”

In the blink of an eye, I find myself outside the red room.

I have one more important thing to do tonight.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Eli reappears at my side. “After all, he was your father’s friend for a reason. It’s difficult to trust him.”

“You’re right, except he wasn’t lying. He doesn’t know where she might be. Still, put him under surveillance, and tail him. I want someone watching him twenty-four/seven.”

“You think he might try to curry favor with James?” Eli guesses.

“I’m not ruling it out. Besides, put the bill for today on the house.”

Eli shrugs and chuckles. “You got it. I’ve already taken care of it.”

It doesn’t sit well with me that he can predict exactly what I’ll decide. Am I falling into a rut? Am I that predictable? If it were anyone other than Eli and Theo, I would chew them out.

We get back in the elevator, but this time we go down to the basement. Eli fills me in on the details. “The target is in place. His blind faith in the Pact has just led to his downfall, though he doesn’t know it yet. He’s tied the noose around his own neck.”

A sinister smirk appears on Eli’s face. In his eyes, there's amusement, but also the psychopathic spark that’s in all three of us. It piques my curiosity.

“What did he do?”