Page 30 of Twisted Empire

I nodded, gratitude rushing through me. “I understand. Why don’t you pack a bag as fast as you can, and we’ll get on to that part right after we get you settled in.”

Mom turned toward the stairs as if in a daze, but not before she shot me one last look, as if she were staring at someone she no longer knew. My heart sank.

Please, let her understand eventually. I had no idea how I could have done things differently before that would have turned out better, but I didn’t want to lose her.

* * *

The city lights glowed through the deepening night beyond the windows of the condo’s main bedroom. The place was a penthouse, and the cars cruising by below looked no larger than fireflies.

Mom and I had come in here after the Vigil guys and I had laid out our entire case, other than the parts about Logan’s mom. Logan had gone off to the side with his dad too. I’d thought Mom had wanted to talk, but for the first few minutes, she’d stayed silent, as if she were still absorbing everything.

I couldn’t blame her for needing extra time to do that.

“We’re definitely safe from this gang boss here?” she said finally.

The question reassured me a little—it told me she was taking the situation at least somewhat seriously.

“It’s the safest place we can put you,” I said. “There shouldn’t be any way for his people to figure out you’re here, as long as you stay inside and don’t use your credit card for anything. Or place any calls on your usual phones. We’ll leave you with the burner phone and credit card I showed you, and you can use those for anything you need while you’re here.”

The building was owned by Beckett’s family through a few layers of shell companies, so it was unlikely Doom’s Seed would even realize it was connected to him, let alone that we’d brought Mom, Holand, and Summer here. A few of Beckett’s people had been watching when we’d driven off and checked out the area enough to confirm that no one malicious had followed us.

“And you’re sure this friend of yours has our best interests at heart?”

I hadn’t explained the full details of my relationship with Beckett to her either. I figured we could ease into that later. “Yes. He’s gone above and beyond for all of us more than once.”

Mom sighed. “I suppose I can understand now why you and Logan have been acting so strangely. It was all because of what you’d found out about your dad?”

“That’s all of it,” I said. “I hope you can see why I hesitated to tell you… Itdoessound crazy if you haven’t been right in the middle of it.”

She rubbed her forehead. “I still wish you’d tried. Hearing it all at once—it’s hard to wrap my head around it.”

I could still hear a hint of doubt in her voice. She wasn’t totally convinced that we weren’t exaggerating the situation, imagining a murder where there was only an accident, turning a minor criminal who’d threatened us into a much bigger monster.

“I know, Mom. But even if you’re still not totally sure what to believe, I hope you can believe me thatI’llfeel so much better if you take this little vacation. For me and Logan, so we don’t have to worry about you. If it turns out there’s nothingtoworry about, then we’ll get whatever help we need to. But right now, all that matters is knowing you’ll be okay.” I paused. “I don’t want them getting to you like they did to Dad.”

“It sounds like something out of a movie, you know. Illegal organ transplants, covert investigations.” Mom shook her head. “I suppose your father was acting a little secretive in those last few months before he died, now that I think about it. Not in a way that worried me at all, just like he was a bit busier at work than usual, and he hadn’t told me what he was working on. But he often had confidential projects.”

“He’s a hero,” I said gently. “If it wasn’t for him, we’d never have stumbled on this either. Because he did, we might be able to stop so many more people from being hurt.”

She leaned back with her hands on the mattress. “That does sound like him too. Always wanting to protect people in his own way. Usually he did it with his medical knowledge… but I could see him getting tangled up in a mystery like this.”

“He was trying to protect us too by keeping us out of it,” I had to point out.

“I know.” Her gaze darted to me. “I’m not sure you aren’t being a little overprotective. Nothing about my accident seemed unusual—to me or the doctors. But… it can’thurtto take a little time off and ease your worries. We’ll figure this whole thing out together, honey. I know we will.”

I beamed at her, tears prickling behind my eyes. Mom held out her arms, and I met her hug halfway.

This was the most I could have asked for. As long as she was out of harm’s way, we could see the rest of our mission through.

I could keep fighting for both of us—for us and for Dad.

A wordless shout of shock from beyond the door had my head jerking up. A second later, Logan’s voice called out. “Maddie, you’d better get in here.”

Mom hurried behind me as I pushed out into the condo’s living room. The guys were gathered on the sofa facing the TV, Holand standing behind the sofa, his jaw gone slack. Summer dashed out of the second bedroom where she’d been getting her stuff organized for the stay and stalled in her tracks when she caught sight of the scene.

I rushed over to the side of the sofa where I could see the TV too—and froze with a lurch of my stomach.

They’d brought up the local news channel from back home. On the screen, a news anchor motioned toward a house behind him, lit up by the flames that were raging all through the building while firefighters swung their hoses toward it. “No one is sure what started the fire, but so far it’s defied the firefighters’ attempts to douse it.”

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