Page 138 of Kings & Chaos

“What?” Neo asked, looking up at me, his forehead creased with concern.

“I… I have something to tell you.”

Chapter54

Willa

“Ican’t fuckingbelieveyou didn’t tell us this,” Neo said, pacing in front of the fireplace downstairs.

I sat on the sofa downstairs wrapped in an old quilt and glared up at him. “I said I was sorry.” And I had. Like, a hundred times. “How was I supposed to know your mom’s maiden name was Genarro?”

As soon as I told Neo what I’d found, he’d told Oscar and Rock to wake the fuck up and ordered us all in the living room, where I’d had to confess — again — to keeping what I’d found in Dean Giordana’s house from the Kings.

Any hope I had of finding refuge from Neo’s anger in Rock or Oscar had been eliminated when Rock swore under his breath, Oscar leaning forward on the sofa, raking his hand down his face like he wanted to scrub what I’d just told him from his mind.

“Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on here?” I asked. “Because I’m getting the feeling I’m not the only one who hasn’t been playing it straight.”

“It’s him,” Oscar said, looking at Neo. “Now we have proof.”

“Not proof exactly,” Rock said. “But it’s fucking close enough for me.”

“Hello?” I shouted. “What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?”

“My father is involved in the disappearance of those girls,” Neo said. “In Emma’s disappearance.”

“Because of the cabin?” I was having trouble putting the pieces together. Obviously there was a connection to Neo’s dad. Genarro wasn’t an unusual last name in our circles, but the name next to the cabin was a little too coincidental given Roberto’s connections to Aventine.

“That’s the proof we needed,” Oscar said. “But we’ve suspected for a while.”

I stared up at him, almost breathless with shock and anger. “You’ve… you’ve suspectedfor a while?”

“We weren’t sure,” Rock said. “That’s why we didn’t tell you.”

I threw off the blanket around my shoulders and headed for the stairs. “I have to get to my mom.”

Neo grabbed my arm and I shook it off. “Don’t touch me.”

“This is exactly why we didn’t tell you,” he roared.

“Because you thought I’d try to save my mom? Because I’d want your dad to pay for what he’s done?” I asked. “Well, you were right.”

“He will pay.” Neo’s voice had grown quiet. So quiet it scared me. “You have my fucking word on that, Jezebel. Now sit the fuck down.”

I glared at him and went back to the sofa. Rock took my hand, and a second later, Oscar put his hand on my knee, bare under the T-shirt of Neo’s I’d thrown on when he’d ordered us to the living room.

“We think this is a thing that goes back a long time,” Neo said. “Maybe even to when my dad went to Aventine with Dean Giordana.”

“You think they’ve been hurting girls for thirty years?” The thought was so horrible I could hardly get the question out of my mouth.

Neo paced in front of the fire. “Maybe. I don’t know. We’re still figuring it out. Tell me the names of those cabins again. Besides Genarro.”

“Let me get my phone,” I said, rising from the couch. “I took pictures.”

I’d gotten into Dean Giordana’s study and taken the pictures, and then we had to play the second game. Right after that, we’d been ordered to the quarry where Neo and I made the cliff jump. Then we’d run for our lives after almost being killed by the men who’d broken into the house.

I should have studied them while we’d been on the island, but I’d let myself be lulled into a state of false security, had allowed everything bad to fade away while I caught my breath.

That had been a mistake.

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