All Grown Up (Eden High)

“Did anyone else notice that she refused to let us leave for longer than a bathroom break?”

“Caught that too, did you Track?” I can’t put my finger on it, but I get the feeling there was something more than a friendly game of D and D going on. Whatever it is, it can’t be bad since no one was hurt outside of getting our asses kicked in a game we used to master.

We’d barely made it to the dining room where mom was about to call us for dinner when the doorbell rang. Two minutes later, the maid came back fretting. “It’s the police. They say they need to talk to Mr. Jace.” The fuck!

Dad jumped up from his seat and beat me to the other room where two cops I’d never seen before were waiting.

“May I help you?” Dad put his body between them and me. I didn’t even bother rolling my eyes; I have two kids, I understand.

“Yes, are you Mr. Saunders? We’re here to see your son, Jace.” One of them looked at his notes for that.

“About what?”

“Are you Jace? Where were you this afternoon around one-thirty?” He looked around dad to ask.

“You wanna tell me what this is about?”

“Amanda Taylor was murdered this afternoon.” The fuck did he just say? Who the hell robbed me of that honor? I looked back at Track. No, he was with me all afternoon. Alex, no, the men I have on him would’ve alerted me if he’d left the island.

“Is this a joke?” Dad stepped forward again.

“No, sir, I promise you that it’s not.”

“Why are you asking my son about this shit? He was here. He left the house with his wife and kids around eight, and they were back by noon. There’s no way for him to have gone up there, killed her, and made it back in time.”

“And how do you know where she is?”

“Are you fucking stupid? You’re here, so you know the history. Why wouldn’t I know where she is?”

“Sir, there’s no need to get offensive; we’re just here to get some answers.”

“Check the home security.”

“I’m sorry, but we can’t go by that. Those things as you know can be easily tampered with.”

Track moved to stand beside me while Shane and Jared kept the women away. I could hear Sian in the next room, her panic coming through loud and clear. “Would a live video from a third party prove it?” How the hell did she know?

“How proficient are you with a bow and arrow, Mr. Saunders?” The fuck?

Lyon

“Mengele, you finish doing what I told you to do?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Fine, don’t tell anyone I told you to do that shi… I mean stuff.”

“I know, daddy, you told me about a hundred times. Now daddy, when can I get my stuff?” The little con had the nerve to barter with me for a favor.

I have no idea what she wants with this shit, but I gave up worrying about her shit a while ago. “You go anywhere near your siblings with this shi… mess; it’s going to be your butt.”

“I know, daddy. Why would I want to kill my siblings?”

“You…” She took off calling for her little friend.

The two of them weren’t able to play together the last couple of days since I had her on a mission, but they sure make up for it at night. While the rest of us are asleep, I don’t even want to know what the two of them are getting up to in that lab. The other one in China stays on the computer teaching them how to do some off-colored shit that I don’t even want to know about either.

Now, to go meet the other one before her husband catches wind of what she’s up to. The poor guy was already pulling his hair out of his head the last time I saw him. I don’t know how she expected to be gone for hours without him noticing. Though her cover story wasn’t too shabby.

I guess the uncle is in on it since she’d used him as an alibi. Apparently, he forgot his medicine and couldn’t live without it, and as a doting niece, it was left to her to head back to the states to retrieve it. She’d left before her husband knew what she was doing, and he hasn’t been sane since.

MOUTH

Whew, that was easy. I sat back in the seat as the jet took off in the air. The hardest part of my day was switching planes. I set down in one state and immediately got on the plane that was waiting there for me on the other side of the tarmac. Uncle Al had come through with that. I couldn’t use Shane’s because one of his spies would’ve sounded the alarm.

It was close. I had to get to my place on the hill above the prison in time for the visit. It’s a wonder the cops didn’t pull me over for speeding. No, actually, the hard part started with choosing the right spot. Since I’d never been there before, I had to get all my specs from an aerial map, which took time. With wind trajectory being the only thing I had to worry about once I got there, I’d studied the weather days in advance to help me choose.