Page 78 of Reaper and Ruin

He seemed like he wanted to argue but eventually gave a curt nod when I raised my gun just enough for him to see it over the edge of the window.

We were armed. He wasn’t. And walking into a Mafia family home and accusing them of kidnapping their only daughter probably wasn’t going to go down well.

I pulled the car into the driveway and pushed the intercom buzzer on the stone pillar.

Levi ducked his head so he could peer up at the top of it. “Video surveillance. At least two cameras. We should probably assume there’s more.”

I nodded but said nothing, because a clipped, gruff voice came through the speakers. “Yeah?”

“Wyatt DeLeon, here to speak to Jeremiah or Constance Matish.”

“Please!” X called from the back seat. “Honestly, Whip, you have no manners.”

I shot him a look.

“More than just one of you in that car,” the voice came back.

I pressed my lips together, but it was a fair enough statement. “Levi Griffin, Violet Garrisen, and…” I twisted toward X. “What the hell is your real name anyway?”

X rolled his eyes and answered the speaker for me. “Knox Hawthorne.”

Levi raised an eyebrow. “You don’t look like a Knox.”

“What name do I look like then?”

He shrugged. “Peter?”

X’s mouth dropped open. “Peter? As in Pan? That’s insulting.” He crossed his arms over his chest like Levi had mortally wounded his ego.

“I would have gone with Greg, personally,” I threw in, just to rub salt in the wound.

X shot me a dirty look. “Why are you both giving me old man names? I can totally pull of Knox! Can’t I, Omelet?”

She was much more gracious with his ego than we’d been. “If I can pull off Omelet, you can pull off Knox.”

He seemed satisfied that at least Violet thought his name suited him.

Truthfully, I was just messing with him, and I could tell from Levi’s smirk that he had been as well.

The security guy eventually came back to us. “You don’t have an appointment.”

“No, we don’t.”

“They aren’t taking visitors right now.”

Mmm. Sure they weren’t. “It’s important. It’s about their daughter. She’s missing.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Matish are well aware. Miss Matish left town quite some time ago.”

Violet rolled her window down. “We aren’t talking about her leaving the city. We’re friends of hers. She went missing two days ago. Didn’t show up for work. Nobody has seen her since.”

There was a long pause. “You’ll need to make an appointment.”

Violet sat back in her seat. “Forget it. They aren’t letting us in. Let’s just go. Coming here was probably a stupid idea anyway. Nyah hates these people.”

But we all knew it wasn’t that simple. We needed to speak to Nyah’s parents. Either they had her, or they might know who did.

I knew Nyah had run from these people, but my gut instinct said she was a lot better off right now if it was them who’d taken her.