Page 29 of Grave Games

“He is.” Shiloh made a sad little noise that broke my heart. “The pride of our family, really. Our mom’s a teacher, our dad’s a handyman, and I’m completely ordinary, too. But Josh? Pure genius and the first in the family to ever earn a full scholarship. He’s amazing.”

Curiouser and curiouser. “So, genius, how’d you cross paths with Hades’s kid and his crew? Clean-cut, suburban-raised college boys don’t usually come across any of our kind unless they’re dipping their toes into places they shouldn’t.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Shiloh snapped, throwing me a look of furious disdain while I watched her brother’s gaze flicker away. “Before you people got your hands on him, my brother was exactly as you said—clean-cut and focused on a future that was as brilliant as he is when it comes to science. It was Marvel who made everything bad happen.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that,” I said absently, turning it over in my head as I studied Josh. “But the question stands. How did Josh and Marvel get to know each other in the first place? I mean, did you all go to school together?”

“They met in college while I was in my senior year in high school.” Sounding less certain, Shiloh looked to her brother for backup. “That’s what you told me, right?”

Josh stared at her like he didn’t know her. “Shut it, Shiloh.”

“But, I remember that’s what you tol—”

“I said shut the fuck up.”

“I think I get what happened—and just so you know, I’ll smack the lips off your little bitch face if you disrespect your sister like that again,” I said, looking at him with new eyes and hating everything I saw. “I do know a thing or two about you, Josh McKeen. For starters, I know what your road name is. Chef, yeah? They call you Chef?”

His eyes snapped back to me, screaming with tension, but said nothing.

“Not talking, huh? Okay, we’ll do it another way.” I nodded toward the collar peeking out under his parka. “You got your cut on, I can see it from here, and I know your road name’s on it. You can either tell me and your sister what your road name is, or… I can go over there, beat the fucking shit out of you before peeling your parka off, and read your road name for myself. You have three seconds to make the choice, but before you do, you should know I’m an expert when it comes to pistol-whipping people into shape.”

“Jesus,” Shiloh whispered on a shaky breath, sending a small needle of pain right through the center of my chest. “Jesus,don’t, Romeo, please. What does it even matter what his nickname is?”

“Road name, baby,” I corrected, struggling to keep my attention trained on her brother, who looked like he had a colony of fire ants biting his balls off. But focusing on business was damn hard to do when she sounded so scared. “It matters, Shy. Road names reveal one helluva lot about the men who earn them. Take mine,” I added with a shrug. “I’m known for having a way with the ladies. So your brother’s name, Chef, tells me that he’s an excellent cook. Right, Chef?”

“Fuck you, you piece of shit.”

“A cook?” Clearly baffled, Shiloh looked from me to her brother and back again. “This shows just how wrong you are, Romeo. Maybe things have changed since I last saw Josh, but the brother I knew couldn’t put together a plate of eggs and toast without setting off the fire alarm.”

“Food isn’t the only thing a man can cook, Shy girl.”

Her blank stare told me she wasn’t getting it. “What else is there?”

“Shut up,” her brother said again, this time to me, with a sweaty desperation that told me I was right on target. “Just shutup, you sonofabitch.”

“Chemicals, baby.” I said it gently. Not for his sake, but for Shy’s. Destroying her innocent belief that her big brother was heroic was the last thing I wanted to do, but being oblivious to how dangerous Josh was had gotten her into trouble in the first place. No way was I going to let that happen again. “There are always chemicals. And good ol’ Josh here said it himself—the pharmaceutical companieslovewhat he can do. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

Understanding bloomed along with horror in Shiloh’s eyes as her brother remained stonily silent. “Josh?”

He looked away and let his silence damn him.

“Josh.” Shiloh’s ferocity kicked in, and I literally watched it stiffen her spine as she glared at her brother. “Tell him he’s wrong. Tellmehe’s wrong.”

Silence stretched, horrible and damning.

“He can’t, baby.” Which was actually a good thing, at least to my mind. Much of the person Josh McKeen had once been had probably been devoured and lost forever—Hades’s specialty, of course. But at least Josh still gave a damn about what his little sister thought of him. I could work with that. “You’ve been cooking up shit for a long damn time, haven’t you,Chef? Long before Hades got his hooks into you. Yeah?”

The side-eye he gave me was a startling echo of Shy’s. “I’m not talking to you.”

Oh, yeah. These two were totally siblings. “Meth, molly, fentanyl, X, designer cocktails and all that shit. You cook it all, because you’re just that book-smart. That’s why Hades went hard on recruiting you, to the point of kidnapping your baby sister. That soulless bastard wanted to bring you to heel because you were selling that shit when you were in college, and probably making a ton of money. Hades wanted that action—and your special brand of genius—all for himself.”

“No.” Horror brought Shiloh to her feet, only to wince when she put weight on her injured toes. “This has gone far enough. My brother isn’t a… a drug dealer. Or if he is now, that’s what he’s been forced to become. Tell him, Josh.”

“Yeah, tell me, Josh,” I mocked, and my smile felt like a dangerous baring of teeth. “Tell your sweet little sister—who for years has been left to think you heroicallysavedher, when in fact you’re the unforgivable bastard who put her in danger in the first place—how you really met Marvel. Go on, tell her.”

“I was just trying to make a little money to get through college, Shiloh, I swear. Then I bought a Harley, because the guy I sold my product to had one—”

“Marvel,” I offered, and his wince told me I was right. “You became Marvel’s supplier, and he told Daddy all about it.”

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