Page 96 of The Collector

Raven adjusted his cuffs, straightened his collar, and prepared to meet whatever waited on the other side.

"You won't believe the phone call I just had."

"What was it? —about the Stallions?" San asked.

"No—oddly enough, it was about Stoker," Raven said, his voice low. "Uncle San, there's something I need to tell you, but it stays between us. I'm not ready for the other Kings to know."

He paused, letting the weight of those words settle between them.

"Doctor Emily ran the tox screen twice. My father didn't just die—he was killed by one of my mother's poisons."

Raven's jaw tightened.

"She doesn't think it's a coincidence. She thinks someone inside the Kings used it. Someone who knew exactly where to find the information about how to make and modify it to suit their own needs."

He stepped closer, his voice dropping lower.

"There are only four people with access to the journals that contain that formula. Four. And if Emily's right, one of them isn't just a traitor. They're family."

"So, Hector, of course, Shelby, Stoker, and you. "Uncle San paused, "That gives us only two possibilities, Shelby and Stoker—"

Raven nodded. "I was going to have you investigate them, look into their lives for the last few weeks. Until I got the phone call from Marina Del Rey Hospital saying they need to talk to me about a family member—Stoker—seemed pretty suspicious given the timing."

Uncle San looked at him in confusion. "But we just left Stoker in the terrace room."

"My point exactly. How can Stoker be in two places at once?" The two men entered the waiting car. Neither spoke again until they were within the car's privacy.

San adjusted his coat as he sat, wiggling himself into a comfortable spot before he spoke. Making sure to speak quietly enough for only Raven to hear, he leaned in and did.

"Maybe this is where I can be of use to you. When we were young, your Uncle Mateo had a girlfriend—a beautiful girl—who loved Mateo and the very ground he walked on. She wasn't exactly what your grandparents thought of as marriage material.Not to mention the fact that your Uncle Mateo was betrothed to your Aunt Maria for some time before their affair, he claimed Grace was the love of his life, but after your grandfather threatened to disown him, he caved and left her. "San checked to see if Raven was still following what he was saying.

He nodded for him to continue.

"There was this rumor when he did— that she was pregnant with twins. The affair didn't stay a topic of discussion for long. But I remember it clearly, because I found it odd that Maria announced the impending birth of Stoker not long after the rumors started. No one ever saw or heard from Grace again. We all assumed she'd been taken care of."

Raven considered for a moment that his Aunt Maria and Uncle Mateo never had any other children. Was it possible that Grace had given Mateo a child as a payoff for the life she wanted? Many people before her had done the same. Was it possible that each of the parents had had a child? His mind was in overdrive at this point; there were so many potential reasons, all of which could be true. Yet he felt in his gut that something was off with Stoker and had been for some time.

Raven's phone rang.

"Hello," Raven listened to the voice on the other end of the line. His face turning to stone, he spoke into the phone with short, pointed responses. He hung up the phone. And looked back to Uncle San," They've just found Uncle Mateo dead. The associate who found him says it looks like he choked on his own fluids, his hand locked around his throat."

"Poison—?" San said.

"That's what I'm thinking." Raven barely had time to breathe before the next blow landed.

"It gets worse. Uncle Tony's flight just landed in Mexico. He was strangled mid-air. One of the crew had to have taken himout. The Godfather's enforcers are trying to get them to talk, figure out who hired them. But no one's saying a word."

Uncle San exhaled slowly.

"At this point, it's clear Hector wasn't the target. The whole King's upper hierarchy was. That's three of our top men gone. Permanently."

He looked at Raven. "What are you thinking? Stallions? Or the serial killer we've been tracking?"

Raven shook his head. "I'm not sure about anything right now, Uncle San. What I do know is I need to see what the hospital wants and get out of here. Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated—and fast."

The hallways at Marina Del Rey were thick with bodies and noise. The emergency room lobby pulsed with impatience—babies cried, mothers murmured comfort, and the crowd exhaled in collective disappointment each time the triage nurse called a name that wasn't theirs.

Raven had gone straight to the desk, just as Nurse Diana had instructed. They paged her. Thirty minutes passed. No sign.