Page 69 of Edge of Control

He moved to the couch and sat down. I looked to the door, the pile of feathers.

“What the hell is going on right now?”

Theo dropped his face into his hands. “I haven’t been fully truthful with you, Jace. I’ve been getting involved. I’ve been… this Nevermore case. It’s been… it’s hitting close to home. It’s got me losing my mind. It’s… it’s a lot. It’s too much. I’m sorry.”

“Calm down,” I said, reaching over and placing a hand on Theo’s. I could see him spiraling. And the more hespoke, the more confused I became. Since when was Theo looking into the Nevermore case? And why was it hitting “close to home”? “Breathe. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

“I fucked up. Big-time. Fuck.”

“What did you do?”

“Everything.”

“Huh?”

Theo’s legs bounced up and down. Luke hopped off his cat perch and sauntered to the couch, gracefully jumping up and inching into Theo’s lap. His legs still bounced.

“I made myself a target, Jace. I was-I was attracted to the case after seeing it on the news, after finding out you were working it. I started to look into it myself. I started sticking myself in the middle. I thought I’d help. Thought I was doing the right thing. I think I figured out who’s behind it, why, I think I have it, but I’m not a hundred percent sure. And I think they’re onto me now.”

I could only blink through the shock. My jaw cracked, my mouth opening. “I had no idea you were looking into it. You should have told me, Theo. This is dangerous.”

“I know. I should have never done what I did. It’s… fuck!” He yelled so loud that it scared Luke, but he didn’t jump off Theo’s lap. If anything, he curled in a little tighter.

“Okay, hold on. So you’re saying Nevermore is targeting you?”

“I think I’m being targeted by the people Nevermore was hunting down. The blackmail ring.”

“Holy shit, you know about that too?”

“I put a lot of it together. And I think I know who’s at the top. I think… I just don’t know if… fuck.”

“Who is it? And how did you find out?”

Theo’s typically sharp eyes took on a glassy expression. He was scaring me. What was going through his head? Why was this all coming out now? I wanted to help him, wanted to keep him calm. I hated seeing him like this. So far from the calm and cool and collected demeanor he normally wore as effortlessly as one of his many watches.

“I wish you would have told me this earlier,” I said, squeezing his hand in mine. “I would have told you to stop. I’m not even sure I should be working this case. It’s twisted. And it feels so far out of my league.”

Theo didn’t reply. He kept his eyes glued to somewhere out on the horizon. “You’re the only one capable of ending it.”

“Well, that sounds more ominous than I think you intended.” It was my attempt at injecting a little bit of levity into this suddenly dark situation. Theo didn’t even chuckle, only kept staring.

“I had a sister. I told you about her. I called her Em, but her full name was Marielle. She was my best friend. She always had my back. She lived through all the hurt, all the bullshit that my father inflicted on us. She was one of the only people who understood me. So when she killed herself—when I found her body—I was permanently broken. Ruined. There was no coming back from that.

“I vowed to make things right. I promised her I would somehow make her death mean something. When I started looking into Nevermore, I realized the people being killed were linked to the same blackmail ring that she’d been a victim of. She told me shortly before she died that she’dbeen secretly filmed during a private moment. It devastated her. Pushed her to the edge. So I made it my mission to make these people pay.”

It was as if Theo had dropped a bucket full of TNT inside my skull. “Jesus… fuck.”

Marielle Rodriguez. The same Marielle who worked for the mayor. The same one who’d been close to bringing the entire thing down. She’d also been a victim? And Theo was her brother? Holy fucking shit.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

“So… fuck, Theo. But how did you know Nevermore was targeting these people?”

“I figured it out.”

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