Page 13

Chapter thirteen

Raegan

Aiden and Cibrina walk into the Loft as I wash the last dish from dinner.

Jackson’s gift lifts the plate from my hand, dries it, then passes it off to Kellan to put away.

“Cibrina’s here with the information from Harvey,” Aiden announces, immediately making himself a glass of bourbon before sitting at the head of the table.

Those of us in the kitchen gather back at the dining table, taking a seat or—in Jackson’s case—shifting around from his perch on the counter.

Cibrina smooths her sheath dress and sits in the available chair.

Dane turns from the computer where he’d been working on Aiden’s virus.

“Was any of it useful?”

Cibrina nods, raising her hands as if poised over an invisible keyboard.

Golden light shimmers above the center of the table, turning into words and then a paragraph of notes.

“While he didn’t realize it at the time, he had come into contact with two active Board members before his time at the Guild.” Her fingers dip and rise, and the text expands to two lists of notes .

“We have a starting point for two of the sitting Board members,” Aiden elaborates.

The rest of us are busy reading Cibrina’s notes.

In one column, it lists: male, dark brown hair cut short, brown eyes, at least six feet tall, fit, wore a white physician coat over dress clothes, looked crazy, medical director, manages hospital?

, argued with Charles about blood for something, Charles shut him up with donations.

The second column has: older male, short silver hair, blue eyes, maybe around five foot nine, fit, wore business suit, talked lawyer-ey.

Dane scoffs. “Talked lawyer-ey?”

“You know Cibrina’s gift records the information exactly as she hears it.” Aiden’s index finger taps the glass in his hand.

“I understand this isn’t a lot to go on, but can you make it work?”

Dane’s amber gaze focuses back on the golden words, his jaw tight.

“For the doctor in a management-type position at a hospital... maybe. But for the lawyer? There are thousands and thousands of those. Even if we’re limiting our search to the States only. And who’s to say these guys haven’t retired or died since Harvey last saw them? He’s been at the Guild for what...ten years?”

“Eight,” Cibrina confirms.

“Right. Did he meet these guys while at the Guild, or before?”

Cibrina scrolls through more text and pauses over what appears to be a transcript of their conversation.

“Before. One looks to be eleven years ago and the other...nine.”

Kellan’s foot bumps mine under the table as he stretches his legs and rests a tattooed forearm on the table.

He shoots me a wink with a roguish grin when I give him a look for it.

“I doubt GE Board membership is the sort you can just leave,” he drawls.

“Not with all the secrets they’d know.”

“He could be dead, then. The notes show Harvey called him older with silver hair nine years ago,” Dane presses.

Kellan opens his mouth with what I know is going to be bullshit aimed at poking Dane’s temper.

I lean forward and slap my hand on the table to cut in first. “I might have a lead,” I blurt out, and all eyes fall on me.

“I...back when we were at Old Red...I may have bumped into a lawyer with GE.”

The sudden quiet as the others process that feels like a guillotine hanging over my head and I’m just waiting for it to drop.

Aiden’s completely still, his obsidian gaze locked on mine as his fingertips whiten where they grip his glass.

Shit.

Dane breaks the silence first. “What?! When the hell did that happen? How did we not hear about it?”

“Aside from the fact that you and I were hardly on speaking terms, I was still trying to find and fight GE on my own then.”

Kellan joins in, his deep voice rough.

“We were on more than speaking terms, beautiful, and this is the first I’m hearing of it.”

Swallowing, I fist my hand on the table.

“It was complicated back then. Let's focus on how this might help us now.”

“What happened?” Aiden’s voice is a low, dangerous croon. “Who is he? Where is he now? Tell us everything.”

Cibrina clears her throat and stands. “I’ll give you guys a minute to catch up while I visit the lady’s room.” She disappears into the powder room without looking back .

I slip a quick glance to Jackson. He’s leaning into his fist, his smirk all-knowing as if he can see my soul flailing at how I’d just outed myself. When I turn back to Aiden, his dark stare is now pinned on Jackson, a disapproving crinkle appearing between his brows.

“His name was Ken—no, Steve. I met him when I’d been looking into Joe. He tried offering me an internship at his practice when he thought I was a law student. I didn’t see him again until we bumped into one another after Joe died and we were all at Old Red. We exchanged numbers so we could meet up and talk about his internship offer and I could try to dig into his connection with GE.” The three sets of stares feel like bricks weighing on my chest as I prepare for what comes next. A part of me hopes that Jackson sees my struggle and jumps in to finish it for me, but that smirk of his...I’d bet this is his form of punishment for what I’d gotten myself into.

The others don’t chime in with questions or commentary, either, forcing me to continue. “He reached out when I was at the bar already feeling low. It was a public place and I thought—never mind, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, he slipped me a sleeping pill at some point and I woke up tied to a chair in his apartment. Jackson showed up, asked him some questions, and I killed him,” I rush through the worst of it. “He admitted to being a lawyer for GE, but it had been tied to helping Joe, a Board-electee. So, what if he worked for a practice that does all the legal work for GE? What if the head lawyer or CEO is the guy we’re looking for?”

“He drugged you and tied you up ?” Kellan growls through clenched teeth, the muscles in his arms tensing. “And why do I feel like you glossed over some more important details? ”

“The only important takeaway is that he could have been an attorney at the firm where the Board member lawyer works. Or owns,” I push, fighting to get the focus back on that rather than me.

The sound of a toilet flushing snaps Aiden out of whatever thoughts had caused his eyes to glaze over. He finishes his bourbon and it knocks sharply against the table. “This conversation isn’t finished,” he warns me in that smooth cadence that sends a shiver down my spine. “For the sake of Cibrina’s time, we’ll focus on the possible connection of this Steve with the potential Board member.” Aiden turns to Dane. “Does that give you a good starting point? Steve, the attorney for the late congressman?”

Dane nods, working his jaw to restrain whatever he wants to say so we can keep moving forward with our plans.

Thank fuck for Cibrina.

“One of the hospitals in this city was tied to GE before I took down the corrupt doctors and administrators,” Jack casually says. “See if the medical Board member was somehow tied to it.”

Cibrina exits the bathroom and Aiden closes his eyes to regain his composure while Dane grits out, “Which one?”

“St. Marks.”

Aiden draws a slow breath and releases it, directing his next words to Dane. “After you’ve finished the virus, this will be top priority. Find out as much as you can on them, particularly if you can confirm whether or not they are Board members of GE and if they have any gifts of their own. Then we’ll put them on surveillance so we can learn their routines and anything else we might need for when we attack. We’ll have to start combing through the data you’ve collected from each island we’ve visited to see if we can find any information on the eight remaining Board members.”

He turns to the rest of us. “We’re also going to adjust the training plan we’ve been putting together. While we’ll continue to train in preparation of GE attacks on the Tower, we’re also going to need to build additional strike teams.”

“Strike teams?” I ask, confused. I assumed we would be hunting and taking them down while saving Harvey’s siblings.

“When we go after the Board, it will have to be all of them at once,” Aiden answers. “The second we attack one of them, the others could scatter or go into hiding. We have to hit them in the same night. Which means ten teams who work well together and against their assigned Board member or electee.”

“And then we kill Charles and GE’s done?” Kellan inquires.

“And Holt,” I cut in.

His brows pinch. “Holt?”

“The lightning user. His death is mine.”

Kellan drags himself upright in his seat as if readying to jump out of it to fight someone. “Aside from the obvious reason when Gordon took you, is there something else we should know, beautiful?”

Damn. I guess today’s a big day of truths.

Taking a deep breath, I stare at my hands in my lap and explain slowly, “Gordon...he hurt me to punish me or... coerce me to do what he wanted. But Holt...he enjoyed hurting me...especially when I was at my worst. And when I panicked thinking Gordon shot Mallory...the bastard laughed.” I look at Aiden. “He doesn’t deserve to live.”

“Is there anyone else we need to add to this kill list?” he croons.

“After Gordon and Charles, no one else has hurt me like that. But we should add the portal girl. I didn’t see her once I got on the island, but she’s used her gift to help GE ambush us enough that she’s a problem. And then there’s Royce. I don’t think we’ll get to Charles until we’ve dealt with him.”

Aiden nods. “And through him, it may eliminate Thorne. And...”

We look at Dane, whose face is tight. “Yeah. And Vera,” he mutters.

“We don’t know if that will actually be the case, but we should be prepared either way,” Aiden says.

Kellan huffs. “So much for the good news that we know the head of GE. There’s still a line of people between us and him.”

Jackson hums and flicks his finger, his gift knocking the salt shaker on the table over. “But the first piece has already fallen.”

“Gordon,” I whisper.

Dane shakes his head. “We can’t take credit for that. They took out their own guy, which means everyone else in that line is probably a lot stronger or more important.”

“Regardless,” Aiden continues, “we need to learn the Board member names and everything about them so we can plan to take that group out.”

“And the rest of the list?” Kell drawls.

“We’ll need information on them, too, to find the right time and plan of attack,” Aiden responds. The hope I’d felt with knowing the identity of the head of GE withers at the number of people still between us and him. If Thorne isn’t taken out with Royce, then that adds another to the list.

Aiden finishes our discussion with, “Speaking of Raegan’s kill list, we’ll be leaving in a few hours to deal with Gordon’s body. Make sure you’re ready.”