Page 34

CAIUS TURNED away from Savino’s body and focused on the two women who had been in the safe room with him.

One was Max’s sister, Angelica, and the other looked like Rena Schurz.

He was tempted to take them both out after hearing the part Max’s own sister had played in his abduction, but before he could decide what to do, Ghost and her doll stepped into the room.

The older woman paled, her mouth going slack in shock. “No.”

Ghost stepped forward with a giddy laugh. “Hello, Mother.”

“Ana—”

Ghost snarled and snapped her fingers. The woman stopped speaking, her expression blanking like the doll’s, and Ghost turned an interested look on Angelica. “Well, aren’t you adorable. What are you doing with this one?” she asked, looking at Caius.

“Ask Max.”

She made a face like that was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. “No, I’m taking her.”

The man Ghost had come in with dropped to the floor, dead, though there were no external signs of trauma or injury. Angelica’s eyes went vacant, and Ghost turned for the door.

“Oh, if you have stock in Magierseele, I suggest you dump it,” she said, leaving with her two new dolls following sedately behind her.

Caius tried to dredge up any remorse for letting her go without a fight, but all he found was exhaustion.

He eyed Savino’s cooling corpse and holstered his gun.

He knew this wasn’t completely over; Savino had been at the top of the food chain.

As soon as word of his death got out, others would be clamoring for his place.

“So,” Lukas said, “are you the new kingpin?”

Caius grimaced. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“No, but think about it. Most of your old pack wants you as their alpha, and we need a bigger pack if we’re going to survive here after this. And we’re notorious enough in the news that no one would be surprised if we took over. ”

Caius sighed and rubbed his eyes. He must be more exhausted than he thought, because that made more sense than he wanted it to. “I’ll think about it,” he muttered, just to make sure Lukas didn’t try to come up with more reasons.

He headed out of the room and found Max and Quinn down the hall in an office, talking quietly as Quinn typed away on a computer. “What have you done now?”

Max looked up from Quinn’s lap before standing. Then he elbowed Quinn, who spun his chair around, his legs crossed and fingers steepled beneath his chin like a cartoon villain.

Caius stifled a groan. “Do I even want to know?”

“Of course you do.” Quinn waggled his eyebrows. “I transferred most of Savino’s money over to Max’s accounts, where I then sent it through one of my Swiss bank accounts and a few others, before spreading it out across all our pack accounts.”

Caius tipped his head back and closed his eyes. “I served for over two decades, and now my pack is laundering money and taking over the underworld. What the fuck did I do to deserve this?”

“Wait, we’re taking over the underworld?” Quinn asked with far too much excitement.

“Not like you can do worse than my father.”

“Thank you for that ringing endorsement.”

Max smiled, though it seemed forced, and slipped an arm around Caius’ waist. “You’d make a very sexy mob boss.”

“I hear that’s the biggest qualifier to make a good one,” Quinn offered with a sage nod.

“Fenrir help me,” Caius breathed, pulling Max closer.

Lukas snorted and perched on the arm of Quinn’s chair. “I don’t think any god can help you now.”

Caius ignored him in favor of burying his nose against Max’s neck and breathing in his scent.

He didn’t like the thick, dark scent overpowering the usual citrus, but there was little to be done about that while standing in Max’s old home.

They would have to deal with the cops he could hear gathering on the streets before they could leave.

He straightened with a look at Lukas. “You and Quinn head back to the kids. Get them checked into some hotel rooms.”

Lukas grimaced but nodded. “I need to check in with Adams too. ”

“Hold off on that,” Caius said. If the official story was still that Lukas was MIA or dead, he didn’t want that narrative to change just yet. News of them killing both Kostas and Savino would make it to the brass by morning, but they didn’t need to show their entire hand.

He turned to Max as Lukas and Quinn slipped out, tempted to send him with them, but as the rogue mage causing havoc in the news, they needed to get their own story out there. There was sure to be plenty of press to talk to once they were done with the police. “Ready?”

Max made a face and blew out a breath. “Not really, but I’ve been dealing with nosy cops since I was a kid. This’ll be easier than controlling my magic.”

“We’ll get you some proper training soon.”

“Wouldn’t mind Rían coming back.”

“I doubt the Order will let him anywhere near us,” Caius said, turning for the stairs.

Max slipped his fingers between Caius’ as he followed. “Yeah, but he doesn’t have long until he’s free of them. Then he wants to open a magic tattoo parlor.”

Caius glanced at Max from the corner of his eye, not sure he liked how completely in awe of Rían he sounded.

Not that Caius could blame him. Rían did have one of the best reputations as a mage and could be charming as sin.

But as willing as he was to share Max with Quinn and Lukas, anyone else was a step too far.

“And now you look like you want to murder him,” Max said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to look up at him.

He opened his mouth to deny it, but Max jabbed a finger into his chest before he could say anything.

“I like Rían. I don’t want to sleep with him. Is that good enough?”

Caius let out a slow breath and nodded. Strangely enough, it was.

“Good,” Max said, rubbing Aradia’s head as she settled on his shoulder. “Let’s get this over with so you can take me home. I want to sleep for a week.”