“Yeah, I know who you are,” he speaks up, and already he’s pissing me off. “I know who all of you are. Victor briefed me well before sending me here.” He raises his arms, elbows propped on the table in front of him, and folds his hands together; silver-and-diamond cufflinks shine demonstrably on the wrists of his dress shirt poking from the ends of his jacket sleeves.
Sucking on the inside of my mouth, I say bitterly, “I wish I could say the same about you. Victor told me your name is Osiris, but not much more than that. In fact, the only thing I know about what happened in Venezuela is what happened to Izabel. It’s been two weeks and I don’t know shit, so you’ll have to excuse the fucking chip on my shoulder because you know more about my brother than I do.”
Osiris smirks. Motherfucker.
He unfolds his hands and rests his back in the chair, puts his hands in his lap.
“I’ll just get right to the point,” he says.
“Yeah, that’d be the wise choice,” I come back.
He ignores my attempt at provoking him.
“My brother and sister are responsible for what happened in Venezuela,” he says, looks at us all one by one, and then continues. “And I was hired by Victor Faust to help track them down, capture them, and bring them to him alive.”
Niklas
I set my gun down on the table, but keep it well within my reach. “I see,” I say, aggravated and suspicious. “But that doesn’t mean shit to me. I can do all that on my own.”
“I didn’t come here for your approval, or your permission,” Osiris says. “I’m here to recruit”—he looks only at me—“and to tell the rest of you about my brother and sister, Apollo and Artemis, so you’re not blindsided by them if they happen to show up here. And they likely will, to finish what they started.”
“And why should we trust you?” Nora asks. “This is your family we’re talking about.”
Once again, I agree with Nora.
“She’s right,” I speak up. “Everybody knows I’ve had my differences with my brother, but I’d never work with someone against him, no matter what he’s done.”
“I never got along with my other siblings—except for Hestia—so you can say they’re as much my family as they are yours.”
“That still doesn’t give us reason to trust you,” Fredrik says.
Osiris leans forward and folds his hands atop the table.
“A long time ago,” he says, “I was the one who commissioned The Order to take my family out. Victor happened to be the assassin handed the job. My hatred for them hasn’t changed—I want them dead as much as Victor does.” He backtracks a little, shrugs, and adds, “Well, after what Artemis did to Victor’s woman, it’s possible he wants her dead a little more than I do—common ground.”
I remember now. Something about the name Osiris did feel somewhat familiar when Victor told me on the phone about this meeting.
I look across the long table at the man. “You’re Osiris Stone,” I say. “You and my brother, from what I understand, aren’t the best of friends.” My brother never told me the full story about the Stone family, and his involvement with them, but he did tell me that Osiris tied him to a chair and beat him—all the more reason not to trust this guy.
“No, we wouldn’t be friends,” Osiris admits. “I was sort of forced to…push Faust to his breaking point, I guess you can say. It wasn’t my choice; The Order made what I did to him, mandatory per my contract.”
“And what exactly did you do?” Nora asks.
“It doesn’t matter,” Osiris says. “That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because Victor asked me to be.”
I still can’t believe this shit. “You expect me to believe that my brother hired you to do a job for him?” I ask with disbelief.
Nora laughs. “Yeah, that’s like Picasso hiring you to paint him a picture”—she stands up, throws her hands in the air—“Are you fucking kidding me? This is bullshit, Niklas.”
I stand, too, and begin to walk the length of the table, ignoring Nora, but always quietly agreeing with her.
“OK, Osiris,” I say, “so Victor needs your expertise because you know the targets better than he does; does that about sum it up?”
He nods. “Something like that.” Then he stands as I get closer, and I realize how much taller than me he is.
“So you’re going to tag along with him and me on the hunt,” I assume.
“No,” Osiris says, and that provokes a few raised eyebrows in the room, including mine. “Apparently, Victor is sitting this one out, from what I gathered in my meeting with him. Of course, he didn’t tell me what he plans to do, but he isn’t leading this particular mission. He’s paying me and my sister to do it for him.”
“So what does this have to do with me?” I ask. “You said you came here to recruit.”
“Not you,” he says. “Victor told me to get with you about recruiting two of your best operatives who’ll be going with us.” He glances around the table. “I’m assuming they’re here?”
“Yeah, they are,” I say, and then point at myself. “If this is to hunt the ones who hurt Izzy, then one of them will be me.” I point at Nora. “And that blond over there.” If I’d known what this was about beforehand, I never would’ve chosen those two noisemakers!