Page 127 of Fly's Path

“Fly’s right. We need to send him after the boogeyman. Someone who doesn’t exist, but everyone fears.”

“Like he’s going to believe it if we leave Grave’s calling card,” Vex sneers. “No one believes he exists.”

Who is Grave?

“If Grave doesn’t exist, how can we leave his calling card?” Everett turns from the computer to face Vex.

“I didn’t say he doesn’t exist. I said no one believes he does. There’s a difference.” Vex starts pacing. “I’d prefer we send him at me.”

“What would your wife prefer?” I snap without thinking.

The next thing I know, I’m against the wall, hanging by my shoulders.

“You never talk about my wife.” Vex went atomic, it seems.

Do I placate him?

The old man stands up with the baby still in his arms. “Let’s all take a breath.”

A smart man would shut up. It seems I’m not as smart as I thought. “Your wife and my woman are friends. I don’t want them in the crosshairs. Find a different target.”

“No one in the crime world knows I’m with her.”

I snort. “Are you willing to gamble her life on their ignorance? Because I’m not.”

Vex lets go, and I land hard on my feet. “His calling card is a marble tombstone. He leaves it in a pool of the target’s blood.”

Do I want to know how Vex knows the answer to that? Gruesome. “That seems like it would be pretty heavy.”

“It’s a miniature tombstone, but the marble is real. I tried tracing it, but the marble is from a big deposit. It’s been sent to cemeteries all over the world for a hundred years.”

“Then we search for the person who carves it.” Maddox walks over with one of his pets wrapped around his shoulders. “That’s probably a smaller group to sift through. Unless he does it himself.”

“Wouldn’t it be wrong for us to sic this creep on Grave? He’s an innocent party in all this mess.” Havoc has that moral compass that several of us find to be a bit more flexible.

Vex snorts. “Our dealer will never find Grave. But if he does, he probably won’t live to speak of it. That’s how the guy got his name. If you meet him, he puts you in your grave. Either way, it’s a win for us.” Vex shrugs like it’s just as easy as that.

“We’re really going to leave this Grave’s calling card?”

Vex shakes his head. “Not the real one. There’s no time to carve the marble. Someone can 3D print a tombstone about this big.” He holds his fingers four inches apart. “To copy it exactly would be disrespectful. And I’m not in the mood to deal with him today.”

Like blaming him for something we’re about to do won’t irritate him? Vex is crazy.

“I can get that printed.” Everett spins back around.

“Then I guess we’ll pick teams and split up. The farthest city is a four-hour flight and about a forty-five-minute drive. So, let’s all plan on starting the rescue in five hours and fifteen minutes.”

“Fly is coming with me. We’ll take the hardest one.”

Is he planning a friendly-fire accident because I disagreed with him? Or is this a keep your friends close and your enemies closer kind of thing?

Though Vex doesn’t have friends, does he?

Hand Grenades

Fly

Things I’ve never done, but can now check off of my bucket list…that I didn’t know should be on my bucket list.