Ha.
Try a few hundred.
“We had to fake their deaths in order to protect them,” Raymond continues. “Ellie and the others agreed to help me find…information.”
“Information on whom?” Piper asks, fidgeting. She seems to be struggling to digest this sudden onslaught of information. “The mafia?”
“What is with your obsession with the mafia?” Victoria snaps.
“No,” I insert before Raymond can answer. The older man shoots me a glare, silently warning me to remain quiet, but I ignore him. If we’re going to make these three women prisoners, then they deserve to know at least part of the truth. Ellie is their friend, after all. “We’re taking down a cult.”
“A cult?!” Piper’s voice is an incredulous screech.
“A secret society,” Ryker corrects.
I frown at him. “I definitely consider it more of a cult than a secret society.”
“Could it be both?” Ryker ponders.
Victoria snaps her fingers in the air. “Focus, boys!” She then mutters something in rapid-fire French that’s impossible for me to translate.
“It’s not safe to divulge too many details,” I say, considering my words carefully. “But we’re trying to find information on their leader—a woman named Aria.”
Raymond goes ramrod straight at my mention of The Divine One and shoots me a glower that could curdle milk.
Jane also straightens, almost as if she’s been jolted by a bolt of electricity. The color drains from her face, making her appear as white as a sheet.
“Aria?” She barely whispers the word. It’s practically a breath of air.
Ryker’s eyes narrow, suspicion creating deep furrows in his forehead. “You’ve heard that name before?”
“There’s probably a lot of people with that name,” I tell him.
“Short? Spiky blonde hair? Blue eyes?” Jane fires off.
Is it possible, or is she even paler than she was a split second earlier?
Ryker and I both turn toward Raymond, because we have no idea what Aria looks like.
Raymond’s frown is chiseled on his face. “How the fuck do you know that?”
Jane, trembling, reaches for her phone and fiddles with it for less than a second before turning the screen in our direction.
Ryker pushes himself off the wall to come closer, and Raymond bends at the knees, squinting at the tiny screen.
It’s a picture of Jane standing beside an unfamiliar blonde-haired woman. They have their arms wrapped around each other and appear to be laughing. Or, at the very least, Jane is laughing, her eyes sparkling.
The unknown woman may be smiling, but that smile doesn’t reach her eyes, which are ice-cold and fathomless.
I swallow around the spike lodged in my throat.
“How do you have that picture?” Raymond is in Jane’s face in an instant, causing her to squeak and drop her phone. Piper and Victoria jump to their feet.
“Get the fuck away from her!” Piper screams.
“What is your problem?” Victoria adds.
“How do you know her?” Raymond ignores the other two women and keeps his gaze locked on Jane. A vein in his forehead begins to throb erratically, and his hands clench and unclench by his sides. “How thefuckdo you know Aria?”