Page 103 of Mr. Match

“Answer it,” Pax says.

I walk over to the desk and pick up the receiver. “Hook-Me-Up. Oliver speaking.”

“You have made a serious mistake,” the woman says on the other side of the line.

“Who is this?” I say.

“Where is my son?”

I nod to Pax and West. “He’s dead, Mrs. Conrad—”

“He is not dead. Do you think I’m a fool?”

West sits down on the couch, head in his hands. I know he was holding out, but all hope is gone now.

“I’m sure you thought you were clever when Liam believed you, but take my word on this, Mr. Shrike, I am not Liam Henry.”

“No,” I say, regaining my composure as I realize what she really is. “You’re a fucking monster, that’s what you are. We know all about you. We know who you really are, what you’ve been doing all these years, and even though West is dead, and he deserved it, the rest of us aren’t. And we’re gonna make you pay, bitch. We’re gonna make you pay for setting us up eleven years ago.”

“Put him on the phone,” she snaps. “Now.”

“I can’t put a dead man on the phone. I’m sorry, Mrs. Conrad. We killed him just like we’re gonna kill you. We shot that motherfucker in the head for lying to us. For covering up who you are and what you did.”

“You’re lying.” But she doesn’t sound so sure of herself.

“I can tell you where the body is, if that will help you come to terms with it. He’s rotting,” I say. “His body is decomposing as we speak. Not that you care, since you’re the one who put the hit on him.”

West looks up at me, desperate for this not to be happening.

“Should I tell you what I know?” I ask, when she stays silent. “Hmm? Liam talked,” I say. “He sang like a motherfucking canary in the end.”

When I get a dial tone I hold the phone away from my ear and point to Ariel, who came out of the SCIF room when the phone rang.

“I got it,” she says. “She’s at a house on West Laurel. Right across the street from the campus.”

“What the fuck is over there?” West asks.

“Those Antimony Association people,” Cindy says, coming up behind Ariel. “Katya is there too,” she says, holding up a tablet that’s tracking Kat’s phone through the app I put on it last night. “I would’ve told you sooner, but she took a weird route, down a bunch of side streets. And I didn’t realize where she was going. Then the phone rang.”

I look at West. “You’re on, let’s go.”

Pax is already jumping down the stairs. And I don’t care how big of a dick he is. I don’t care if he drinks vodka, or bourbon, or those stupid mint juleps for breakfast every goddamned morning. I don’t even care if he kills ten more people today. He’s always been there for me. He has always had my back, and I’ve never once had to ask.

“Stay here,” I yell at my sisters. “Finish what you’re doing,” I call out behind me as I jump down the stairs after Paxton.

Chapter Forty-Eight - KATYA

The first thing I notice is that the Smilde original is no longer hanging on the wall. The second thing I notice is beeping next to my ear. I turn to look for the source and see nothing but red lights on a ShrikeSafe Security panel.

Disarmed. The red lights mean it’s disarmed.

I don’t know what to make of that.

“Lily?” I ask again, but a little less confident this time.

A shadow moves off to my right in the kitchen. And it takes every ounce of self-control not to take my weapon out of my pocket.

“Hello?” I ask, moving forward. “Lily?”