Page 287 of Romeo

Fury’s voice came faintly through her end. “Baby, you might be asking too much.”

“Christian,” she warned.

“I’m shutting up.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Carly, you called me. Talk.”

The pause that followed wiped away what little amusement remained. I could hear papers moving on Carly’s end before she finally said, “I’ve been going through more of Sienna’s files.”

That got my attention.

Carly had spent the last few years digging through information left behind by the Society, pulling apart records that seemed designed to create three new questions for every answer she found. The woman saw connections nobody else noticed, which was useful right up until she called and told you the latest connection involved your fucking family.

“I found a file on Kaitlyn Grace Ward.”

My eyes went immediately to Nav.

His hands stopped over the keyboard.

Kaitlyn was Angel’s daughter and Banshee’s niece.

Angel had been searching for Kay’s youngest daughter from the moment he learned the baby had survived. Kyllian remembered her mother giving birth and calling the baby Kaitlyn Grace, but said the baby disappeared. Later, Chasm found a file with her name on it without a single useful fucking detail attached to it.

“What did you find?” I asked.

“A lot more than I expected.” Carly hesitated, and I heard Montana tell her to get on with it before Fury warned him not to start. She ignored both men. “The original request came from Knuckles.”

Gunner leaned forward. “Satan’s Angels Knuckles?”

“The former VP,” Carly confirmed. “He contacted the Society because he wanted a child to disappear.”

The coffee in my stomach turned sour.

We all knew enough about the Society to know disappear could mean damn near anything depending on who made the request and who handled it. Children became leverage, commodities, names on paper. Lives rewritten because somebody with enough money or influence wanted a problem erased.

Carly continued before any of us could interrupt. “Isaac took the call, but he didn’t process the child through normal Society channels. He went around them. His brother and sister-in-law couldn’t have children, so Isaac arranged for them to take her instead.”

Cash shifted beside me. “They raised her?”

“For a while. According to the records I found, she had a legitimate childhood with them. New name, legal paperwork, everything. As far as anyone outside a very small circle knew, she was theirs.”

I could hear something in Carly’s voice that told me there was a but coming.

“What happened?”

“They died in a car accident.”

“Fuck,” Gunner muttered.

“The girl was still a child, and once they were gone, she ended up in foster care. That’s where the Society lost track of her.”

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the phone while pieces shifted into places I didn’t like. “What does this have to do with me and Fucknuts?” Reaper asked.

“Because Kaitlyn Ward is listed in Sienna’s records as Remington ‘Steele’ Ward’s daughter.”

The table went still.

Reaper swore first, Montana following a second later, but I barely heard either of them.