Page 108 of Glass Omega

As Shuuhei spoke, things slowly started to line up in my brain. Everything about this was rehearsed, like we were all taking part in some big fucking play.

I thought about the explosions at the ports, the ambushes, the dead men, the fire we were still driving away from and the woman who had potentially set the fire.

All of it seemed so useless now because we’d known for a while that someone was fucking with us, adding new acts to the story that they were weaving like some damned puppet master.

No, I realized as all of the pieces fell into place. They were distracting us.

There was only one person that I knew looked at everyone else like they were toys.

“Did Haruto’s woman happen to be Russian?” I asked, thinking about Yulia and her beginnings as product for Vladimir Volkov.

Silence greeted me before Shuuhei finally answered. “She was.”

Rhodes cursed next to me.

It was the most obvious answer and because of that I’d written it off when thinking about my suspects. Of course it would be Volkov, the man who spent most of his time observing the squabbling between the four other families.

He would look at the discord sown thanks to my marriage to Perrie and use it to his advantage—but to what end?

“And like I said, that’s not all,” Shuuhei continued. “I looked at everything that’s been happening, the ambush, the explosion—all of it—and I realized it seemed awfully familiar.”

“What do you mean?” I asked even as I was already working to figure it out on my own.

“The last war started very similarly, Edison. You and I were too young to really remember it, but I asked some of my elders and they connected the dots for me. Years ago, prior to the war, things were tense. There was product being stolen, groups being ambushed at nightclubs, and it all pointed towards the Serbians just like how it’s all starting to point at you and your men.”

A sick feeling began to form in my gut. “Are you trying to tell me that you think the Serbians were framed?”

“I’m not a hundred percent… but it’s almost too good of a coincidence to ignore. There’s one thing I’m worried about though, all of that shit wasn’t what actually started the war, no, what started the war was a—”

“Kidnapping,” I finished for him, my voice hoarse.

“No,” Rhodes growled next to me as he leaned forward and muttered something to the driver.

The car started to accelerate.

“The kidnapping of Aine Keane was what started the bloodbath that took out an entire generation of young made men and now we know that it was seemingly orchestrated by the Russians, so Edison, I just have one question for you: where is your wife right now?”

“Where’s Perrie?” I barked at Oona as soon as we were through the front doors, my feet already turning in the direction of the East wing.

The panic I was barely keeping a rein on was threatening to bubble out of me in the form of a scream and I turned to the shocked housekeeper again. “Where the fuck is my wife, Oona?”

“She’s in her room where you left her, Master Edison, why? What’s happened?” Oona asked, falling into a hurried step beside me, her wrinkled brow drawing together as she glanced between me and Rhodes who’d gone stonily silent ever since I hung up the call with Shuuhei Saito twenty minutes ago.

Yanking the door to the long hallway that led to the tower open, I turned to her again. “When was the last time you checked on her?”

“Just after you both left, so maybe two hours ago? Edison Keane, you tell me what is going on right now or I swear I will put bleach to all of those black suits you love so much.”

“My mother wasn’t kidnapped by the Serbians. She was kidnapped by the Russians.”

Even as I said it out loud, it all made complete sense. My mother’s worst nights had been those where we couldn’t convince her that she was safe and that the people who had taken her had been wiped off of the face of the planet years ago.

I remember being a little boy watching Oona try to soothe her for hours, dodging vases and anything else my mother could throw, and my mother insisting that they were still out there. That they were just waiting for her to let down her guard before they would come for her again.

We’d all just written it off as the ravings of a crazy woman.

But now I knew better.

“Oh,” the word left Oona in a ragged sigh. “Oh no.”

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