"One of the things I do is track certain individuals, monsters who are still very much a part of society and need to be removed. We compiled the current list over the last three years. It’s always evolving, I cross names off, I update others, and add more. The work is never-ending and sometimes we have to triage the list—who is the greatest threat or who is the easiest to get to.”
The simple truth was, they were all dangerous. They all needed to be eliminated. There had only been two of us and so many of them. For every one we removed, more always seemed ready to step up into the void we created.
I opened a private web browser, then logged into the cloud file where we kept a lot of the research. Daddy had multiple caches across the country, storage lockers and long-term storage facilities. When you could pay for years at a time, it just made sense. I was pretty sure I didn’t know where all of them were, though if I knew Daddy, he’d left me a clue somewhere.
“To get to the list, you have to log into an area of the dark web where we keep a cloud storage. It’s not accessible through some standard domain naming convention.” The website address I entered was merely an IP address. It took me to a blank page with a single text bar.
I typed in the passcode. It didn’t even reflect how many characters were used. The site flickered as it processed the pass code, then it redirected me to the storage cache. There was a whole work area that unfolded on the page as the browser populated with the data.
The warmth of Rick pressed up against my side as he slid an arm around me. The shift in posture tucked me against him and gave him a better view of the screen. “That’s a lot of names.”
“It’s a lifetime’s worth.”
“Or more. More than you could have done on your own.” Curiosity filled his tone. “Not that I don’t think you’re capable. Clearly, you are, but you said ‘we’ a moment ago.”
I had. “My father,” I said slowly. “This was his work.” I scrolled up a few lines so he could see names already crossed off. A quick search pulled up Noel Warrick. I clicked on her file. “We document everything we can track. Locations. Crimes—always corroborated or witnessed.”
“How do you corroborate it?”
“We find survivors or we witness it ourselves. Daddy and I went to one of the Warrick auctions once. It was—” How did one describe it? “Civilized. A black-tie affair with auction paddles and catalogs. Only the catalogs featured people instead of items. Starting bids and histories were included.” I double-tapped a file and opened it so he could see the scans of the catalog. “We tried to find some of the people after, though none of them were actually onsite at the auction location.”
“Did you find any?”
“Not enough.” Though we’d also hadn’t had time to deal with their buyers in the manner they deserved either. Instead, we’d simply incapacitated and cleared the homes of innocents. Most had been reported as casualties of a gas leak or a fire that had gone out of control. None came up flagged as murders.
Then again, people like Warrick didn’t want anyone looking too closely at those deaths and would have probably moved to have investigations suppressed. In some ways, the nature of those monsters we hunted helped us.
I marked off Warrick’s name, closing her out and switching screens, opened a new browser to pull up news reports of her death. After taking a screenshot of what I needed, I went back to the storage and added the obituaries and articles to close out her file. Then I added the link to her son.
“You think he’s involved?”
“Oh, I know he is,” I told him. “Though we never had the hard evidence on him that we had on her. With her death, he will be the most likely candidate to step into the void. If he is, then I need to be ready.”
“We will,” Rick said softly. “We will be ready. This is what you want me to do while you do errands.” It wasn’t a question.
“If you’re willing,” I said. One thing I also knew about hunting monsters, we had to make a choice to walk into those dark places. “Some of the things you’ll find, they won’t be pleasant. You can’t let rage dictate your actions. We have to be precise.”
“This will help you?” The question tugged at me and I tilted my head back so I could meet his brilliant gaze.
“Yes,” I told him. “But—” I cut him off before he could just agree. “I want to walk you through some of this first. Don’t just agree for me. I need you to know that—that I wouldn’t willingly expose you to any of this.”
That truth tasted so odd on my tongue, almost coppery like blood. Yet, it was the truth. Rick was the kind of person we fought to keep the world good for. He was the reason we faced off against the monsters. I was born into this life. I couldn’t imagine living my life any other way.
“Vienna…” The way his firm lips shaped my name shouldn’t send an immediate pulse of lust through me. “I want to help you. Show me how I can.”
The intensity in his eyes promised me he meant every word, and already I second-guessed myself. Would the darkness change him? Daddy used to say we had to become like the monsters to hunt them, but we had to always remember weweren’tmonsters. Rick had already told me he got too attached sometimes—would something like this trigger that in him?
“Promise me something?”
“Anything,” he said immediately.
“The moment any of this becomes too much, you tell me. You take a break. You walk away. Don’t become like them. Don’t let what they are infect who you are.”
He raised a hand and pressed it over his heart. “I give you my word. I will tell you immediately. I won’t let you down.”
I had zero doubts about the last, but everything else? Then again, I really did need the help. I had to take care of Salinas’ body sooner, rather than later, and that would mean a trip to dispose of it. I could use one of the other houses here, but I didn’t like leaving traces this close to Rick.
And I needed to stay on target for our goals so thatwhenFletcher got into that drive and found the information I needed, I could go after Red Death. Before then, I needed to go after the next name on the list.