Page 73 of The Devil We Know

Antoinette frowns and looks around as she ponders the statement. Then, suddenly, her eyes light up, and she turns to Lilith and asks, “Mickey?”

“Yes,” Lilith replies with a nod. “He snuck his way in there, and they were none the wiser.”

“Why didn’t he try to get you out?” Carolina asks.

“That would have been a death sentence,” Lilith answers. “Unless he had a huge following for protection, there’s no way either of us would have made it out alive. So, he figured the best thing he could do was to stick by my side and at least try to keep me from ending up dead in a ditch somewhere.”

Antoinette’s excited expression falls into sadness as she whispers, “Oh, the stuff that poor man had to witness.”

We fall into silence again, each of us contemplating what Lilith has told us in our current situation. Which brings my focus back to Matt and the last scene I saw before our escape.

A choked whimper falls from my lips, and all the women turn to me. It’s who Antoinette moves closer and rests her hand on my arm as she says, “It will be okay, Jess.”

I shudder, shaking my head as I ask, “How can you know that?”

Antoinette sighs and then says, “Well, I guess I don’t really, but I still believe it.”

“Did you see it?”

Antoinette shakes her head, turns to Camilla, and asks, “Did you see it?”

She shakes her head. “I didn’t see anything with us trying to get out.”

Antoinette laughs, and I smile because she sure as fuck does look like Marieka. “It’s fucking creepy how much you look like Marieka.”

Camilla smiles proudly. “Stature aside, I can be pretty much anyone.”

I shake my head, staring at her as I reply, “That is actually incredibly creepy and a little disturbing. And also empowering. I’m a little jealous.”

Carolina and Antoinette nod in agreement, and Marieka steps closer to Camilla, staring at her in awe as she says, “I will never get used to it. Think about the pranks we could pull.”

I sit there, enjoying a moment of calm. After a few minutes, I finally center myself and then say matter-of-factly, “So, what’s next? I can’t just keep sitting here wondering if Matt is alive or not. So how do we find out?”

Lilith walks over to me, her hands coming to my shoulders. She looks me in the eyes and says, “I know you haven’t been around very long, Jess, but I think you already know the answer to that.”

And I do.

I smile and nod my head, and then all of us collectively move to the other side of the room, gathering around a workstation.

Antoinette powers up the computer, then turns to me and says, “Let’s get to work.”

32

A Reckoning

Matt

Well, that went tohell in a handbasket pretty fast.

I always wondered what it was like to say something excruciatingly dramatic in an over-the-top, theatric way.

And now I know.

While spontaneously stabbing that old man in the chest was entirely satisfying, strategically, it may not have been my best move.

But then, since I couldn’t take it back, I figured my next best step was to cause a scene.

Hence, my decision to out myself as the head of the entire organization.

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