Page 29 of Twisted Empire

“Then you need to go to the police,” Holand broke in.

“We don’t have enough proof,” Logan said. “Believe me, we wish we could.”

I caught Mom’s gaze. “They’ve already caused your car accident. They texted me to tell me the next time they might kill you. I was hoping we could get them to forget about us, but it’s become obvious that’s impossible.”

“My accident,” Mom said, staring at me. “But—thatwasan accident.”

I shook my head. “It was set up as a warning to us—to me.”

“This sounds ridiculous, Maddie. If it’s something that serious, we need to go down to the police station—”

“There’s nothing to tell them!” I interrupted. “Just like Logan said. We’ve been trying to put together the evidence, but these criminals are very good at what they do. Which is why they’re so dangerous.”

“They’re telling the truth,” Summer piped up. “That’s why I let Maddie make a run for it during the whole intervention thing. She explained it to me—she knows what she’s talking about, Ms. Silver.”

My mom’s eyes widened. “You knew all about this too?”

“Only since the intervention,” I said.

Holand’s gaze fixed on Slade and Dexter. “And you boys are part of this scenario as well?”

“Unfortunately,” Slade said with a crooked smile. “We’ve been right in the middle of it from the start.”

“And why exactly are you telling us now?”

I swallowed hard. “Because we’re worried that the people we’re dealing with are going to go on the attack again, and Logan and I want to make sure you’re safe. We’re going to bring the two of you and Summer to someplace they won’t know where to find you until they’ve been arrested.” Or whatever else we or Beckett ended up having to do to ensure Doom’s Seed was no longer a threat.

“You want us to take off in the middle of the week, dropping everything, to go to some unknown location?” Mom burst out. “Maddie, this is beyond anything I could have imagined. None of this makes sense. Who’s been feeding you these stories? How did you get these crazy ideas in your head?”

My throat tightened even more. “It’s not crazy, Mom. It’s—” God, I hadn’t wanted to tell her like this, but I didn’t know what else to try. She wasn’t going to budge until she knew what was actually at stake.

I drew up my chin and fixed her and Holand with the firmest look I could. “You know I’ve been asking about Dad more lately, and stopping by the hospital where he worked. It wasn’t just because of the accident. We found information that makes it clear that Dad didn’t die because of some mysterious illness. He wasmurderedbecause he found out about these people and the crimes they’re committing. And while we were trying to find enough evidence to get justice for him, we caught their attention too.”

I hadn’t thought Mom’s face could get any paler, but I was wrong. Her legs wobbled, and Holand slipped an arm around her waist.

“Your father—honey—the doctors said—” she mumbled.

“I know what they said—they never figured out what the cause was. We know for sure that he was murdered. We’ve heard it directly from these people. That’s why they’re trying to silence us by any means necessary.”

Yvonne had confirmed it on the phone with Logan. But I didn’t bring up that part because her presence was Logan’s part of the story to tell. I doubted he wanted to dump the revelation that his mom was still alive on his dad right now like this, especially when that would only make our story sound crazier. I’d let him decide when the time was right for that discussion.

“I never wanted to tell you like this,” I said to Mom, stepping closer to grasp her hand. “I swear that it’s true, though. I can talk you through what we’ve found out—but that’ll take time, and I don’t know if these people will have already noticed we’ve come by the house. We need to get you to safety, and then we can deal with the rest.”

“It’s absolutely true,” Dexter put in with his usual matter-of-fact tone. “I wouldn’t get caught up in a mystery if the pieces didn’t add up.”

“We’ve been building our case for years,” Slade said. “But just in the last few months, everything’s started to unravel so fast.”

For several seconds, Mom and Holand just stared at us. Then Holand asked in a low voice, “Where exactly do you want us to go?”

“We’ve made a friend who has experience with criminals like this,” I said. “There’s a vacant condo in a building he owns just an hour’s drive from here. It’ll be like a little vacation. Hopefully a short one.”

Mom inhaled raggedly. “This is all so—I don’t know what to think.”

I squeezed her hand. “Please. Just come with us. Take a look at the place. Listen to what we have to say. And if you’re absolutely sure you can’t believe us, you can always come back. But I really hope you won’t do that, because these people won’t stop at anything to cover their tracks. And for them, that means destroying everyone connected to their crimes, which includes us too.”

That last statement seemed to finally sink in enough for my mom to shake herself into action. She swiped at her eyes. “All right. We can call in sick for the next couple of days if it seems necessary. I want to hear the full story as soon as we get to this condo, though.”

“Yes,” Holand said firmly. “No more dodging around the truth. We can’t trust you if you’re not trusting us with all the details of what you claim is going on.”

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