Page 80 of Devil's Riches

15

Nate

As soon asthe words were out of Alexis’s mouth, she jumped up and started rummaging through a pile of notes. I stared at her, brows shooting upward. “Who is it?”

She bit her bottom lip and pulled out a page of her father’s notes—the one that simply said ‘IL?’ in big letters and nothing else. She put the page down in front of me, returned to her seat, and leaned forward. “J.R. obviously isn’t a person’s initials,” she said. “But I still think it’s significant. What do those two letters together mean to you?”

“I don’t know. My brain is fucking fried right now,” I said, rubbing my forehead.

“Think about what you just said a few seconds ago. That the current Golden Circle leader could be the original leader’s kid.”

Her point finally dawned on me. “Junior.”

She nodded emphatically. “Exactly,” she said. She leaned farther forward and lowered her voice. “I think the current leader could be my grandfather. Edward Paxton Jr.”

I leaned back, eyes narrowing in disbelief. “Alexis—”

She shook a finger at me. “Don’t look at me like that. Like I’ve lost my shit.”

I couldn’t help but let a small smile tug at my lips when she said that. She looked so earnest. So determined and serious. On anyone else, that sort of expression would barely be noteworthy, but on her it was a captivating combination of cute and sexy.

Then again, with those lips and eyes, everything she did was captivating.

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” I said. “But last week at the Mayfair I asked you about Edward, and you said he couldn’t possibly be involved in the Golden Circle. He genuinely believes your dad was the Blackthorne Butcher.”

Alexis nodded impatiently. “I know, but I was just thinking—what if I’m totally wrong about that? What if he wants me and my sister gone for other reasons?” she said, arching a brow. “What if he’s only ever pretended to not want a relationship with us because our dad was supposedly the Butcher, when in reality, he just wants us gone from the island because he’s worried we’ll look into Dad’s case and figure out the truth about him?”

“Even if that’s true, the Paxtons don’t really match what we’re looking for,” I said. “They aren’t even in the top hundred of Avalon’s richest.”

“They’re still extremely wealthy compared to most people,” she replied. “Also, they could’ve hidden a lot of their money and kept a low profile compared to all the other uber-wealthy people on Avalon. That way, even if the other twelve families in the Golden Circle wanted to find the thirteenth, they’d never suspect them, because like us, they’d be looking for multi-billionaires. Not multi-millionaires.”

I glanced down at the ‘IL?’ page in front of me. Alexis still hadn’t explained why she’d put it there, but I’d learned enough about her in recent times to know she was smart as hell. A lot smarter than me. She had to have a good reason.

“Okay,” I said, leaning back again. “Tell me why you think it’s Edward.”

She held up her left index finger. “For one, he’s a doctor who owns three hospitals. Two on Avalon, and one in Seattle. He inherited them from his father.” She paused and tilted her chin. “If you think about it, being a doctor and a hospital owner would be perfect for someone who’s running an organ trafficking scheme. It would be easy for them to identify people who need organs, and it would be easy for them to arrange all the tests and surgeries.”

I rubbed my chin. “That’s true.”

“We also know that Greg and the other Golden Circle surgeons kept the victims in the Blackthorne tunnels before killing them and taking their organs,” Alexis went on. “I bet there’s a passage down there that leads right up to Blackthorne Teaching Hospital.”

“Which is owned by the Paxtons,” I said, nodding slowly.

“Yup. So the Blackthorne tunnels was the perfect place for them. They were able to keep the victims down there so no one could see or hear them, and they were also close enough to transport the organs to the hospital while they were still fresh and viable. Remember, even in cold storage, they don’t last very long.”

“Right.”

“There’s more,” Alexis replied, holding up another finger. “Listen to this.”

She pulled the laptop closer to her and started reading off the screen. “The word ‘Ophiuchus’ means ‘serpent bearer’, and in ancient Greek mythology, Ophiuchus represented the god of medicine, Asclepius,” she said. “The Rod of Asclepius—a snake twisting around a rod—is an extremely common symbol in the modern medical world.”

My brows puckered. “So?”

“Do you remember the pin my grandfather always wears?”

An image of it flashed into my mind a split-second later. “Holy shit. It’s that snake thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I always assumed he had it because it’s such a common medical symbol,” Alexis replied. “But what if he wears it for two reasons? The medical connection and the Ophiuchus connection.”

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