Page 36 of Midnight Salvation

“I assume he is one of the rogue ones?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yep,” Jordan said. “I’m trying to get eyes on him.”

I moved over to the computer and put in the web address and password that I shouldn’t have. Jordan’s eyebrows flew up and he turned to stare at me, questions forming in his grey eyes.

“Not a word,” I warned. “I learned to decipher Dad’s journals a long time ago. He just never realised.”

A dark and dangerous smile curved the corner of Jordan’s lips up. “It’s like an early Christmas present.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “You’re welcome.”

Dad had a cloud database with access to several tracker systems for our family and others. He could monitor people halfway around the globe from the comfort of his office and without anyone knowing what he was up to. He tended to keep his cloud addresses and passwords in his journals, written in his own language that I had worked out long ago.

Jordan started to merrily hunt through the files in the background.

“I think dick pic’s boss should be top of our list since Uncle Lucas says he’s a big player in this,” Xavier said.

Was it too much to ask for a few days off? “Okay, let me get officially engaged and get the ring tomorrow, then we’ll go and eliminate the next threat on our list. Is Lucas coming?”

Jordan laughed behind me. “Try and fucking stop him. He’s all business after his little encounter in Rome.”

“Phil was my brother,” I replied. “Another one of Dad’s children that none of us knew about. I swear there are dozens of them out there.”

“Didn’t you want to save him?” Xavier asked, his brow furrowed.

“What for? Just because Dad made a sperm donation didn’t make him my brother.”

“Good point, well made,” Jordan called out. “That man must be dehydrated by the number of sperm donations that he’s made over the years.”

“He used to have a spreadsheet on there somewhere with all his children on it.” I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Imagine having to create a fucking spreadsheet to remember how many children you have.”

“Found it!” Jordan shouted. “What the hell? How does he cope with childcare costs?”

“He doesn’t. I tend to have to pay people off while he pretends to be confused as to how someone became pregnant.”

“Pity there isn’t birth control shots for men,” Xavier commented.

“Indeed. I would happily stick one in his ass every month.” Xavier laughed at my grumpy expression. “Okay, since all the females and their nosiness aren’t here. Let’s brainstorm about this zodiac nightmare. Personally, I don’t need Lucrezia knowing more than she already does since she has a big enough target on her head. Sean Montgomery isn’t on that list. He was on the video call with Lucas in Rome and the way he spoke makes me think they go way back, combined with how much Dad hates him, I’d say he was one of the original twelve.”

Xavier grabbed a whiteboard and we started to brainstorm who we thought the twelve members could be, taking into account the clues from Cassandra’s safety deposit boxes and family home.

“I think I need to do a little reconnaissance,” I said, my mind sorting through everything that had happened in recent weeks. “We need to have another look at everything we took from Dad’s safe in that fucking den of evil he had.”

“What are you thinking?” Xavier asked, sitting back in contemplation.

“That Dad and Hugh aren’t stupid. If Lucas had people watching the Council, then they have eyes in his camp. Dad is meticulous about keeping notes, and I think the answers to a lot of our questions lie in his journals and the items we lifted from that safe.” With everything that had happened recently, I hadn’t had time to retrieve them from where I’d hidden them.

Jordan put his feet on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ve been so busy sorting out the stuff from Cassandra’s house, that hadn’t even come back on my radar. Are they still in our intelligence office?”

He tended to name all our offices and segregate all our assets to ensure no one could access them all at once. The property he was referring to now was a small estate on the outskirts of London where we tended to store a lot of information we gathered. It wasn’t linked to any of us, and had been bought a few years ago through one of our aliases. The basement had been converted into massive safes that were built into the walls. From the outside it was a domestic property, but inside it was a base of operations with access to a lot of systems and a storage facility that the majority of thieves couldn’t break into.

“Okay, then let’s head there now,” Xavier replied. “We’re at a loss and I want all this sorted before my baby arrives into the world.”

Our bikes ate the miles to the house, and the freedom of the road cleared some of the cobwebs from my head. I hadn’t wanted to leave Lucrezia this morning. The memory of the way she clung to me still lived in my muscles and lips. Everything I did now had the purpose of keeping her safe.

Over the years, I had taken items from Blackwood Manor when Dad was occupied with his latest crisis, such as another paternity test. I had taken a ledger or two to give me time to study them and decipher his code. Grandpa left bits and pieces that I collected and left here far from prying eyes and listening ears.

I put the combination into the ancient locking mechanism and opened the door to my walk-in safe. This place was filled with darkness and secrets that needed to remain buried for the sake of what remained of my own sanity. There were photographs and mementoes in here that no one but me ever saw because they were a weakness. My marriage certificate was in this safe because it was bomb- and fire-proof. If Dad ever got his hands on it, Lucrezia would become his first target of revenge.

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