Page 27

“Excellent,” I said once I was out the door.
“Good job, Magnet,” she added.
I wished I could thank her for the compliment, but I was too unsettled. I rounded a corner into an alley on the opposite side of the street, removed the two hair samples, and gingerly placed them in the evidence bag I’d had in my pocket. I hoped it would be enough for forensics to test since I couldn’t stomach the idea of attempting to get more.
The other thing that had me in knots was the probability Schön would pick up on my discomfort. Either she’d ask about it, in which case, I’d have a hard time explaining without making her feel bad about herself. Or she’d assume she’d done something wrong while at the restaurant, resulting in the same outcome.
As far as success with her objective, she’d achieved it exceedingly well. She’d managed to get a great deal of information out of Francesca in a short amount of time.
We now knew Francesca had another daughter, older than both Charlene and Marco, who had apparently died, based on her saying she’dlosta son and daughter. Yet if the oldest child was deceased, she wasn’t buried in the family plot.
Ehren and I could return to the records office and ask, but I wondered if Rogue and Schön wouldn’t have better luck visiting the cemetery and seeking out someone responsible for its maintenance. On the other hand, Delfino might be a more appropriate choice in that she spoke the language fluently and could take the approach that she was researching her ancestry.
“Headed back to the suite,”I said into the comms before switching to mute on my end.
“Copy that,” Rogue responded.
Rather than take the most direct route, I walked by the main beach instead. I sat on the wall, recalling the night we’d raided Mithras’ compound.
We hadn’t found him, but we’d liberated the women being held captive—women who were for sale on a sex-slave-auction site on the dark web.
One woman, who’d turned out to be Xavier’s girlfriend, Selene Pavia, had been beaten to within an inch of her life. That thought gave me pause. Mithras had either done it himself or ordered his guards to beat his half brother’s girlfriend to death, or nearly so. Had we not rescued her and the other women, I had no doubt she wouldn’t have lived much longer.
It made sense that Xavier would want to kill the man for it, but what didn’t make sense was why Mithras had abducted her in the first place. It was almost as if it could have been revenge for something Xavier had done to him.
Now, Selene and Xavier were both dead, and we might never know the full story of what had happened from any of their perspectives.
I closed my eyes, also remembering the horror of what had unfolded on the very sand beneath my feet. I was near Puck when he raced over to Jamie “Beak” Thomas and Tracy “Vulcan” North, and I witnessed his reaction to finding them dead. At the same time, I’d watched Cayman, agonized and frustrated, scouring the area for any sign of Bexli.
If I thought about how I’d feel if Schön was missing, fearing she was dead, the ache in my chest was worse than any other I’d ever experienced. I’d known her a matter of weeks. I could not comprehend how Cayman must’ve felt, searching for a woman he’d loved almost his entire life.
Also in the time when we had no idea where Verity was, other than that she was safe and recovering, I’d seen a side of Zeppelin I never had before when he went through a similar kind of agony.
“Hey,” I heard Schön’s distinctive voice say from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Hey.”
“Are you all right?”
“I am. I just thought I’d take some quiet time to think about all we learned this morning.”
“I’ll let you be, then.”
“Wait,” I said, grabbing her wrist out of reflex since the last thing I wanted was for her to leave. Rather than let go, I pulled her down to sit beside me on the seawall.
“Something’sbothering you.”
“You’re right.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
“I do, but I’m not sure where to begin.”
She studied me but didn’t speak.
“I was able to get a DNA sample from Charlene.”
“That’s good, right?” she asked.