Page 12 of Ace of Shadows
“If that’s how I die, then I’ll be lucky.”
Bradley clears his throat, a deep sound that vibrates through the air and makes me shiver slightly. It draws attention back to him as he uncaps a smoothie and drains it in three gulps. Even Valentina seems a touch less pissed now that Raven is here. At a glance, Valentina is as cold as ice and Raven is far too bubbly for this line of work.
Somehow, they’re best friends.
“The mom?” Bradley repeats, irritation melting into his tone.
“Right.” Raven swings her legs back and forth. “So the autopsy on the dad is still waiting on a conclusion, but I spoke to the M.E. Given the state of the crime scene, the mom was raped and beaten and the dad was tortured. I figure part of that torture was watching his wife be defiled and beaten. The torture dad went through, though?” Raven glances at me and sucks air through her clenched teeth. “It was personal. I’m telling you, they were either very,veryunlucky or they really pissed someone off. I think Dad died too early and they would have finished the mom off, but the neighbor interrupted.”
“You’re telling me they could assault and murder them but drew the line at harming the neighbor?” Valentina scoffs.
“Neighbor’s a cop,” Raven replies cheerily. “Killing a cop is a whole lot more trouble. I found that the dad was supposed to meet the neighbor for lunch and never showed up. He comes knocking, disturbs the killer, and they flee before they can finish the mom.”
Every detail Raven gives me settles in my mind. There’s one hell of a puzzle here and the more she talks, the more I know I was right not to just kill Ivy and sweep this mess under the rug.
“The cops that came to Ivy’s room. They weren’t there for any station,” I say, sipping my overly sweet coffee. “I think they were there to finish the job.”
“Isn’t that what you weregoingto do?” Valentina snaps. “Instead, you brought her back here. We never bring people back here, Ruslan. It’s insanely dangerous, or does the concept of asecretnot register?”
“Iwasgoing to kill her, but something felt off. I listened to her story and I’m telling you, I don’t believe she had a hand in this. I don’t think she crashed the plane and I don’t think she was there to destroy the drugs.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think,” Bradley cuts in. “It matters what the truth is. They know she’s alive. Both families want her head.”
“And if we give it to them and we’re wrong? Whoever is really behind this will just destroy the next chance at peace and that war will never end.” My lips press together. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe she’s as innocent as the rest of the passengers, but we all know that what happened to her parents is far too much of a coincidence. I know I haven’t been doing this as long as the rest of you, but isn’t this what we do? We keep a fragile peace, wemake sure that this city doesn’t descend into chaos. I dunno.” I gulp my coffee once more. “It looks to me like someone is trying real hard to keep the chaos coming.”
“You shouldn’t have brought her back here,” Valentina snaps, but her words lack the icy edge they had earlier. “You’ve put us all at risk.”
“I know what I’m doing.” I wink at her.
Valentina’s eyes narrow, growing as sharp as the dagger she keeps in her boot.
“Do you?” A fourth voice drifts through the door, and the last member of our group wanders into the kitchen, his face stretched with an easy smile. “Team meeting and I wasn’t invited?”
Cassian Russo, better known as the Jack, strolls in with a bare chest and low-slung jogging pants clinging to his hips.
“Cassian, are you allergic to clothes?” Valentina grumbles. “Didn’t you hear we have a guest?”
“I did,” Cassian replies. “And as much as it pains me, I think Ruslan did the right thing.”
Bradley breathes so deeply, it’s as if the air gets thin for a moment. “Why?”
“Look at this.” Cassian weaves through the kitchen and touches a button just behind Raven’s head. It brings down a screen from the ceiling and as it flickers to life, I drain my mug and move around to get a better view.
There’s no audio, but there’s enough information flashing across the screen to tell me everything we need to know.
One of the survivors of the plane crash took their own life.
My stomach tightens. Surviving something that traumatic must be insane and I can’t imagine the pain that comes from walking away knowing so many other people died.
“He couldn’t hack it,” Valentina remarks. “So what?”
“Keep watching,” Cassian says over his bare shoulder as he rummages through one of the cupboards.
Text flashes across the bottom of the news report, making my heart sink. This ‘suicide’ is just the latest death in a string of misfortune reaching the survivors of the Alpine crash. One survivor, an elderly man, had a heart attack two days ago. Another, a young woman, was a victim of a fatal mugging after daring to leave her home for the first time after the crash. And a fourth survivor took their own life by jumping in front of a subway train.
“I don’t know about you,” Cassian says, turning to face us while battling with a protein bar wrapper in his teeth, “but it’s pretty fucking weird that the survivors are dropping like flies.”
“You think someone is taking them out?” Bradley asks.
