“Like what?”
She whispers, “Like you’re in trouble. Like someone’s trying to take you from the party. Bodyguards go rabid over that type of thing. Naturally.”
A slow smile forms on my lips. “Gin, you’re a genius.”
She beams at me.
“So… what’s the plan?” Arianna surveys the foyer below us.
“You two go save Sophia. I’ll stay here and deal with that bodyguard.” Gin glances over the railing at him. “Do you have his number?”
I nod.
“Good. Give me his number. I’ll call him, but then hang up. This is all going to happen real quick. As soon as he’s distracted by the phone, duck down and hide. I’ll go down there and tell him I saw someone forcing you into the basement. Once he enters the basement, I’ll lock him into that creepy room we used to play in as kids.”
“Gin, that’s terrible,” Arianna chides her, but doesn’t seem opposed to the plan.
She shrugs. “Sometimes you have to do terrible things to get what you want.”
“Let’s not waste another minute. Think of Sophia, Arianna, she’s in danger.” I need her on my side, totally committed if we’re going to pull this off.
“Right. This is for the greater good. Let’s do this.”
I share Wolfe’s contact with Gin. She presses his number and it rings.
Wolfe briefly glances up at me, taking note of my location I’m sure, before his phone steals his attention. The crease between his brows deepens as he stares at the unknown number.
That’s all I see.
The next second, Arianna and I sprint through an open door. By the time Wolfe looks up again, I’ll have disappeared.
A commotion downstairs tells me Ginevra’s already put the rest of her plan into action. A loud, masculine voice booms, “Everybody move!”
We’re hidden away for the moment. Now we need to figure out the next steps of our plan.
“Try calling Sophia. We need to find out where she’s going.”
Arianna dials her sister’s number, but it goes to voicemail. She tries to reach her again and again, to no avail.
“She’s not answering. What are we going to do?” She frowns in thought.
With Wolfe out of the way, we’re free to leave. “We should get to the car. If she calls, I want to be ready to go to her. If only we’d gotten away earlier, we could have followed them.”
“Too late for that now.” Arianna pokes her head out the door. “It’s all clear. Let’s go. Follow me.”
Like two thieves, we sneak down the back staircase to the first floor, then slip out the door to the garage. The car Wolfe drove me here in is parked in the private driveway.
“We’re going nowhere real fast if you don’t have a key.” Arianna and I approach the car.
I pull the fob from my clutch. “Security measure. I always carry a key fob so if anything were to happen to my driver, I can drive myself out of danger. Cian’s big on safety measures.”
We get into the car, then wait. There’s nothing else we can do. Maybe this is a stupid idea. We can hardly rescue Sophia if we don’t know where Roman’s taking her, can we? There’s no guarantee that they’re headed to his house. Wherever that may be.
Arianna sends Sophia one text after another.
I wish I knew someone who had the technology to ping Sophia’s phone. Or that in all these years we had thought to share our location with each other. Hell, I’d even take jewelry with a tracking device in it at this point. Anything that would let us know where Roman De Luca is taking my cousin.
I could call Brendan, he’s set us up with all sorts of fancy new security systems, but I don’t want to get him involved. How would I explain what happened to Wolfe?
