Page 75 of Prey

“How the fuck did this happen? Of all the girls in this city, you two choose the same girl who also happens to be a kitchenhand here at Savile,” I lectured them, annoyed that I had to deal with this juvenile shit. “We have rules for a reason.” I took a drag on my cigar and analyzed the looks on their faces, wondering what was so special about that particular girl. She didn’t seem that great from where I stood. “The best option is to sack the girl…”

“I could find her another job elsewhere,” Ronan pointed out. “I’ve got contacts-”

“Hold up,” I interrupted, pointing at Gunner’s sad face. “Didn’t you say you suspect that girl with the glasses is Annika?”

“Yeah, that’s why I started pursuing her and breaking into her room and stuff,” he explained.

“I thought Annika was blond?” I questioned. All I could remember of her was thick blond, curly hair, but she was only sixteen then, so I didn’t pay her much attention.

“Riley dyes her hair, and her glasses are fake,” Gunner stated, so he had been doing his homework and not just fucking the target. “I caught cops following her too, and she said that had happened before.”

The situation stunk to high hell. “If she were Annika, wouldn’t Savile be the last place in the world she would work?”

“Unless she doesn’t know,” Gunner argued. “It’s not like we announced to the world that the Kaisers bought this place. It was done on the quiet. Besides, the Kaiser name was more infamous in Larsson.”

“Or she isn’t Annika,” Ronan added, another relevant point.

I stewed on their arguments for a few seconds, as we still didn’t know for sure if she was Annika, and basing it purely on Gunner’s hunches wasn’t smart.

“Either that girl in the glasses is not Annika and Gunner had been hounding the wrong girl, or if she is Annika, then it’s a fucking weird coincidence that of all places she works, it’s here,” I summarized, figuring out in my mind what was the best way to deal with this.

“She’s Annika. I feel it in my bones,” he stated emphatically. “I knew her better than anyone. I knew her better than her biological mother, who abandoned her.” Emotions were running high, and his voice cracked as he spoke. “She was my best friend.”

“And you said she had police following her?” I clarified as something about the conviction of Gunner’s answer stirred an uneasiness in me. Annika held the answer as to who set meup, and I’ll bet she’d have information on who murdered Lars Kaiser, my uncle.

Gunner nodded. “There was an unmarked police car following her on campus last night. She was on her own-”

“How was she on her own when you were there?” Ronan raised an interesting point. “Were you stalking her?”

“No, I was following her. It was dark. She shouldn’t be walking alone at night,” he answered firmly.

I snorted. “Cousin, that sounds like stalking to me.”

“If it weren’t for me, the plain clothes would’ve grabbed her,” he argued without seeing the irony.

“Maybe the cops were trying to protect her from you. Did you think of that?” I proposed, finding this scenario funny, even though there was a serious side that I had yet to acknowledge.

“They couldn’t see me,” Gunner stated confidently.

“If she was Annika, then she’s likely workingwiththe cops,” Ronan offered an interesting angle. “If she’s lying about who she is, dyeing her hair, fake glasses to keep up the façade, under the witness protection program, then she’d be under their watch, probably conversing regularly.”

“Interesting point. Is she here in Savile by choice, or is she here as a plant by police?” I considered this as a possibility, but Gunner shook his head.

“Too dangerous. Too irresponsible. If they’re going to plant a spy, they won’t use the girl that we want dead,” Ronan explained, and I nodded in agreement.

I took another pull of my cigar, “This puts us in an interesting position because if that’s Annika down there working in my kitchen, on the payroll, then we have her where we want her. Don’t we?”

Gunner cringed, wrestling with his conscience. “Mikky, you’re not going to hurt her? I mean…she’s only young and,” he exhaled, unable to find the words to finish the sentence.

“Wasn’t that always the plan, Gunner?” I reminded him in a steady tone. “Isn’t that why you saw Annika in every fucking girl that crossed your path? In your desperation to find the girl that screwed us over and put me in prison.” I pointed to the window. “You might have found the real Annika, Gunner. After three fucking years, that might be her downstairs, and you wantmeto let her go?”

“Nah, I just…” he was seriously conflicted, and Ronan wasn’t looking much better at the consequence of this revelation.

“Right,” I stated firmly, “this is what we’re going to do.” I took another pull of my cigar as the boys watched me closely.

Fate had smacked them in the face, and they were confused about what to do, but luckily, I was here. I had no emotional attachment to Annika or Riley downstairs, even though they might be the same person.

“Nothing,” I told them. “Act normal. We’re going to do nothing until we find out for sure who she is. Because she’s using a fake ID and working under my roof, which does not make me happy, but if we scare her off, we’ll lose her, and all that hard work will be for nothing.”

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