Page 26 of Cuckoo (Kindred)

That’s right, the box of Grant’s things. Brodie had read her mind because she hadn’t given the envelope a second thought. “Can we trace the email?” she asked Tuck.

Tuck shrugged. “I can try if there’s activity on it. But it’s a free account. I’d guess he won’t be accessing it frequently. But I can send out a—”

“What about facial recognition?” she asked, looking to Brodie. “You said we have access to that, right?”

“You want to look for him in the city?” Tuck asked and stretched his arms toward her as he leaned forward. “We can do that. If he’s walking the streets we should be able to find him.”

Thinking ahead, she knew they couldn’t descend on him in the street in the middle of the day. But if they could track his movements through cameras, they should be able to narrow down the areas he frequented. “We could use it to find out where he’s staying, couldn’t we?”

“Yes, we could,” he said. But it was Brodie’s say so that they needed because he was the man in charge and because she didn’t want him to be disrespected, especially as it pertained to his own parents.

Making eye contact with Brodie, she hoped for some indication as to his thoughts. “Kahlil is a threat,” she said, hoping her love would see how important it was to keep tabs on this man and his intentions. “We might be able to locate him and if he has contact with whoever he’s working for—”

“I put bullets in people,” Brodie said, showing little empathy for her position. “Don’t expect me to get cozy with the guy because he’s dangling a carrot.”

“But you don’t mind if the rest of us keep tabs on him, do you?” He shrugged. That was sort of permission, so she smiled, but it was brief. “We should keep an eye on CI as well, just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Thad asked.

If it was up to her, they’d always have eyes on Cuckoo. Brodie had sort of taken care of that by putting her into a place that was monitored by cameras, but Cuckoo could do a lot of damage at CI whether she meant to or not. Beyond Cuckoo, CI held secrets of its own, a legacy left by Grant that could still bite them in the ass.

“Grant kept his work with Game Time a secret. But he did tell us that he’d started Winter Chill again. If those projects are still working—”

“We need to shut them down,” Brodie said. At least he was quick to agree with her on one subject.

“You’re the man in charge now,” she said, lifting her shoulders. “I brought Grant’s computer and if we have to go into his apartment, I can access it. All of his holdings will be distributed as per his will. Julian said that the lawyers were still trying to locate his next of kin, that would be you. If no one has been bequeathed anything yet, that would suggest everything will come to you. Grant didn’t have close friends or many girlfriends, none that he seemed to be serious about in any way.”

“Always was a charmer,” Brodie muttered and while she wouldn’t say it, she thought to herself that was another thing the brothers had in common: their inability to connect and commit. They both had trust issues, though it seemed everybody did in today’s world. She’d been with Brodie for months, and she had fought a lot of battles with him to get this close to his inner sanctum. Most women would have given up long ago.

She inhaled. “I know you weren’t Grant’s biggest fan, but we should deal with his apartment as soon as possible. We have to clear it out. We may turn up clues there that will help us figure out what he was intending to do with the new devices created by the recommissioned Winter Chill.”

Brodie was unmoved by the notion of emptying Grant’s apartment. It had to be done because they had no use for it, they’d have to sell the property. She’d spent time in that apartment as Grant’s employee back when she’d trusted him. While remembering how he was at the end, she was struck by the evolution of Grant’s character and how quickly the trigger event of losing Frank had affected his psyche.

His whole life had been dedicated to CI. Before his parents were killed, he was being groomed to take over. But he’d said it himself, when he lost all the people close to him, he realized he’d been living his life for them all these years. Now it felt like an excuse, and she couldn’t feel sorry for him because there was no excusing his actions. They lost Art because of him and had almost lost each other.

Brodie was a brooder and that could be frustrating for an outsider to deal with, but at least he never hurt anyone when he was struggling with his emotional issues. Grant’s go-to position was to take down as many people as he could as though that could somehow ease his pain.

The meeting went on, and she shook herself out of her reflection because now wasn’t the time to let her thoughts meander. She didn’t want to miss anything. “Grant said he planned to kill Sutcliffe and take over the cult,” Brodie said. “So he must have had a plan of his own.”

“Yeah,” Tuck said. “Those folks were dedicated to Sutcliffe and wouldn’t switch their allegiance to Saint without some serious persuading.”

“You saw how it went down,” Brodie said. “Maybe we’re wrong, maybe Saint didn’t think it through.”

“You think he was nuts enough that he thought showing up was going to be enough?” Thad asked.

“I’d guess his plan relied on telling Sutcliffe’s followers that he had the means to facilitate Sutcliffe’s plans. That he could give them what they wanted,” Brodie said.

“Not all of his people knew Sutcliffe’s plans,” Tuck said. “Strolling in and telling them that he planned to nuke the world wouldn’t have seduced everyone.”

“But it would get rid of those who weren’t committed to that outcome,” Zave said.

All of the men were right, the possibilities were endless, and with Grant in the ground, they had no way to interrogate him about his intentions.

“Even if we don’t figure it out, we should kill Winter Chill,” Zara said. “I don’t trust what Cuckoo would do if she found out that this technology existed.”

Tuck nodded. “It doesn’t matter what Saint’s intentions were. We need to eliminate the threat at the source.”

“CI,” Zara said. “Cuckoo will be snooping around as we speak.”

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