“What am I here for again?” Jo asked in a hushed voice. He was walking behind his brother as they crept along the darkened grass. V had given the same coordinates that Attor had followed the day before. When Attor had mentioned the strange behavior of the woman in the window, V decided it was something that was worth looking into. With the arrival of Taryn at the Nest, Attor found himself unavailable, so Volos gave the assignment to Jo and Ladon.

“Bait…” Ladon smirked as he threw the comment over his shoulder. “If we get sprung, I’m throwing you down while I run.”

Jo snorted. “Brotherly love at his best, huh?”

“Natural selection, Jo.” Ladon laughed quietly. He’d found a small area that wasn’t in the path of any cameras. A small entry door that was for all intents and purposes, from the outside, completely unguarded. Ladon knew this type of door, it was old and had only one central hinge. Ladon leaned into the staff door, lifting it slightly and applying a reasonable amount of weight to the central part of the door until he heard the jamb pop.

Jo sat back on a shadow, just off the left, keeping his eyes open for any unwanted attention. Looking over when he heard the pop, he saw Ladon quietly lift the door and slide it open enough to let them through. With a hand motion for his brother to follow, Ladon vanished inside the building.

“What floor did Attor say the woman was?” he asked Jo, as he clambered through the small door gap.

Looking up to his brother he replied, “It’s funny how you think I was paying attention.” Laughing, he said, “Third floor.” He sighed as Ladon shared a look of disappointment toward his brother’s inability to take things seriously. Jo repeated like a parrot, “The woman was a dirty blonde. She was on the third floor, second window from the left. Blue curtains. Had a look of recognition on her face. Thinks she’s the one possibly speaking to Q.”

“You just like saying the words dirty blonde.” Ladon smirked as he looked around. Finding the stairwell, he pushed open the door and made his way up.

“You know me well, brother.” Jo followed him and started to climb.

Slowly, they opened the top floor’s door and walked out. Keeping their wits about them as they made their way to the left, the black and white carpet looked like a checkerboard. They read each door nameplates as they passed by. The hallway was long and apart from some small security lights, was dark and empty.

“Look…” Ladon pointed to the door, his eyes flicking between the end of the hallway and the second last door in front of where he stood. “That’s a name we know.”

Jo looked up. “Ms. Cinders. CEO, Tokyo Disney” The words crept off his tongue. “Yup, Cinders, that name was on the papers from Vern.”

“Talking to Q?” Ladon asked.

Thinking for a second, Jo shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. There was definitely a connection, but I don’t think it was a direct one-on-one conversation between the two of them.”

“So, that’s a no?” Ladon snorted at the long answer Jo had given him.

“Fuck you, Ladon, you either want me to pay attention or be the bait?” He gave his brother the finger.

“Haven’t decided.” Ladon shrugged as she opened the office door. He walked over and took a seat behind the desk. There were papers strewn over the tabletop in what looked like organized chaos. Ladon started lifting papers and reading them. Despite the low lighting, dragon eyes were exceptional at adapting to their environment.

Jo walked over to the standing file cabinet in the corner which had three large drawers. Jo saw they were all locked as he moved past it over to the open bookcase. Running his fingertip across a number of book spines, he checked out her choice of reading material. A few romances, self-help books, nothing that stood out as strange. The second shelf held park programs, maintenance folders, emergency plans and the like. Jo looked over at his brother, and his eye caught up on the wall by a picture. Hanging above Ms. Cinder’s desk was a huge painting of a bird. The wings were coated in dripping paint like it was melting into the awaiting open air below it. The hues sat in blues, purples, and greens. If you took out the fact it was a bird, Jo thought it looked awesome. Stepping forward, he read the words written below, ‘You don’t need wings to fly.’ Jo shrugged with an odd understanding, although he countered that wings certainly helped.

“Taryn Miles,” Ladon murmured as he picked up a heavy file. Placing it in front of him, and glancing at his brother, he started to open to the red folder.

“A file on her? I guess that’s not unusual, she does work here after all,” Jo said as he took a seat opposite him, swinging his boots up and landing heavily on the desk.

“The part that would concern me is this…” Ladon held up the front page that said in bold red letters which were a warning.

 

MUST NEVER BE IN IMAGES. IDENTITY PROTECTION ENFORCED.

 

“Identity protection?” Jo quizzed. “How can one expect to have her identity protected when you’re fucking working in the happiest place on Earth? One of the biggest tourist attractions in the world… as a meet and greet character, no less.”

Ladon shrugged. “I guess hiding in plain sight might work. My question is if her identity is being protected…” Ladon flicked a few pieces of paper, “… is she actually Taryn Miles? By birth name, I mean.”

“Who the fuck kno—” Jo stopped mid-word as he heard the ding and slide of an elevator door opening. He sat up, his brother mimicking the exact same movement as they heard footsteps headed their way.

Ladon shut the folder, pausing as he went to return it.

“Hurry up,” Jo whispered.

Ladon looked up, panic rippling across his face. “I can’t remember which pile it came off.”

Jo rolled his eyes. “Motherfucker…” The steps getting closer, he growled, “Pick a fucking pile and move your ass,” Jo’s words came through gritted teeth as he waited at the open door to the adjoined bathroom.

Ladon’s eyes flicked up as he heard the door handle start to lower. He dumped the file on the closest pile, and dove for cover with his brother. Jo sighed with relief as he managed to match the click of both doors.

Jo and Ladon were stuck in the bathroom until whoever it was entering the office left. Hearing the air push out of the chair, Jo assumed it might be a while.

“What’s this?” a woman’s voice said. “I didn’t leave that there.”

Jo looked at Ladon and growled, odds were that comment was about the file he didn’t replace correctly. They could hear papers moving, and the mumbling of a number. Jo looked at Ladon and gestured that there was a phone call being made. A nod from Ladon as they both leaned forward to try and hear everything that was said.

“Mr. Spigoletti?” the woman said quietly. “Yes, it’s Ms. Cinders… okay… I’ll wait.”

Jo went into his beast slightly so he could talk to his brother’s mind. ‘Spigoletti?’ Repeating the name to his brother, his brow creased as he asked, ‘You know if the name Spigoletti had been on any paperwork from Vern?’ Ladon shook his head, he didn’t know the name. ‘Nah, most likely some dirty late-night hook up.’

‘If I have to listen to dirty phone sex while I’m stuck in a fucking bathroom with my brother, I will need a therapist by morning.’ Jo chuckled.

‘You need a therapist now,’ Ladon replied.

“Yes, I am here…” Ms. Cinders said, causing Jo and Ladon to both shut up quickly. A one-sided conversation unfolded before their ears. It was up to Jo and Ladon to make sense of it.

“Hi. Yes… she’s fine…

“Yes, that’s why I’m calling…

“Mmmm…

“Look, I did you guys a huge favor by helping her…

“Do you understand what I’m risking?

“Money won’t help me if I’m dead…

“Mmmm…

“I will do what I can…

“If it comes down to a choice…

“Don’t threaten me…” she paused. “Without me, she would already be dead.

“Okay… I understand.”

“Yes.”

“Goodnight.”

The phone was placed heavily on the desk, as the sound of a female’s tears falling reached the brothers’ ears.

‘What in the fuck is going on?’ Jo asked his brother’s mind. ‘I’m more lost than a lesbian at an all-boys school.’

Ladon laughed silently, as he pictured his brother as a lesbian. With a shrug it wasn’t that far off the truth, Jo did like the pussy. Shaking his head as she refocused on what they had heard. ‘We need to see what Vern can find out about the name Spigoletti.’

Nodding they agreed, hearing the woman stand and walk out the door. They waited for a few more minutes to make sure she was gone before coming out of the bathroom. Jo snorted as he looked at Ladon. “Lucky it isn’t a closet, people might start talking.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“You couldn’t get that lucky.” Ladon rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get home and see what we can dig up.”

The brothers silently made their way out the way they had entered. Trying to readjust the door to look right, but with the jamb broken, it was only a matter of time before a break and enter was reported. Dragons didn’t have fingerprints, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be on any human records. However, what they had heard tonight confirmed Ms. Cinders was part of something big. Jo and Ladon guessed it had something to do with Taryn, which made them all involved now Attor has been gifted a mate.

As Jo felt the burn of his white wings unfold, he shook his head in confusion. Things weren’t right, he couldn’t put his finger on it yet, but something wasn’t correct in what they had heard. As his wings pulsed in the water, the names floated through his brain, Cinders, Spigoletti, Pettigrove... Q. The last name caused the biggest shiver to run down his spine that his wings rippled like a small stone being dropped in a pond. ‘What is it about those names?’ He asked himself. ‘What’s the connection? Is there a connection? Maybe the connection is, that there isn’t one?’

Ladon had taken off straight away, but with the mind connection they still in place, he’d heard and returned a thought, ‘I will give you a connection. It’s called my foot to your ass if you don’t move it.’ Jo laughed. ‘On my way fucker,’ he shot back.

Jo always lingered, his brothers were all of the same colorings, Jo was pure white with a scattering of blackened scales. Where his brother’s wings tipped to the gold, his went from white to black to silver. He was always treated differently, and when they swam together, he would swim from the back. He had no camouflage in the water, and if a predator was to spot him, he needed to know his brothers weren’t close enough to be seen. Adding to that it was night, and a white object swimming in a black ocean stood out like a whore in church on a Sunday. Jo looked up, he couldn’t see the trail of bubbles left from his brother, so he knew it was safe to fly.

Jo did what he loved most about being a dragon.

He let his beast loose and flew through the water with a fierce untamable power.