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“And Riven.”
“Yeah?”
“Find that motherfucking Order and raze it to the goddamn ground.”
“We’re trying. Believe me, we’re try?—”
I was already reaching out to end the call.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Ryth whispered, staring straight ahead. “This is really it.”
There wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do to comfort her. “I think so, baby. I think so.”
ELEVEN
Helene
“It’s not the video.” Riven turned around as he lowered the cell in his hand. “Tobias is willing to bet Benjamin has no idea it even exists.”
I took a step closer, waiting for him to continue. He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled hard, his brow furrowing before he opened his eyes. “He said something else is going on with the Rossis and it has to do with Kat and the baby.”
“Kat and the baby?” I whispered. “What are you talking about? What does Kat have to do with any of this?”
“I don’t know.” He strode closer, those dark eyes boring into mine. “But we need to figure it out.”
My mind raced, trying to find a connection. Knowing how secretive the Rossis were, there’d be no paper trail, nothing that could lead us to the information we needed. So that left me with one other choice…my sister.
“Ryth,” I whispered.
“She’s as close to Kat and Laz as anyone. So if anyone was going to know what this is all about, it’d be her.”
Memories invaded my mind. Kat, holding their baby girl as she paced the hallway outside Ryth’s hospital room after the attack at Coulter’s mansion. She was panicked and desperate then, clutching her dark-haired daughter tight to her chest.
I’d never really had any cause to delve into who Katerina VanHalen was apart from what I’d seen in the news. She was rich, the daughter of one of the most influential men in the country. But Sebastian VanHalen had died suddenly in the months just after Kat left the VanHalen name behind and became a Rossi, exchanging diamonds and the celebrity lifestyle for guns and war.
I tried to make a connection. Money, maybe? I pressed the button and listened to Ryth’s cell ring.
“Hey. Riven just called,” she said carefully. “Is everything okay?”
“I need to know what’s going on with the Rossis,” I said, not as carefully. “In particular, Kat. Something is happening here and I need to figure it out.”
“Helene, I can’t?—”
“You know I wouldn’t ask,” I pushed. “You’re my sister and the last thing I’d ever do is ask you to betray your friend. But I have a bad feeling about this, Ryth, and right now, I’m betting you do, too. Just tell me what you can…and I’ll figure out the rest.”
There was silence for a very long time until slowly… “I don’t know what is happening. Benjamin called Tobias and told him we needed to go underground, so that’s what we’re doing. We left the Parkland house behind, we’re ditching the cells, and activating the burners. Ben said he’s doing the same for Kat and her babies.”
“There has to be some kind of connection here. Please, Ryth.”
“Kat met Laz on some kind of island purposely built by and for the Cosa Nostra. Her father was rich and powerful and extremely influential. He had a lot of connections?—”
I could hear Tobias in the background, warning her.
Please, just tell me.
“One of her father’s very close friends was Haelstrom Hale. He and Kat were engaged for a while…until Laz came on the scene.”
I stilled, my blood running cold.
