The chair gave him the height he needed to get everyone’s attention. The introductions took some time, because it was never a simple matter of his listing names for each person. Everyone’s association with each other was detailed, too, which she found surprisingly helpful. Casey was there, the other potential student she might need to help tutor or babysit.
A man with pale blue eyes and blond hair came into the room. He stared down at Zavi in a way that would have terrified Wynn had she been the recipient. Instead, the boy just met his look, stare for stare.
The man lifted his brow. “I believe you’re in my chair.”
Zavi grinned. He reached up and touched the man’s chest. Wynn held her breath. It was like watching a cub bite the paw of a huge male lion.
The boy looked at her. “Uncle Owen, this is my teacher, Miss Wynn. Miss Wynn, this is our chief, Uncle Owen.”
Wynn had the strangest thought that she should curtsy or something. She held her hand out. “Uncle Owen.”
“It’s just Owen.” He shook her hand, then lifted Zavi off his chair.
She looked around the room, uncertain as to what to do next. Mandy smiled at her. She explained the buffet system to her, offering the choice of eating at the table, outside, or in her suite. Really, there were no rules. If she didn’t like what was offered, she could help herself to something else in the kitchen. Kathy often had leftovers available to munch on.
Wynn was surprised by the group’s generosity. She started toward the far end of the buffet line, but was stopped by a late arrival to the room. A tall man with swarthy skin came up the stairs from the living room. His hair was short. His dark eyes were clear and sharp. She noticed him give her a quick, almost instinctive once-over, from head to toe and back again. Heat warmed her face as his dark eyes settled on hers.
She was a tall woman. It was unusual to find a man who made her feel short. He held his hand out without breaking eye contact. “I’m Angel.”
She slipped her hand in his. It was larger than hers just like all the rest of him. “I’m Wynn. Zavi’s teacher.”
He smiled. The skin of his face wrinkled by his eyes and made lean folds beside his mouth. His teeth were big and white. God. He stole her breath. “Welcome, Wynn.” His words rolled from his chest in a baritone rumble.
“Thank you, Angel.” He still held her hand. His grin widened.
“Down, boy,” Blade called from across the table. “It’s the teach’s first day. Give her a break.”
He nodded and released her hand but not her eyes. “Right.” Again the grin.
Wynn smiled and lowered her eyes. How was she going to survive this job? She looked around the room of hot, capable, probably deadly men, and thought she’d best spend most of her time away with Zavi or in her own quarters.
*
Kit, Val, Rocco, Ryker, and Ty moved Bladen’s boxes to the long conference table.
“This is what your mom hid before she died?” Val asked.
“Yeah,” Ty said. “Something about the jewelry box had been nagging at me since Allie brought it to my dad. I thought maybe my mom wanted to keep something of value from Bladen, just save one thing for me. But maybe there was more to it than that. I wondered if there might be a hidden compartment in it like Bladen had in the desk. It didn’t make sense that my mom would have risked her life or that of her friend to hide jewelry from the bastard—he’d already taken everything that belonged to my family. So I started poking around.”
He displayed the scanned image of his mom’s letter on the smart screen. “I found this, along with the instructions to get into her storage unit. We were lucky that the facility still existed and her unit hadn’t been touched. Max and my dad retrieved them while you were in Denver.”
Ty looked at the boxes. “I don’t know if she was killed because she took these boxes, or if Bladen had already decided to dispose of her once he offed her dad. Who knows.”
“Maybe this is what Amir’s guys were looking for when they tossed the house,” Rocco said.
“Could be.”
Kit took a pair of nitrile gloves from a box and then passed the box around. “I want this stuff processed for fingerprints, so let’s be careful with it. Shit has a way of disappearing, so let’s get every piece logged and scanned for backup.”
They pulled the items out of the boxes and set them on the table. Some were loose sheets of paper and some were ancient manuscripts. There were scrolls, leather-bound binders, ledgers, and journals. The newest documents in the batch were from a quarter century ago…the oldest were more than six centuries old. They were in French, German, English, Spanish, and Latin. Others were in a cryptic script that seemed a cross between simple symbols and some arcane text they couldn’t quickly identify.
That mound of data may hold the clues to King’s empire. It was a windfall that Ty knew could get their headquarters blown up if King ever discovered they’d retrieved it.
*
Kelan stepped through Fiona’s opened door. “Hey.”
She turned from the window and smiled. It was a warm September day, but she had a big sweater on. Her hair was wet. Maybe she’d caught a chill after her shower.
“You didn’t come down for lunch.”
“I didn’t feel much like being around anyone yet.”
Kelan nodded. “I understand. I brought our lunch up here. Will you have a bite?”
She looked at the tray he held—sandwiches, salad, melon—and nodded. They sat at the table. He handed her a glass of iced tea. “I could get you some hot tea if you’d prefer.”
“This is fine.”
When Kelan had finished the first of two sandwiches, he broke their silence. “Val would like to take you to the salon in town to have your hair extensions removed. Would you like to do that?”
She nodded. “Yes. When can we go?”
“As soon as you finish eating. I’ll let him know. Max and I are going to head back down to the tunnels. And I’m going to stop and see your friend Stacey. I want to see what she has to say for herself.”
“I don’t want to ever talk to her again.”
“I don’t blame you. I’m sure the FBI is going to be interested in the role she played in your abduction.”