She’d gotten used to his panther-like silence over the last few days. Yet, seeing him when she least expected, was still rather jarring.
“Sorry, I um,” he gave her a lopsided smile and half shrugged. “The girls are asking for their Home Alone DVD.”
“Oh yeah, no it’s okay,” Persephone pushed off the seat. “I think they were watching it a few weeks ago when I called. It should be in my mom’s room. One of them can go find it in there.”
Hill nodded somewhat distractedly. He was already walking the office, browsing the wall of degrees carrying Persephone’s name and accomplishment. He couldn’t help but smile at several plaques he’d come across for marksmanship. He whistled. “Lotta work, Sef. All this while raising two kids,” he flashed her an impressed look.
Persephone returned the look with a dismissive shrug. “Well it wasn’t all done during the last six years…” she cleared her throat, deciding against bringing up those accomplishments that had taken place during the course of their time together. “Anyway, it wouldn’t have been possible without help. My mom’s been there from the start with the girls.”
Hill smiled, returned to look at the degree wall again. “Where is she?” He asked.
“Visiting family in Savannah before she leaves to focus on Maeva.”
The explanation hung in silence. Persephone waited for it to settle and knew it had when Hill turned to face her instead of the paneled wall.
“What did you say?” His tone was quiet. Its lethal edge however was blaring.
“Turns out, I’ve got two sisters- Evangela and Maeva. My mother had twins- seems hiding them runs in my family. I only found out just before you got here.”
Hill took the arm of one of the loveseats. His frown proved he was ostensibly processing what he’d just learned. “How is that possible?”
Persephone rolled her eyes, sighed and returned to the loveseat. “It’s a long story. Best shared once the girls fall off to sleep.”
“Right...right.” Hill settled the matter with a sigh of his own, followed by a jerky nod. Seconds later, he was shoving up from the loveseat arm and heading for the office door. He stopped when he heard her speak.
“Knowing what Eva was...and that she was my sister I-I thought there was just something broken that made her different from me and my mom. Knowing this about Mae...knowing all that she’d been capable of too and that my mom hid it all for all this time and then I did what I did…”
She gave a dejected laugh then. “There I was judging Eva for her malice and depravity and I’m no better.” Her silver eyes sparkled with bewilderment as she watched him from where she sat. “Looks like lies and treachery are in my blood-”
He was standing there before her then, jerking her to her feet. He treated her to a few quick shakes meant to rouse her from her despair.
“Stop.” The guttural roughness of his voice, laced the command with warning. “That is not you. That’s not who you are. Don’t link yourself to that, Sef. Don’t ever link yourself to that.”
“Come on Dadddyyy!” Leeya’s voice was echoing down the hall.
Hill angled his head away from Persephone to
answer. “Alright, Babe!” He gave Persephone another jerk until her
eyes met his fathomless black ones. “Don’t ever link yourself to
that, Sef.” He backed away then, watching her until he cleared the
doorway.
***
“Ready to wrap your head around another revelation?”
“Always,” Bill straightened in her rolling chair where she’d been hunched over a laptop. She watched Caiphus expectantly. Her eyes were beginning to cross as she’d browsed one screen after another.
Lamont’s information cache was immense. The man’s dying wish, it seemed, was to have someone get into his father’s head- to find out what made Jake Shannon tick. Given the extent of the information, it was clear that it was a thing Lamont had attempted for many years and never succeeded at.
Caiphus was turning his laptop monitor toward Bill. “It’s scary the people this muthafucka knows,” He looked on as his fiancée scanned the screen.
“Don’t hate and besides, that muthafucka is about to be your cousin-in-law, show a little respect.” Bill’s hazy gaze didn’t veer from the screen as she scolded.
Caiphus put a hand across the emblem adorning his 49ers jersey. “I use the term with the highest form of respect, Bee.”
Concentration shot then, Bill laughed. “I’ll be sure to tell him.”
“Seriously Bee, how the fuck does Mo get his hands on all this stuff? It’s fuckin’ scary the connections he’s got.”
Bill let her fingertips graze the touchpad and scrolled down the screen. “You don’t build the kind of rep Moses has in his profession without securing a few questionable contacts.” She sent her fiancé a sideways glance. “What possessed you to call him on this anyway?”
“A routine background check on Lee Cross and Rafe Taylor uncovered that they both had sheets.”
“Hmm...surprising,” SyBilla reached for her tea mug and reclined back in the rolling desk chair. Her tone was completely unsurprised as she regarded the men who had met their ends at the hands of Kraven DeBurgh when they had the poor judgement to attack his wife.
“So what’s so interesting about these background checks?” Bill sipped her Passion tea.
“Well those sheets and a lot of the other material kept in the file jackets can have all sorts of identifying information-including info that an ex-con’s probation officer, not to mention a bounty hunter on his tail might be privy to.”
“Stuff like this?” Bill tilted her head toward the screen that showed a list of properties.
“Correct Ms. Ramsey. You can see some of that identifying information got us login data. The same login data Rafe Taylor used when he was reviewing a profile on his employer Evangela Leer.”
“Eva...but why? From what we know he and Lee Cross were just muscle she farmed out a job to. Why would he care about a profile, let alone checking into properties?”
“Probably just being thorough-know the company you’re working for so you can dazzle ‘em with knowledge and make them hire you, blah, blah…” Caiphus shrugged. “Chances are, he pulled this stuff from a private database containing info on Eva and others like her.”
“A database put together by Shannon?” Bill theorized. “Taylor and Cross had ID tags marked with his logo, remember?”
“Exactly.” Caiphus’ sapphire stare was fixed on the screen once again.
“So what’s so special about these properties?”
