Page 110 of Sin

“You’ve seen him,” Keith said, staring at me differently now. It was such an abrupt change in demeanor that I found myself fighting the urge to step back. He cocked his head, studying me. “I understand now. I was curious why they let such an important criminal out of prison. I’d heard rumors that you’d joined the Legion, but I didn’t believe it until you arrived on my doorstep.”

“Mr. Pittel,” London interrupted, sounding irritated. “We’re here to ask questions about Lucas. Not talk about members of my team. If you could tell us more, maybe about any weaknesses he may have or how you planned to control him with the talisman?”

But it was as if Keith didn’t hear London, was too distracted to listen. He was still looking me over with new interest. “You poor thing. That’s why they set you free? They think you’re strong enough to control him?” He shook his head and clucked his tongue. “I can tell you right now, you’re no match for him. Though, you probably already deduced as much if you’ve had a run in with him.”

“Mr. Pittel.” London stood from the couch, glaring at the man. “I’m trying to be nice, but I’m afraid my patience is waning. I want answers.”

Keith finally tore his focus away from me and blinked at London. “As it seems you’re already aware, he’s weak against other psychic abilities. He needs lots of rest to replenish the amount of power he siphons. But after we added the talisman, we noticed he needed less sleep, despite outputting so much more power. As for how we planned to control him, that was simple. Just like in the prison, we only ever turned off his cuffs inside a specific warded room and for short bursts of time. This made him a non-issue for us since we could turn on his dampening cuffs from out of range for his powers.” He hesitated. “However, we never accounted for the labs to be destroyed, which in turn, damaged the wards. Lucas saw an opportunity and seized it.”

Lewis frowned. “So now he’s loose with no way to rein him in?”

Keith shook his head, playing with his ring. “Dampening cuffs should still work. Especially with the new advancements to them in recent years. But the only true way to keep him contained is to lock down his powers with the cuffs and keep him contained in a heavily warded area.” His gaze shifted to me and then away. “Like a Super prison.”

They’d taken an innocent man and turned him into a monster. They’d done this to him.

If Lucas’s power wasn’t so unstable, I would let him finish his revenge on these bastards. But he wasn’t stable. And now he was a danger to other innocent people getting caught in the crosshairs.

I thought back to the carnival, and how, had we not been there, the mechanical failures could have caused a lot more injuries, or worse.

No, Lucas needed to be detained until they found a way to remove the talisman from his brain without killing him.

Though, for all I knew, the government wouldn’t care if they killed him. Just as long as he was no longer a threat.

That didn’t sit well with me either. Because underneath it all, Lucas was a man who’d undergone unimaginable pain. He’d lost so much to these sadists, and his only crime was paying them back for everything they did to him.

My father wanted revenge on the man who’d killed my mother. But then he’d taken that vengeance too far and had knowingly almost killed millions of people because of it.

“Well, I think that’s all the questions we have for you right now,” London said. “Unless there’s anything else you think is relevant to share?”

When Keith shook his head, London nodded, as if he expected that. “Are you sure we can’t put you in one of our safe houses, Mr. Pittel?” he asked as he and Jinx stood to leave. He didn’t sound particularly like he cared about Keith’s well-being though.

“Like I said,” Keith said, standing as well and waving a hand around the room. “This house is warded. I took precautions when he escaped. Lucas won’t be able to step onto this property unless I allow it. And besides,” he said, twisting the ring on his finger, “I have a few tricks up my sleeve in case that all fails. I’ll be fine.”

“Suit yourself,” London said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Thank you for your time. We’ll be back if we have any other questions.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

You promised you’d come home

“How can he stand to live like that?” Jinx asked, shivering as we clambered inside the van. The rain was coming down hard now, and just the short walk from the front door to the car left us drenched. “I counted over fifty taxidermied animals in the living room alone. And that’s not including the entryway!”

“I know several people with taxidermy in their home,” Blade said, strapping herself in next to Jinx.

“I’m just saying there were a lot of dead animals in there,” Jinx muttered as Lewis started the car. “It creeped me out.”

Blade patted his bicep. “Well, let’s just hope we don’t have to come back.”

“Agreed.”

Lewis started the van and started pulling out of the long driveway. I caught a flash of curtains as Keith peeked out to watch us leave.

We were mostly quiet for the ride, deciding to head toward the capitol for now until we caught any whiff of where Lucas had disappeared to.

Mare seemed particularly agitated, scowling out the window as she listened to a Disney song. A woman crowed through her earbuds about needing six eggs.

Lewis, unlike usual, drove a lot smoother as he too seemed lost in his thoughts.

And even as Mercy Heights came into view, I still couldn’t figure out what we were missing here.

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