Liar (Madison Kate #2)(36)
I scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He didn't answer me, instead walking around the enormous wooden desk of what was clearly an office. Certainly not Constance's office, though, and not of anyone who'd used it recently, if the thick layer of dust on all the surfaces was any clue.
"Was this your grandfather's office?" I asked, peering around at the bookshelves, the ornate globe, the gold-framed paintings... It was definitely a masculine workspace.
Archer grunted a sound that I assumed to be, "Yes, MK, it was."
He stood in front of a huge portrait of a strikingly handsome man with jet black hair and dark eyes. The resemblance to Archer was uncanny; they could have been brothers.
"Is that him?" I pushed, feeling the need to fill the silence. No one had stepped foot in this room for a long time, and it made me wonder why the staff hadn't cleaned, at the very least.
"Phillip D'Ath," Archer announced. "Yep, that's him, alright."
I thought of Constance and Ana's relationship and wondered how Phillip had factored into that. Had he known? And if so, had he supported them?
"How long ago did he die?" I asked instead, coming to stand beside Archer and peering up at his handsome ancestor.
"Six years," he replied, his voice rough. I got the feeling he missed his grandfather, but the emotions there were confused. Like maybe his grandfather wasn't the nicest guy on Earth. Archer let out a long sigh, then reached for the edge of the frame. "This is what we came to see, though." He curled his fingertips under the frame and pulled it off the wall. It swung out easily, hinged on the other side, and revealed a mechanical keypad with a blinking blue light on the display.
"Uh... we came to break into his safe?" I asked, startled but not disapproving. If there was some evidence that might help me locate whoever tried to kill me, I'd do just about anything.
Archer's lips pulled up in a half smile. "Something like that. It's also not breaking in when I own it."
He keyed in the passcode, not bothering to hide it from me, and that made me suspicious. He sure as shit didn't trust me, so did that mean he planned to kill me one day?
When the light turned green and the mechanical lock bleeped, the entire wall panel clicked open to reveal a room beyond. Halogen lights flickered to life as Archer pulled the hidden door open wider, and I stifled a gasp of shock.
"Yeah, Phillip was an interesting character, that's for fucking sure," Archer muttered.
Every available surface of the secret room was lined with weapons. Guns of every shape, size, and caliber. Knives in all kinds of shapes and curves. Even...
"Is that a rocket launcher?" I squeaked, pointing to a scary-looking weapon with a long-ass tube attached.
Archer huffed a short laugh. "Bazooka. Phillip was a bit of a collector."
"Oh-kay," I looked all around me with wide eyes. "Will you explain this, or am I wasting my breath?"
Archer leaned his shoulder on one of the racks of weapons, folding his thick arms and giving me a considering look.
"I mentioned to you that Ana was purchased by my great-grandfather, Phillip's father." It wasn't a question, merely a reminder. I nodded. "He was a revolting man, crooked as they come, with his fingers deep in every type of crime imaginable. Gunrunning, drugs, sex trafficking, murder... nothing was out of his wheelhouse. It's where the bulk of the D'Ath fortune came from."
I raised my brows, processing what he was saying. But that was his great-grandfather, who could have died before he was born. "So, Phillip carried on the family business?"
It made sense. It explained the abundant wealth evident at D'Ath Estate, and certainly lined up with Damien D'Ath having founded the Shadow Grove Reapers. However, knowing how deep into the criminal world their ancestor was, the Reapers seemed almost small-time in comparison.
Archer shook his head, though. "No way. Phillip despised his father and everything he was involved in. Gregoric buying a kidnapped fourteen-year-old Croatian girl in a flesh auction was just the last straw for Phillip."
My stomach churned, thinking of Ana's kind warmth and how hard her life must have been. What horrors she must have endured. It gave some serious perspective to my own petty problems.
"He enlisted the second he was old enough to do so without parental consent," Archer continued, telling me his grandfather's story, his eyes locked on mine without blinking, "then quickly worked his way through the ranks. When he met Constance, he was working for some highly classified division of MI6." He gave a small, rueful smile. "We haven't decoded his files enough to work out what exactly his role was, but it isn't hard to guess." He gave a head tilt to the room full of weapons, and I nodded.
"Yup, this is sort of a big clue," I murmured, not finding the willpower to tear my eyes from Archer's. Not yet.
"Anyway. Long story short, Constance and Phillip married, and she got pregnant. Phillip had some... residual trauma from his time in the service and grew increasingly paranoid that his father would find out about his wife and baby. Possibly even do something to hurt them. Gregoric was a proud man, and hadn't taken his son's abandonment of his birthright well." Archer was delivering the story in a soft, emotionless voice, but I was hanging on every word. I was fucking invested and needed to know how it ended... even though I knew half the characters were now dead.