Ty looked at him. “You’re in it already. We all are.”
Greer shook his head. “I know your mind works in cryptic ways, but what the fuck are you talking about?”
“We’re trying to find King, but we’re not going about it the right way.”
“Okay. I’ll bite. How should we be looking for King?”
“Start with us.”
Greer’s brows shot up. “You think one of us is King?”
“No. But I think we’re all tied to him. Somehow. Even if it’s only through the Red Team we’ve all served.” Blade walked away, pivoted, and came back.
“Why are you even thinking this?”
“The tendrils tying us together. Hope’s mom’s tie to the WKB, Lion is King’s kid, my involvement through my mom. Remi’s background and her work with the Friendship Community. What if, somehow, in some way, we’re all connected to King and what he’s doing…and we don’t know it, but Owen does.”
“You think he’s King?”
“No. He’s not old enough. He mentioned a while back there was a rogue Red Teamer, but he’s done nothing to have us track him down.”
“Yeah, but Wendell Jacobs hasn’t done anything to cause problems except drop off grid.”
“Which ordinarily would have been enough to have us chase him.”
“Maybe Owen figures the shit King’s into is a bigger deal.”
“Maybe. Maybe the link is our parents and grandparents. What do we really know about any of them? Look at the mess my grandfather and mother were into. And your grandfather, raising you like an assassin, and here you are using those skills to fight King. Val grew up with Owen, but even he feels there’s something the boss is hiding from him, from us. And how did Selena make it onto the Red Team in the first place?”
“Ah…because she’s badass?”
“She’s the only female to make it through the training. You know as well as I do she’s not the only female badass out there. And we know she didn’t do it on her back. Who were her parents connected to? There’s a whole network of answers linking us. Maybe, if we can find it, we’ll know what King is up to before shit rains down on the team while we’re spread too thin to help each other.”
Greer regarded him for a silent moment as he processed their convo, then he nodded. “I haven’t looked at it from that angle—the inside out. Let me do some analysis. I’ll get back to you. Am I keeping this on the down-low?”
“For now, but it’s not a secret if anyone asks about it. You have all of our vitae. Dig into it. See where we overlap. Find something new. If my theory holds up, we’ll bring it up with the team.”
They went back to the main floor. Greer returned to the den, and Ty went back up to the room he shared with Eden. She was still in the same position he’d left her in, still softly breathing.
He stepped into the closet and closed the door. Opening the safe, he took his mom’s big jewelry box out and set it on the floor. He had only vague memories of her and the box, but very, very sharp ones of Bladen’s anger when he discovered it missing after her death.
Why had it upset him so much? Was it just that a woman—his wife, at that—had defied him? Or did he resent the loss of the fortune that he could have used to buy the allegiance of more pedophiles?
Ty opened the drawers, looking over the jewels, many of which had come to his mom from a long line of wealthy Holts reaching back into the early nineteenth century. The jewelry box wasn’t an antique. It had several narrow ring and earring drawers—wider ones for bracelets, side panels for necklaces. And why had Blade’s mom begged her friend Allie to keep the box for him? Given what his mom was up against, it put Allie in a dangerous situation. As he opened each of the compartments, the thought came to his mind about the hidden compartment in Bladen’s desk where he’d found his ledger.
He was sure his mom would have valued her friend’s life over a fortune in jewels.
He went still.
Unless, perhaps, she valued her son’s life above all else? Was there a message in the jewelry box for him?
He began to pull out each drawer, tug at the red velvet lining, press and tap and pull each component, searching for anything that might release even the tiniest of hiding spaces. He removed the hinged doors. Nothing. Finally, he retrieved a small-gauge screwdriver and unfastened the top lid. When he slid it off, he found what he was looking for: a narrow pocket between the inner and outer back of the case.
He turned the box upside down and shook it. Nothing came out. Had something once been there? Did Allie remove it? He fetched his phone and pointed its light into the compartment. Something was in there, but down too deep to fish out with his fingers.
He grabbed his KA-BAR and used the blade to drag the paper out. It was a sealed envelope with just one word on the outside: Ty.
He didn’t recognize the writing. There’d been so little of his mother’s belongings in the papers Bladen had left behind. The things of hers that had survived his stepfather had been to her or about her, but not from her. The envelope hadn’t seen the light of day for more than two and a half decades. It was still white and crisp, as if it had been recently penned. He could barely breathe as he opened it.
My Baby TyBurger,
How I wish that I could hug you one more time.
It saddens me to think that you might one day read this note. If you are reading it, you’re a grown man now. I suppose I can’t still call you TyBurger, though it always made you laugh.
I love you, my son. I had no idea the kind of world I was bringing you into. Well, perhaps by the time I was pregnant with you, I knew.
If you’re reading this, then there are things you also must know.
There is an entire reality other than the one most people see. You must be prepared for it. I wasn’t, even though my father was mired in it. Now he’s dead and I am doomed to my fate—and the knowledge that I will not be there to protect you and see you grow into the man you are now.