Page 75 of Throne of Secrets

Star snorted. “They happen to meallthe time.”

She didn’t know he was talking to Max, which was fine. Max chuckled. “Ethan, I’ll dispatch a doctor to your house. We have two Mercy teams in New York for training. Neither of you needs to answer. I know she wouldn’t understand and doesn’t need to know about our comms.”

Ethan put his arm over her shoulder, and she leaned into him gently. She asked him, “What will we do about a police report?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Doctor first.”

“I’ll have a Guardian team come to your residence and take her statement,” Max said. “They can handle informing NYPD about the connections and Lutz’s past. That’ll keep you off anyone’s scope. Lycos can act as the Guardian liaison and keep your name out of everything. NYPD will need to annotate the cases and give some sense of closure to the victims’ families. Oh, and, Ethan, Thor is out of the woods. It was touch and go, but he’ll make it. I hope you don’t mind. I called and told them I was you so I could get the updates.”

He closed his eyes and said, “Thank you.”

She looked over at him. “Yeah, I just thanked the big guy, too.”

Ethan smiled but didn’t open his eyes. She was right. He was tired but so damn relieved. When Star fell asleep not long afterward, Ethan whispered, “The two men at the hospital?”

“I have identities,” Max said.

He looked at his father. Lycos nodded. Ethan shook his head. “I want to deliver them to Guardian. You can look after Star while I do it.”

“Promise she won’t set me on fire or break one of my bones while you’re gone?”

Ethan chuckled. “Sorry, can’t make anything close to a promise about that.”

* * *

Later that night,Ethan crouched low, his back pressed against the cold brick wall as he scanned the shadowed entrance of the ancient apartment building. A streetlight flickered at the far end of the road, casting erratic bursts of light over the damp concrete. The stench of rot, old garbage, and somethingworsecurled in the back of his throat.

He had tracked them there.

The two men who’d snatched Star from the coffee shop, who’d manhandled her, stuffed her into the van, and thought they’d gotten away with it. Ethan had followed their digital footprints—phone pings, security cameras, transactions from a nearby gas station. He’d been relentless. And now, they wererightin front of him.

Only …

Something was wrong.

The door to the first-floor apartment was slightly ajar, creaking softly as Ethan approached. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like the stillness, the way his gut twisted with warning.

Ethan slipped inside, silent as death, the Glock he’d liberated steady in his grip.

The interior was dark, but his eyes adjusted quickly. The place was a flop house—dust and grime coated every surface, and a puddle of water dripped steadily from a leaking pipe.

He moved forward, scanning the shadows.

That was when he saw them.

Sprawled in the middle of the apartment’s kitchen floor, limp and utterlylifeless.

Ethan approached cautiously and nudged one of them with his boot, but there was no reaction. He knew there wouldn’t be. The man was long past caring.

The first victim, a burly guy with a tattoo creeping up his neck, lay twisted at an odd angle. That one had a broken jaw. His work. He hadn’t sought out medical attention for the jaw. A myriad of reasons, no insurance, wanted by the law, illegally in the country, afraid of the person who paid him to abduct Star … the reasons were endless. The last time he’d seen the man, he was alive. The other had blood-soaked gauze covering his arms. Thor’s work. Sometime between then and now, Jaws was shot through the back of the head. Thor’s target, smaller but wiry, had taken two bullets to the chest—close range.

Execution-style.

Ethan exhaled sharply, his mind racing. “Max, pull up the street cameras. See if Lutz showed up here before his shift.”

“On it.”

It wasn’t a botched robbery. It wasn’t some random street killing.

---