Page 17 of The Devil We Know

“How is that fucking possible?” Tony snarls.

Lilith gives him a patient look and then turns her gaze back to mine, and I can tell she’s contemplating her next words. I prod, “What is it, Lils? Just spit it out.”

“Matt isn’t who you think he is.”

I’m sure my eyebrows are in my hairline as I snort. “You’re going to have to elaborate because that makes no fucking sense.”

Tony scoffs, “Yeah, we’ve basically known him his entire fucking life.”

Lilith presses her lips together for a moment, sighs, and then says, “Yes and no. There was a short amount of time when you didn’t know him at all, and you guys were young enough that you probably didn’t know he just showed up one day.”

Antoinette steps closer to Lilith, her hand coming out to rest on her arm as she asks, “If that’s the case, why haven’t you said anything sooner?”

Lilith rolls her eyes at her, her shoulders shrugging and one of her hands waving dismissively, all at the same time as she mutters, “Not everything needs to be told.”

Tony glares at her, his fists clenching, and I can tell he’s contemplating doing something he might regret. Then he says, “You and your fucking secrets. I’m so sick of your fucking secrets.”

She rolls her eyes at him again and then says, “Some secrets are necessary, you imbecile.”

“Necessary, how?”

“Some secrets are more trouble than they’re worth. Some secrets are safer being secrets.”

I can’t exactly argue with this, given the lifestyle we lead. Sometimes, things are safer if you don’t know everyone’s secrets, which could be one of the reasons Matt has always been in trouble. He’s the keeper of everyone’s secrets.

“Is Matt aware?” I ask quietly.

“Yes,” Lilith responds. “I had to tell him when his job went to shit because I believed there may be a correlation.”

“And is this the reason he’s missing?” Antoinette asks.

Lilith nods. “That is highly possible, though I’m uncertain on the circumstances of his being where he is.”

Tony steps closer to Lilith until he’s mere inches from her, leans down until his face is directly in front of hers, and says, “And you don’t think that maybe if we had known this secret, we could have done something to prevent this from happening?”

“No, Tony,” she replies snippily. “I don’t.”

Antoinette interjects, “Well, maybe being prepared would have made us more aware of possible complications such as where we currently are, but arguing about it is entirely pointless now.”

Lilith shrugs and responds, “I didn’t know for certain it was going to be an issue, but I know just as soon as we think all the fucking dirtbags are gone, they just keep springing up like rats.”

Tony opens his mouth to say something further, and I interject, “Well, are you going to tell us what the story is or not?”

She gives me a dirty look, though I’m not really sure why, but then says, “Not to sound like Matt or anything, but it’s not my story to tell.”

I frown, shaking my head with a sigh, and then say, “Fine. But don’t think we’re not going to revisit this at some point.”

She nods, walks over to the desk where Matt’s laptop is, and opens the top. She types in the password, and it starts up, and Tony says, “What the fuck, Lilith? You know Matt’s password?”

“Of course, I know a bunch of his passwords. Matt and I worked together pretty closely over the last little bit, especially when I wasn’t dead-dead, so take from it what you will.”

She opens a mapping program Matt had created for himself years ago, putting in coordinates and then zooming in to a wooded area a few miles outside the city. Then she turns to us and says, “This is where he is.”

“Well, let’s go in and get him out,” Tony replies stonily.

She shakes her head, her fingers tapping on the desk. “It’s not that simple.”

“How can it not be simple? You know where he is. We go fucking get him.”

---