Page 85 of Kilo's Edge

“Smart girl,” Kilo murmured, wrapping his fingers around the back of my neck and squeezing. I melted in his grip.

“What does the pattern mean?” I asked.

Now the men were grinning at each other.

“It means you’re a millionaire, Baby.”

“What?” I asked, looking over at Kilo.

His eyes softened. “Your father stole money from Kruzman.” He squeezed a little tighter, comforting me as my mouth dropped open in shock.

“He...what?”

“We think he was trying to get out of Kruzman’s employ,” Flir explained. “Or, maybe he knew there was no way out and this was his way of making it up to your family.”

“Trying to get you and your family away from him,” Kilo added.

I shook my head in disbelief. “How?”

“He-” Flir started, then glared when Kilo interrupted him.

“Small amounts at a time,” Kilo said, scowling at Flir as though he didn’t want a long winded explanation. “We have a theory that he figured out pretty quickly he didn’t want anything to do with Kruzman. But Kruzman doesn’t let people go. He was into too much shit to let people see what he was doing, then just let them leave.”

“So your father gathered enough money that he could make your whole family disappear. So Kruzman wouldn’t be a threat again,” Flir continued.

“Something must have tipped him off to what your father was doing. Or maybe your father made him suspicious. We don’t know everything, these are all just theories,” Kilo added. “But it made Kruzman look closer at his books.”

“And he killed him,” I finished, words soft. I wasn’t sure how to feel. We’d spent so long wondering what had happened. To know—or at least have a good idea—was overwhelming. I swallowed back tears and gave them a smile. “Thank you.”

“For what, Baby?”

“For telling me. For letting us know that our father was trying to protect us in the best way he knew how.”

“He was between a rock and a shit sandwich,” Kilo said with a shrug. “The minute he tried to leave, Kruzman was going to hunt him down and kill him anyway. Taking the money at least would have given you all a chance. Can’t blame a man for doing his best in that situation.”

I shook my head. I didn’t blame him for anything. Not anymore. It was nice to have that put to rest. Now we could look back on his memories knowing he loved us. That he’d died trying to protect us from a monster.

“Can I tell her?” Flir asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Kilo chuckled. “It’s over four million dollars, Mercy.”

My jaw dropped.

Flir scowled at him. “I wanted to tell her.”

“It would take you a week to finish saying all the numbers, fucker. This was faster.”

“It’s not accurate. It’s four million-”

Kilo dragged me to my feet and out the door while Flir continued to rattle off numbers that hardly made sense to my frazzled mind.

“That’s closer to five million,” I whispered, pointing back to the door that slammed shut behind us.

“I know,” he replied with a grin. “How does it feel?”

“How does what feel?”

“To be a millionaire? Multi-millionaire.”

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