Page 37 of Rule the Night

Remy shrugged. “I figured she needed some protein after all that running.”

“Should have brought her a cheeseburger,” Poe said. “Maybe she wouldn’t have slammed the door in your face.”

“You’re hilarious.” Remy grabbed a peach off the bowl in the center of the table and took a bite, then sat next to me. “So? What’s the word?”

I looked at the first page of the file sent over by Aloha. “Maeve Haver, twenty-two. Parents still married, mom’s a professor at the community college, dad’s a… pastry chef?”

“Wow, our Maeve is a normie,” Remy said.

“A pastry chef?” Poe sounded as incredulous as I felt.

Who in the fuck was a pastry chef in real life?

“That’s what it says. Works at Oak & Reed.”

Remy whistled. “That place is fancy. My mom and dad go there for their anniversary every year.”

“Siblings?” Poe asked. “Boyfriend?”

I’d wondered the same thing.

“One long-term boyfriend, in high school.” Aloha was good. “Two siblings. No… three. Or there were three. Her older sister died. Murdered by her live-in boyfriend.”

Remy froze. “Are you serious?”

“That’s what it says.”

“Wait… I think I remember hearing about this,” Poe said. “Was the sister’s name Julie? Julia?”

“June,” I murmured. “June Haver.”

“I guess now we know why Maeve was in the tunnels,” Remy said.

“Don’t be so sure,” I said, reading. “The sister’s boyfriend is already in prison.”

“That’s weird,” Poe said.

He wasn’t wrong. If the guy who’d murdered Maeve’s sister was in prison, who had she wanted us to kill?

I shut down that train of thought fast. It didn’t matter. The girls from the Hunt were here to serve. We kept them for three months and then sent them on their way.

No harm, no foul, no attachment.

“It’s none of our business.” I returned my attention to the file. “She has two younger siblings, Simon and Olivia, and graduated with an associates degree in culinary arts. Works at a store called Lushberry in the mall in Carlton.”

“But she studied to be a chef,” Poe said. “We hit the jackpot.”

“Why is she working at a clothing store when she has a degree in culinary arts?” Remy asked.

“Again, none of our business.” We did background on the girls who came to live with us as a security protocol. Our world was small, contained. Letting someone in was a big deal. We kept the girls at arm’s length, but they were still in the loft for three months.

We needed to know what we’d be dealing with.

“Just curious,” Remy said.

“Don’t be.”

“Anything we need to worry about?” Poe asked.