Page 139 of Kings & Chaos

I returned with my phone and pulled up the first picture in the binder — the map of the woods surrounding Aventine and the four cabins with names.

I handed my phone to Neo. “Scroll and you’ll see the rest. I didn’t have time to look in the other binders, but each cabin had a binder with its name.”

“Fuck,” Neo said as he scrolled, enlarging the pictures to get a better look. He handed the phone to Rock. “These are mortgage papers. The cabin represented by these documents was purchased by a company called Genarro Holdings.”

“A shell company,” Rock said. “Guaran-fucking-teed.”

“Just like the companies that wired money to Zachary Walsh and Connor,” Oscar said. “Which means those other binders probably contain mortgages for the other cabins.”

“What about the lines drawn between the cabins?” I asked. “Are they… trails? Why would they need trails between the cabins?”

“I have no fucking idea,” Neo said. “And I don’t know what these other names stand for — RAA, Global Limited, Neon Corp. — but Genarro has my father written all over it.”

“Why would he name a company used to buy the cabin after your mom?” I asked.

Neo fisted his right hand, squeezed it in his left. “Because when you’re a psychopath who killed your wife and made everyone think she ran away, the biggest ‘fuck you’ of all is using her name to buy a place to kill more women.”

“You know I have to warn my mom,” I said, looking at each of them. “YouknowI have to do that right?”

“We know,” Oscar said.

“If you warn her, she’ll tell him and you’ll be in even more danger,” Neo said.

“Maybe she won’t tell him,” I said. “Maybe she’ll just… I don’t know… run.”

I would have chosen Neo’s anger a hundred times over the pity on his face now. I could hear the words he didn’t say hanging in the room.

She’s not going to run. She won’t even believe you. She might not even care.

I was glad he didn’t say them. I might not have been able to forgive him, even if they were true.

This was something I was going to have to find out on my own.

“I hope she does run, Jezebel.” He sounded like he meant it. “But if she doesn’t, she’ll tell my dad. And then it’ll be open season.”

“Not if we take him out first,” Oscar said.

“You’re talking about a hit against the boss of the whole territory,” Rock said. “It’s not going to be a bar fight.”

“I know that,” Oscar said. “But we call in some favors…”

“You thinking the Phantoms and the Hounds?” Neo asked.

Oscar shrugged. “I’m thinking anyone who owes us one.”

“Hawk’s got a sister at the community college,” Rock volunteered. “He’s been real pissed about the missing girls. He could probably rally the Blades.”

I stood, suddenly wanting to crawl out of my skin. Because Rock was right: this was a crazy. Roberto Alinari was a fucking Mafia don. If the Kings took him out, there would be consequences.

Deadly ones.

“You can’t just… you can’t just kill him,” I said. “His soldiers will come after you. The other cities will send people for you.”

“Not if we do it right,” Neo said, rubbing the shadow on his jaw.

“A lot of rivalries between families,” Rock said carefully. “A lot of bad blood.”

“Yeah,” Oscar said. “Roberto gets pinched, there are at least a few suspects right off the top of my head, and none of them are his son.”

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