Page 89 of Deadfall

I tore my eyes from the tablet I held and glared at him. How dare he say that when he’d never once tried to stand up for me.

“I have it under control.”

“Alright,” Lev shrugged. “If you say so.”

I scratched Fang behind the ears and watched Lev sift through surveillance footage. I didn’t want to tell Lev what I’d decided, or that I felt in my soul that after I found Octavius, I was done. He was too close to Riggs and I didn’t fully trust he wouldn’t rat me out. But, I knew I’d reached a point of no return. Mouse escaped through death and I’d be fucking damned if that happened to me. I was going to find Octavius, use the team to kill him, and then I’d figure the rest out on my own.

Maybe I’d reach out to my father and together we’d take down the rest of the brothers. Either way, after Octavius, I was finished with Riggs and the team. I just had to make sure I had everything in place before I did that.

I looked up at him. “I know what I’m doing.” Maybe. “Help me find Octavius.”

You must be ready

to burn yourself in your own flame:

how could you become new,

if you had not first become ashes?

NIETZSCHE

40

GABRIEL

Present Day

Something was wrong.

Emersyn hadn’t been in the Menagerie enclosure for over twenty-four hours. When we could, Seven and I snuck through the estate in an attempt to find her, only to come up empty. Seven wanted to go hack the cameras, but I had one last Hail Mary. I stalked across the mess hall toward where Angel sat alone. He glanced up and watched us approach apprehensively, having already clocked my expression.

“Where is she?” I asked without a preamble.

“Hey,” Angel glanced around and jerked his head at the bench. “Sit down.”

“I’m good, thanks,” I said shortly. “Do you know where they’re keeping her?”

Angel ran a hand over his mouth and looked at Seven, then back at me. When he seemed to be taking his fucking sweet ass time deciding what to say, I leaned over the table, my patience impossibly short.

“I’m not going to ask again.”

Angel’s eyes sharpened, but his body language stayed non-confrontational. “Mahoney took her to the Hole.”

“What’s that?” Seven asked.

Angel sighed heavily. “You two are going to get yourselves killed.”

“You let us deal with that,” I said.

After what felt like another long pause, he answered. “The entrance is about two-hundred yards along the edge of the cliffs going south,” Angel said, his voice resigned. “Mahoney usually only puts Brooks, and a few of the more senior guards, on rotation there.”

“Why?”

“That’s where Mahoney likes to—play—with the more problematic people he brings here,” Angel said grimly. “Either people he interrogates or occasionally women he’s trying to break for clients. I’ve heard he dabbles in experiments—”

I didn’t bother to hear the rest and shoved away from the table to leave. Angel’s hand latched onto my forearm. I was about to fucking punch him, but the look on his face stopped me.

“You didn’t read the rules, did you?”