35

Rae

February 8th, 2020

So we didn’t have any leads. Malachi was still AWOL, Viv was dealing with a massive hangover and hadn’t gotten around to calling me this morning, and Azrael was gone again, which always left everyone on edge, including Greyson who, apparently, kept getting creepy messages from his younger brother about what he was doing.

Something about hunting a new little sinner.

Jack had let Greyson know that Azrael had been here last night, but it didn’t ease anyone’s ill feelings about the situation.

All of this left Zo, Jack, and I sitting around the living room in silence just thinking.

I suppose I did have one piece of information they didn’t have, although I didn’t know what kind of merit it would bring.

“Azrael said he was on an assignment too,” I told them, pulling their eyes up. “He didn’t give me any information about it.” I frowned and rolled my eyes. “I don’t like silences.”

Zo and Jack exchanged a glance before turning back to me. “What else did he say?” Jack asked.

I huffed and shoved myself to a stand. “That chains and whips excite him. This can’t be what you guys do all the time. It’s fucking boring. I’ve got a new pair of heels that I want to take out and slam into some goddamn chests. You guys are boring.”

Zo leaned back in her chair, her expression amused. “Chains do excite him, it’s a little terrifying,” she said to herself, and then louder she said “Did you never have lulls on your assignments?”

I walked over to the wall of windows, staring out across the trees. “Yes, but we only allow ourselves a few minutes to sit and think before we get up and find something. Things just don’t fall into our laps, sometimes we have to go find them ourselves.”

“Well, you killed our four leads,” Zo pointed out. “So unless you can remember something they said or something that happened during those four months, then we have nowhere else to go.”

I shot a glare at her. It was a fit of rage and confusion that led me to kill them all, and no, I didn’t remember those days. I didn’t know if I ever wanted to.

My own father? I remembered going on assignments with him. How the three of us had always worked so well as a team. We each had our role, just like The Family.

I would infiltrate, mom would be waiting to ambush from a little ways away and dad would always be the…

I straightened, realization hitting me like a ton of bricks.

I turned to Jack and Zo who were both still staring at me, Jack’s eyes scanning over me slowly before his eyes found mine again. “What?”

I lifted and dropped my hand with a slap. “He was never involved,” I told them.

Zo straightened. “What do you mean?”

“My dad was never involved. He was the lookout. Always. I mean, he had a gun, and he shot at people if we needed the help, but he was always the lookout. He never volunteered to be the bait, the primary lead. He always hung back, every time. He was a coward.”

Jack set his notebook to the side. “What are you thinking?”

I came to a stop at the end of the couch. “I think one of the bosses is telling him what to do. I think they have issues among their own and I think Azrael knows that.”

Jack’s brows pulled together, his eyes narrowing. “Why?”

“He was at the club last night implying that he was there with his friend trying to get information from him like I was doing with Viv. He just happened to be in Malachi’s office the other day searching through records? He was in my house before you even got there months ago, and he had my bracelet from the cathedral. He knows something.”

“What a smart little flower you’re turning out to be.”

We all spun around, my heart skipping a beat at the sudden familiar voice.

“Jesus Christ,” Zo snapped, setting her gun on the coffee table with a thunk. “Where the fuck is Poppy?”

Azrael smiled behind that mask of his, a black cane held to the right of him, standing just yards away as if he had been in the house the entire time. “Searching for me in LA, most likely.”

“Unbelievable,” she muttered, shaking her head. “You give me a fucking migraine, Azrael. You dick.”

Jack stood, facing his brother with a kind of rage I had only seen a few times before. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged, looking around the place as if he hadn’t been here before. “I was in the neighborhood.”

I was sure he had. With how silently he had slipped in here without any of us knowing? He knew the place better than Jack did, I was sure of it.

I stepped around Jack, walking towards Azrael. “Do you know who is behind all of this?”

His eyes flicked to mine like a snake finding its prey. “I have my guesses.”

“You don’t make guesses,” Jack replied venomously.

His smile widened, but his eyes never left mine. “You’re right. I know who’s behind it. I know who ordered your own father to play with you, I know who wrote those letters, and I know what your dear mother found out that was so terrible it made you flee.”

My eyes narrowed. I hated that word. We didn’t flee, we went into hiding to protect ourselves until the coast was clear. Unfortunately, too many things went wrong. “Who is it? Who are ‘they’?”

Azrael tilted his head ever so slightly. “Games, my dear little daffodil, are what make this world go round. You and your mother playing hide and seek, dear old Beth playing dress up, even our dearest leader. He’s given her his blessing,”

he told Jack, “by the way. He’s just been too busy to tell you. I even know about the ‘tax documents’ that turned out to be a marriage certificate that Jack had you sign three days ago. Congratulations are in order, I see. Sad that you didn’t catch that, I expected better from you.”

My eyes widened and I spun on him. “The what?”

“With what?” Zo bit as she stood, interrupting the glare I was shooting at Jack. “Why is he so busy? Why did he lie to us about knowing Marla?”

Jack didn’t react so I turned back to Azrael, ready for the battle I would ensue on my husband later. Fucking prick.

“Blood begets blood,” Azrael said so coldly, a shiver ran down my own spine. “This story isn’t over yet, far from it, but unfortunately it won’t continue for quite some time, so if I were you, dearest brother and sisters, I’d move on, resume your regular work, and tune in when I make the call.”

I turned back to Jack, confused. I couldn’t just let my dad get away with this. I couldn’t not search for my mom. I couldn’t abandon this. We did the assignment until it was done, that was the job. We didn’t leave any loose ends. Not ever.

Jack watched me for a long time before he turned back to Azrael. “What call?”

His electric blue eyes shined with ice colder than the Arctic. “Don’t mess this up, family, our story has only just begun.”