Page 88 of Back In the Shadows

“Sebastian Fletcher was …”

I stopped in my tracks and waited to see if he was going to finish his sentence or not.

“Stolen. Stolen. Stolen.” He cackled and clapped his hands together.

His words slammed into me so hard, and I gasped for air. I faced him again.

“His parents weren’t his real parents?” I asked, trying to mask the eagerness in my voice.

“Nope. We were both stolen, Ella. Stolen, stolen, stolen,” he sang.

“By who?”

Xavier sighed. “I gave you a piece of what you wanted, but the boss will tell Death the rest. I’ve already said too much.” He heldup a shaky finger in the air. “But the pain pills make me gabby. The boss will understand.”

If what Xavier was saying was true, then maybe Sebastian’s parents were still alive. I needed to find him and tell him the news so Dope could dig into the information and find out if Xavier was telling the truth.

“If you tell me, I’ll make sure you get another pain pill in an hour.”

Eagerness twisted his expression. “Yes, please.”

I tapped my foot on the cement floor. “I’m waiting.”

“Very bad people took us. Sebastian and I were supposed to go to a family together, but we were separated instead.” Xavier sniffled, his eyes welling with tears. “Do you think I would have turned out differently if Sebastian and I had grown up in the same home?”

A fleeting twinge of compassion hit me, then disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

“There’s no way to know.” Even though he hadn’t really given me the information I wanted, it was easier to get it out of him while taking the medication. “I’ll be back in an hour with a pain pill.”

“Yeah!” Xavier clapped his hands together.

I left the room and secured the door behind me. Instead of searching the building again, I pulled out my cell and called Sebastian, but after two rings it went to voicemail. That rarely happened.

Maybe Sebastian would be in the office now. I hurried in that direction, but to my disappointment I only found Kip. I leaned on the door frame and asked, “Have you seen Sebastian?”

“He went for a walk a few hours ago. We talked for a while, and he’s wrestling pretty hard with the Death idea. Bass wants to silence him for good. I’m a little concerned he might try to turn himself in for Death’s crimes.”

My mouth dropped open. “Kip, he can’t do that. They’ll lock him up for the rest of his life.”

“I know. I told him that, but Bass isn’t a killer, and he doesn’t want you to have access to Death. He didn’t say it, but he’s worried about the kids growing up with a serial killer as a father.”

I crossed the room and sank into the chair. “Me too, but he would never hurt them.”

“I think he’s concerned about Alaric or Verity being too much like their dad.”

Sighing, I leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, me too. They definitely have a connection. But it’s not just Death. Sebastian needs to understand that I am looking forward to ending Xavier. Jonathan was good practice.” I flashed him a grin.

“I tried to tell him that, but he thinks Death is the one that made you that way.”

I shook my head. “I think I was fighting that part of me for a long time. Death just saw it sooner than I did.”

“Hell, Ella, I get it. Ryan and I are the same. I have no problem cleaning up bodies and covering up Death’s mess. It’s second nature to me.”

“How so?” I asked.

“My uncle was a cleaner, and he taught me everything I know about how to dissolve a body and destroy any evidence. It’s as if no one was ever there in the first place.”

“That’s a rare talent.” I laughed, then grew serious again.

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