“I’m only going to ask you once,” I say. “Your brother.”
His jaw ticks. “My loyalty is to you.”
“If he’s tied to this?—”
He cuts in, his voice low and steady. “My loyalty lies with you, and I’ll prove it over and over until the day I die. Look where I am, Damien. Here, with you. Not with him.”
I study his face for any hesitation or dishonesty. I don’t see any. I nod. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“You should,” he says. “But now we move.”
Two of our guards nod us on ahead.
Clara is petite, but there is nothing small about the way she looks at me. Her blonde hair is pulled back, she’s awake and sitting up. Her expression is all no-nonsense.
“Um, hello?” she says, more offended at our barging in than worried. “Can’t a girl recover from open heart surgery in peace?”
I flash her a smirk. “Figured I’d swing by so you could thank me in person for footing the bill.”
Her eyes flash. In about two seconds, she realizes who I am, what I’m doing there.
Clara sighs. “You two look like trouble,” she says. “Close the door so the nurses don’t see my room just got invaded by mobsters.”
Alex huffs a laugh. I close the door.
“How do you feel?” I ask.
“Like I lost an argument with a truck,” she says.
“Where is your sister?”
Not even a twitch as she answers. “Isn’t she with you?”
I almost smile. “You know she’s not.”
She arches a brow. “Oh, you think so?”
“She flew the coop,” Alex says. “And I’m confident she wouldn’t leave without telling you where she was going.”
Clara opens her mouth, ready to argue.
I raise my palm. “Don’t bother. Cassandra’s not safe, and every second you bullshit me is a second I can’t protect her.”
That does it. Clara’s posture sinks.
“She came here, yeah. But she didn’t tell me where she was going. I swear.”
Shit.
Concern forms on Clara’s fairy-like features. “She’s in trouble?”
“We think so,” Alex says.
Clara sighs. “You have to find her.”
“We will,” Alex assures her, and he means it. I can hear it in his tone.
Alex tries Cassandra’s phone again. Straight to voicemail. He checks a second line, the one I gave her. Nothing.
