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“If anyone else is here, they’re waiting in the distance,” I told Maverick. “But I think they’re gone.”
“They haven’t been waiting for us anywhere else,” he acknowledged, then drew in a hissing breath. “Jesus.”
“Explains the smell,” I mumbled, then glanced around to ensure no one was watching us before focusing on the girl’s butchered body.
Being mindful of where I stepped, I moved closer to where they’d left her and bent close to her head. The only part of her they’d left untouched. Mostly.
“What was her name?” I asked Maverick as my stare drifted from the smeared letter on one cheek to our symbol on the other, both in blood.
Maverick paused from pulling out his phone. “Becca? Becky? I can’t remember,” he said before starting a call and lifting the phone to his ear.
“If that’s Dare, ask him if there’s a letter somewhere on the waitress. There’s a letter I on this girl’s cheek.”
Maverick ripped his bandana off his face as he came to see what I’d been looking at. After relaying what I’d said to Dare, he spoke to me, voice low and ominous. “There were letters on the owners of the Thai restaurant.”
I twisted to look at him, accusation sitting on the tip of my tongue, but he continued before I could question it. “The cleanup guys found them on two of the palms. R and T. Einstein was documenting the entire thing; that’s how I know. But we didn’t think anything of it because the owners’ names started with those letters. We thought the person behind this was being morbid by letting us know which hand belonged to who since there were body parts everywhere.”
“Don’t think this has to do with names,” I muttered, and he lifted his eyebrows in agreement just as Kieran stepped into view.
“I didn’t see anyone,” he grumbled as he studied what was left of the girl’s body.
“A,” Maverick said before I could come back at Kieran with a smart-ass response. “Dare said there’s an A on the back of the waitress’s hip.”
My retort died and my head bobbed a few times. “Her name doesn’t begin with A,” I said knowingly.
Even though it hadn’t been a question, Maverick answered, “No.”
“Explain,” Kieran ground out, seemingly irritated at not knowing what we were talking about.
Gesturing to the side of the girl’s face that held the letter, I blew out a heaving breath and stood. “They’re sending a message within their messages. R and T with the first victims. A and I with these. They could be in either order, but—”
“But the waitress was taken first,” Maverick finished over me as he placed the call on speaker. “If it’s a word, then right now we have T-R-A-I...”
“There are train tracks in Raleigh,” I muttered, unconvinced with my line of thought, “but they wouldn’t warn us where they’re gonna be, would they?”
“No,” Kieran said, then gestured at me with a knife. “‘It’s personal...’you keep saying that.” At my hesitant nod, his tone dropped meaningfully. “And this is personal because you’re traitors.”
Dare whispered a curse and started barking orders at Einstein as Kieran went on.
“There were a lot of members on both sides who weren’t happy when Dare and I separately disbanded our families. And now that we’re a family? That’s clearly hit a spot with old Borellos. They just let you know why they’re coming after you and who they are.”
“Diggs was right,” Maverick said, glancing at me. “He said they might be setting us up for something bigger. Something we wouldn’t expect after what they’ve been doing.” He gestured to the girl we were gathered around. “If they’re spelling out traitors, they’re letting us know how many people they’re gonna take. It’ll keep us busy and worried about all the people linked to us. But it can’t be that simple—they’re giving us too many clues and leading us to everything. They’ve gotta be preparing for something else.”
“Borello house,” Dare said through the phone. “We’ll call cleanup, but everyone needs to pack and get there now.” Before Kieran could even think to object, Dare seethed, “Everyone, Kieran.”
“Heard,” Kieran mumbled, already turning away and pulling out his phone.
I just held Maverick’s worried stare, knowing his worry at that moment wasn’t for what was coming with this threat. It was because he knew my distraction was about to keep me from where I needed to be.
I had no intention of bringing Tree to the Borello house. It didn’t matter that she stole my focus or shifted my world, or however Maverick had put it. I didn’t even know her real name—there was no asking her to lock herself away with me, let alone a house full of people she didn’t know.
But from the way my brother was watching me, he absolutely knew I still planned on making sure there wasn’t a chance of anyone getting close enough to touch her.
WILLOW
I hadn’t seen him.
It’d been nearly a week since Diggs had woken me, wanting to know why I was so angry with him. Nearly a week since he’d made sure I couldn’t stop him from leaving. Nearly a week of him continuing to slip into my apartment and leaving without waking me.
