Page 14 of Ash

Wizard looked like he was going to vomit. “He’s got a kid?”

I decided not to mess with him. “Relax, man. It’s in a sealed file, and he’s not even on the original paperwork. He made a request for around thirty sealed adoption files a few years ago. Ostensibly, to help a client find a lost child.”

The guy was a PI, or he played at being one anyway. He’d closed a case or two. But even a broken clock was right twice a day.

“There was no reason for you to go deep into his client files,” I told Wizard with a shrug. “Only reason I found it was because he’d paid some halfwit lawyer to come up with a bullshit reason to get a court order for the DNA of one of the girls in one of those files. It was denied. But Wizard included the whole dossier when he sent me the legal files. I noticed that shortly after that debacle, he opened an account on a genealogy site.”

“That’s why you asked me to hack that account?” Wizard queried. “I couldn’t figure out what the fuck you were looking for on there.”

I nodded. “He’d had his DNA done. I noticed that he was watching another public ‘tree,’ and he had a suggestion from the site that he might be related to someone on there. When I realized the suggestion was a young girl whose birthday matched that other file, I started comparing life events. I was eighty percent sure he was trying to find his kid who’d been put up for adoption. After looking through the list of places he’d lived since she was born, I was convinced.”

“Like you said, you’re better than fucking good,” Blaze said. “How the hell would the fuckers blackmailing him find the connection?”

“Just because I’m the best doesn’t mean there aren’t a few who are almost as good,” I offered. “Anyway, there were references to his collateral in the paperwork, but I couldn’t find a single asset, hidden or otherwise. There were a few other hints, so I connected the dots.”

King rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “If he goes to jail?—”

“Or dies,” Kevlar interjected.

King nodded. “Yeah. The daughter will be next in line to take on his shit?”

“Looks like it,” I confirmed. “He wants the legal stuff wiped out so they have nothin’ on her. Including scrubbing his DNA everywhere.”

Cruze, one of the best thieves in the world, looked at me incredulously. “Everywhere?”

I nodded. “Everything that could lead back to him or his daughter. I’m talking about finding his childhood home and making sure we get rid of anything they might have kept.”

“Seriously? Like they would have kept his baby toothbrush or something?” Cross suggested in a mocking tone, obviously of the opinion that it was a ridiculous idea.

“Baby teeth,” Cruze suggested. “My mom kept all of mine.”

Blaze nodded. “As fucked up as my situation was at home, I think my mom still has mine.”

Echo’s face skewed up in disgust. “That’s some serial killer kind of shit…keeping people’s teeth.”

“Not ‘people,’ shithead,” King grunted. “Parents and their kids. You’ll understand when Violet has yours.” After rolling his eyes, King turned his gaze back to me, clearly done with that conversation. “Is it possible?”

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my buzzed head. “Probably is the best I can give you right now.”

“Same,” added Wizard.

Shadow nodded. “Yeah. The circumstances aren’t?—”

There was a loud bang, cutting him off. Then someone shouted, “Where are your doctors? Get their asses here now!”

“Who the hell is ordering my men around?” King snarled as he jumped out of his chair and stalked to the front of the clubhouse.

I quickly followed, and when I got there, I muttered, “Fucking hell,” as I rushed over to help.

Raffaele DeLuca, the head of the southern area of the DeLuca Crime Family, was holding one of Ink’s arms while his lieutenant—and brother—Dacio, had a grip on his other. Ink was limping, favoring his right leg, which was bleeding profusely from a bullet hole in his upper thigh.

“Shit!” King roared. “Where the fuck is Razor or Flint?”

I pointed at a hallway across the lounge. “Medical site is at the end of the hall,” I told them as I whipped out my phone and dialed Flint’s number. “Son of a bitch,” I snapped when it went to voicemail. “Where the fuck are you? Get your ass to the medical clinic ASAP.” Then I hung up and tried Razor, but I knew he was on shift in the ER at the local hospital.

“No answer from either,” I told Blaze, who had caught up as I rushed after the men. King led the way while barking out orders.

Blaze shook his head. “Me either.”

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