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Thane stands next to him, staring at the mayor with a glacial chill in his dark eyes and examining Dad’s body as if he’s wondering where to get started.
“Can one of you untie me, please?” I ask.
Thane steps forward, his eyes glinting. Vinicius stops him with a hand on his chest. “Not you, pervert.”
He hunkers down next to me and cuts through the ropes, and then rubs warmth back into my hands. His eyes are gentle as he gazes up at me. “I’m sorry it didn’t work. It was a good plan. What do you want to happen now?”
He’s my father, so he’s leaving the decision to me. All my men plus Acid and Thane would be more than happy to go to town on Dad with knives, pliers, bolt cutters, and their fists, but it’s not what Mom would have wanted. She believed in justice.
“Torture is probably what he deserves,” I say, looking at Dad. “But I want the mayor found out, not secretly ripped apart in a basement and dying a martyr to everyone in Coldlake.”
“It’s been nine years since those women were murdered, your highness,” Acid says, leaning against the dank walls of Strife’s basement, his green eyes glinting. “You still think you can solve these murders yourself?”
I take a long, slow look around the room. This is the second time I’ve been in this basement, and while I know it’s notthebasement, the one where the Black Orchid Killer killed the syndicate’s sisters, I feel like it’s trying to tell me something. The feeling isn’t déjà vu. It’s more like there’s something on the tip of my tongue that keeps slipping away.
A memory? An idea? Two dots that I need to connect?
Dad is gazing at me speculatively as if he too is wondering whether I can solve this puzzle. Thane’s task these past few months has been to scour Dad’s devices for any strange conversations about murders. When Acid and Thane snatched him tonight, Thane was going to check for any other phones or tablets he might have missed.
I raise a questioning brow at Thane. He gives an almost imperceptible shake of his head, and disappointment washes over me. I traded the favor owed to me by the Strife men for a kidnapping bounty and Thane’s precious time and skills, and I’ve got nothing to show for it.
“Don’t be squeamish, your highness. You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.”
“Thank you, Acid,” I tell him. “But I’m saying no to torture. For now.”
If there’s a way to find the killer without everyone tearing strips off Dad, I’d prefer to do it that way. There’s something just out of my reach, and I want to know what it is before I give up completely and resort to torture.
Vinicius is gazing at me with one eyebrow raised.
“I’m sorry. Do you all mind if we let him go for now?”
He takes my hand and helps me to my feet. “No need to apologize. Your family, your rules. The four of us already decided. Who wants to escort the mayor uptown?”
Acid’s eyes flare with interest. “Oh, please. Allow us.”
“Did you split his eyebrow?” I ask as Thane closes in on Dad to cut through his ropes.
“Yeah, we were a bit rough when we kidnapped him. I guess we need more practice.” Acid grabs Dad by the scruff of his jacket and shoves him toward the door. “Move, you piece of shit.”
“Thanks for letting me borrow the basement,” I call after him.
“Anytime, your highness.”
Vinicius pulls me into his arms. “Watching you work information out of the mayor was amazing. You have nerves of steel, kitten.”
“I just wish it worked. I didn’t find out what we wanted to know. I’m sorry.”
He cups my cheek, his golden-hazel eyes soft. “No, but you got him talking. You came closer to the truth than any of us have before. If you still have hope, then I have hope.”
I give him a sad smile. “Maybe I’ll feel better about it after a good night’s sleep.”
“It’s this basement that’s getting you down. Come on, I’ll take you home.”
My mouth quirks in a smile. The compound. Home. The others will be waiting for us. Lorenzo will put a milky coffee into my hands and scour me for injuries with a fierce look. Cassius will kiss me and coddle me, and Salvatore will be impressed with how I faced my father and remind me how much I’ve changed since my seventeenth birthday. At times like these, I wonder what I’ve done to deserve these men. My heart aches to be with them all as soon as possible.
I take one final look around the basement, wishing I knew what it was trying to tell me, and then follow Vinicius upstairs.
18
