Page 37 of Property of Mako
“I’m saying,” Spook replied, “someone’s talking to the wrong people.”
“That’s what Boomslang and Killswitch were afraid of,” I admitted. “That’s why they don’t want us to tell anyone where we were going or what was up.”
My gaze swept the room. The guys I’d bled with. Rode with. Buried bodies with. And for the first time in years, I didn’t trust all of them.
Lyra’s hand found mine, and for a second, it grounded me. But only for a second.
Frustrated, I pulled away and headed for my room. Lyra followed but wisely stayed quiet. After unlocking my door, which I never used to lock, I stood there with my hands on my hips as I studied all my notes. Maps of the city and surrounding parishes covered the surface, dotted with pins and scribbled notes. I stared at the one down south of New Orleans.
An old plantation.
Not the one we’d just searched.
Another one.
By Jean Lafitte…
A different mark I’d been chasing for months, tied to someone older, richer, and far more dangerous than the flunkies we’d fought at the old abandoned bread factory. A personal target.
Thane.
That property had been passed down in the same family since it was built. They kept passing it down, but no one ever did anything with it. It was abandoned and falling apart worse than the place we’d gone to today.
Yet something had told me he was the owner. Little whispers from my personal informants, public records that were too perfect. Maybe I needed to actually check the place out. Maybe there was an underground bunker or something. A place to hide out and store things one didn’t want found. Like abducted teenage and early twenties girls.
Otherwise, what was his draw to that place? Why keep it for centuries?
I didn’t tell the others yet. No sense stirring more paranoia before I was sure. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before, but the more I stared at that pin, the more my gut told me that Lily was there.
And I knew Thane wouldn’t keep her hidden forever. He always had an endgame.
The cryptic message the Covenant assassin had left me with before disappearing now made sense. I didn’t think he’d get tied up with the Covenant, but he was a power-hungry piece of shit.
Sick to my stomach at the thought, I wondered which of my brothers had entered my room and looked through my notes.
That ominous clock in my head just kept ticking.
Chapter 15
Burning the Fuse
Lyra
The clubhouse felt heavier than when we’d first walked in.
It wasn’t just Bugsy’s blood still lingering in the air or the sharp, tense looks passing between the Kings. It was something colder, something creeping.
Calix had been quieter than usual, which was saying something. He’d sat with Crypt Keeper, Spook, and Dexter for hours, voices low, their words too far away for me to make out. Every so often, his gaze would flick toward me, unreadable, before sliding away.
Unsure if he was blaming me for everything that had happened lately or why he seemed angry with me, I finally got up and went upstairs to his room. I lost track of time as I stared at the maps and notes, trying to make sense of any of it. But the notes were written in a language I didn’t understand.
By the time he came up to the room, it was late. I was still in my jeans and boots, sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to keep my mind from running circles around Lily and worrying if she was alive or dead. Supposedly, they wanted her for this auction thing, but what if she’d tried to escape or fought them and she’d been killed? Calix had assured me she was alive, but he wouldn’t tell me how he knew that.
My gaze sought his, hoping for answers.
He shut the door behind him and leaned against it like he was holding something back.
“They’re getting bolder,” he said finally. For some reason, his cryptic statement irritated me.
