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“What are you? A fucking thief?” Remi asked.

Why would a quadrillionaire steal?

Orion laughed. “I’m a collector of fine things. Let’s just say some of the paintings in here belong to the members of The Trogyn.”

“So they’re after you too?” Grayson studied him.

“Which is why we need to take them down.” Orion’s expression hardened.

“What are you going to do with the art?” Forrest asked.

“Don’t know yet.” He shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll be useful someday. I might gift them to Attikus since he let me use this room for storage.” He offered me a smile. “When I learned how important Aimee was to your girlfriend, I wanted to use this opportunity to return her and introduce myself.”

“Did you know Aimee asked a homeless man to help her?” I asked.

“Not at first.” His eyes gleamed with amusement. “I took her around Boston, bought her things, and tried to let her be a kid. She confessed when she trusted me. That was only after I showed her photos of the children I’d rescued and kept from the news.”

Orion admitted he’d rescued the girl locked up with Aimee in Boston. He’d already returned the girl to her parents. She had been drugged and didn’t remember much, but her recovery looked promising.

The image of the little girl wrapped in a blanket popped into my mind. “You saved that little girl with an FTM card in her coat?”

His lips thinned. “She was already dead when I got to her. I wanted to send her back to her family and use that opportunity to show the public a glimpse of their dark world.” He looked at us. “FTM—follow the money. People need to open their eyes. Human trafficking is a massive business. Money is truly the root of all evil.”

The little girl had been identified recently. Her family had a formal funeral for her in North Carolina. Orion had given her family closure. There were so many families still waiting to hear news about their missing loved ones.

“Why are you revealing your identity now?” Remi asked.

“Because I’m not your PI anymore.” His lips thinned. “My enemy has joined the elite club within The Trogyn. We can work together to destroy them.”

“We have a common enemy.” I looked at my friends.

“And I’d like to invest in WaterFyre Rising.”

“Why?” Remi studied Orion.

“It’s a brilliant game. You did send me copies ofthe demos to upload onto a second secure site, you know.”

Thirty minutes later we’d learned what he’d been doing, a synopsis of his demo that followed the WaterFyre Rising theme. It seemed like he’d wanted to join us for a while now. We also learned how he’d saved our women the second time. He was a beneficial ally for us.

“Please accept my apology for not informing you sooner about my identity.” Orion looked at us. “We all have agendas. We all have reasons for our actions.”

My friends and I looked at each other. Their expression showed they also wanted Orion on our side. He had connections and assets beyond our reach. The man was a fucking quadrillionaire. Money could buy a lot of things, and Orion could be the man we’d been waiting for. He’d been right in front of us all this time.

“You don’t need our help,” I said.

“No.” He smirked.

Asshole.

“But I’d like your help. The more people we have fighting The Trogyn, the better. They’re just one of many organizations out there with an agenda.” His eyes intensified. “I need intelligent and cunning men like you to help me win this war. Discuss amongst yourself.”

Orion wandered the room, reviewing something on his phone while my friends and I chatted. There wasn’t much to discuss, but we didn’t want to imply that weneededhim in our circle. That would be a sign of weakness.

“He saved our women,” Forrest said.

“Twice,” Royce added.

The second time was when Audri, Michelle, Natalie, Kiera, and Vivian had met up at a restaurant in town. The assholes had planned on setting a bomb off in the restaurant. I’d heard about the two dead bodies at the back of the restaurant on the news, but didn’t know the reason. Now I knew why, and Orion had my sincere gratitude.