Page 38 of Twisted Empire

I shook my head. “I probably shouldn’t drink that right now. I’ll just get a peppermint tea.”

He nodded and placed our order, and the girl working at the window returned with our drinks a moment later. “One large Americano and one large peppermint tea,” she said with a bright smile as she handed them to Elias.

He froze for a moment, his brows furrowed, and the girl tilted her head with an expectant look on her face.

“I think she’s waiting for the money,” I said, leaning over and nudging Elias.

He shook his head and hurriedly handed some cash to the girl. “Sorry,” he muttered.

He found a spot to park the van a moment later, and I sipped my drink as he stared straight ahead at a brick wall, ignoring his coffee. I didn’t ask him if he was okay. I already knew he wasn’t.

He finally turned to me a moment later. “Henry knew.”

I raised my brows. “Knew what?”

“He knew they were onto him. He knew they would probably kill him. But he sacrificed himself anyway,” he said. “He must’ve figured out where we could go to be safe after we got off the phone earlier, and he wanted to make sure we figured it out too, even if the society got to him first.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He left us a message. One that only a friend would pick up on,” Elias said. He motioned to my takeout cup. “Your tea made me think of it.”

My pulse began to race. “What message?”

“The writing on his arm. Anyone else would look at it and see a grocery list, but not me.” He shook his head. “I should’ve known the second I saw it. Henry fucking hated healthy stuff. He practically lived on pizza and burgers, and he used to give the gym nuts in our group hell for all the protein powder shakes and acai berries they used to eat. He wouldn’t be caught dead buying kale and hummus or any of the other stuff on the list.”

“How is that a message?” I cocked my head to the side.

“Tea, hummus, eggs, avocado, rhubarb, kale.” Elias slowly listed off the things in order. “First letter of each one.”

I wrinkled my brows. “The… ark?”

He nodded as a grim smile turned up the corners of his lips. “Yeah. I know exactly where we need to go.”

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