Page 117 of Reaper and Ruin

Will glanced at his sister.

She shrugged; chocolate filling smeared across her mouth. “I don’t know.”

X frowned at them. “Do you know your birthday? Or what year you were born?”

They shook their heads.

I tried a different line of questioning. “What about school? What grade are you in?” At least that would give us the general idea of how old they were.

“We’ve never been,” Ari mumbled with her mouth full. Her eyes lit up. “Could we go?”

I didn’t even bother asking them if their parents had homeschooled them. I knew there was no chance that would have happened.

I gave her a tight smile. “I think it’s safe to say you’re definitely going to go to school now.”

She shook her brother’s arm in excitement. “Did you hear that? Will, did you hear him? This is the best day ever.”

And that was possibly the saddest thing I’d ever heard.

From down the hallway, the water running in the bathroom stopped. A quiet knock came from the front of the house, and I slid off the stool.

The others went back to their conversation, and I went to the door. Grayson stood on the other side, looking haggard.

I stepped aside so he could come in, and checked the street, making sure nothing was out of place before I closed the door.

He didn’t make a move to go any farther into the house. He just jerked his head toward the living room. “Kids in there?”

I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back against the wall. “You been over to the scene?”

He grimaced. “It’s a lot. But the others are over there, dealing with it. They said to tell you, you now owe them multiple cleanups.”

That was great and a tiny weight off my mind. I didn’t even care that at some point, I’d have to pay back the favor and getmy hands dirty, cleaning up a mess Trig and his guys had made. That’s what we did for each other. We always had.

But what we’d left for them tonight was a mess of epic proportions.

And we’d brought two of the biggest problems home with us.

“Did you find anything out about the kids?” I asked him.

He made a face. “Not really. I had a quick search around while the guys were dealing with the bodies. Found a creepy as hell trapdoor that led to a coffin-sized box beneath the floor. But there were no signs of birth certificates or anything with their legal names on it. I know some people at DCFS, and in the morning, I’ll subtly ask them to look up any kids who might have been staying at that address. You said Violet had been fostered there when she was younger, right? So it’s possible they’re foster kids.”

I nodded. “They said they were their parents, but maybe they’re too young to remember if they came there from another family. I don’t know.”

“We’ll know more tomorrow when I can get my friend to look into it.” He glanced past me at the kids sitting at the kitchen counter. “Question is, what are we going to do with them in the meantime?” Grayson frowned. “I guess I could take them with me—”

Ari’s head jerked up, and she twisted to stare at us.

She’d clearly been listening. That fear was back in her eyes again. The one we’d only just removed through reassurances and food and stupid I Spy games.

Her eyes begged me not to give her away.

“No,” I told Grayson, but my words were for the little girl sitting in my home with sugar on her face. “They stay here with us.”

36

VIOLET

In Whip’s bathroom, I stood beneath the shower spray for a long time, mentally trying to process what we were going to do with two kids who’d watched me murder someone. I got the impression they were well used to keeping secrets, but I didn’t want to be another adult who asked them to do that.