Page 164 of The Echo of Forever

What the fuck was she trying to tell me?

“You guys have Solomon’s ear now,” Ignis said. “You’re positioned to get closer to him than any of us could dreamof. We need you to help us find concrete proof, enough to bring him down without collapsing the entire power structure of Everwood.”

The next thing I put together was that they had no idea about Soleme. So, either Solomon wanted her dead or the power struggle Lucien spoke of was actually happening within the family.

Probably both.

If Solomon fell, the ripple effects would be messy, but only if there wasn’t someone to take his place. Only if Soleme wasn’t in on it, too.

“I need to talk to my husband.”

“Solomon has eyes and ears everywhere. Be careful.”

As the words left her mouth, a timer beeped softly, indicating our fifteen minutes were up.

“We’ll be in touch,” Seo-Yeon said, standing. “Your mother will arrange it. And consider that other matter dead. This is more important.”

I felt sick to my stomach, and the feeling stayed with me for the rest of my day. Why did everything have to connect to me?

Dying might be better than this, Forever.

CHAPTER 42

ECHO

I watchedViolet shift positions on the rooftop. She adjusted her scope and moved again, completely unbothered by the four-story drop beneath her boots.

We were just outside of Fairchild territory in a dead zone.

My eyes drifted back to the street below as I thought about how to tell Forever what I knew without sending her into shock.

The shit Quinn had said about Solomon made me feel irrational. It shifted the narrative fed to us, but also put shit into perspective. Every auction that my siblings and I used to set someone free connected to him.

He was the mastermind behind the scenes.

“This’ll take more than a couple of days to make happen,” Violet said, moving from one end of the roof to the next. “It took years to dismantle the trade in our neck of the woods, and there were still loose ends to tie up. Be prepared for a long haul.”

I didn’t respond, just watched her work. Violet had her own reasons for wanting to burn Solomon’s empire to the ground. She’d been trafficked in New York before Lucia saved her, pulled from the same kind of hell Solomon had created here in Everwood. The moment I mentioned his operation, Isaw something flicker behind her usually expressionless eyes. Something dark and very familiar.

That’s when she opened her resources to me, databases tracking missing girls and safe houses stretching up and down the East Coast. Contacts in places I couldn’t reach without help from the outside.

All the pieces I needed to dismantle his operation once I took him out of the equation. He needed to go first. We could work out the rest over time.

Below us, a black SUV with tinted windows crawled down the street, moving too slowly to be casual. Violet tracked it through her scope, body completely still except for the slight adjustment of her hands. For a moment, I thought she might take the shot, but she just kept watching.

“Only two bodies inside,” she said, voice flat. “Same as before. Probably our guy.”

She shifted again, moving to a different position to get a better angle on the building across the street as the truck entered a parking garage.

It was the Fairchild’s secondary office, not as notable as their main headquarters downtown, but still important.

“I don’t move until I get confirmation,” she said, breaking down her rifle.

Her fingers moved quickly, disassembling the weapon in what had to be a record time. I couldn’t help but clap, shit was too impressive.

“Been meaning to ask if you’ll take my sister back to Philly with you and train her,” I said, watching as she zipped up the rifle bag. “She needs a different kind of discipline, and I don’t have the patience.”

Violet stood, slinging the rifle bag over her shoulder.