Silas hooks the USB up to his laptop and taps at his keyboard like this is just another weekend activity for him.
“This isn’t a school,” Gideon says finally. “It’s a holding pen for kids whose parents don’t want them.”
“And Minxy’s stuck there,” Talon says, voice low.
“We’re getting her out,” Silas replies. No hesitation.
“Then what?” I ask. “She comes home to Abi?”
“No,” Gideon says. “We don’t bring her back to the person who sent her there in the first place. We bring her somewhere she’s safe.”
“Like where?” Talon asks.
“Here,” Gideon says.
“This is the first place Abi will look when she finds out she’s not where she’s supposed to be,” Silas adds.
“She can stay with me.” Talon nods.
“No, she can’t. You’re in a dorm, and your mom will for sure look there too. She should stay with me. I’m off campus, and Abi knows we’ve never met, so she’ll have no clue to look at my place.”
Talon looks at me with surprise in his eyes. “You’d do that for me?”
“I’d do that for any child in a situation like this. It’s exactly why I’m studying what I am. I want to help.”
Silas nods. “This is step one. Proof. Step two is contact. Step three is extraction.”
The word extraction makes my stomach flip.
Talon hasn’t sat down. He keeps circling the table, hands in his hair, pacing like an animal in too small of a cage. Every few steps he stops and looks at the three of us.
He stops finally, bracing his palms on the edge of the table. The muscles in his arms tighten. His breathing is harsh, uneven.
“This is… a lot,” he says quietly.
“It is,” Silas agrees.
“And we’re… all doing this together now,” Talon adds, voice rough, like the words scrape coming out.
Gideon closes a folder. “That’s the plan.”
Talon’s gaze flicks toward me again. Longer this time. Searching, confused, wanting. The kind of look that makes my pulse trip even when I don’t want it to. He swallows hard.
“Penelope’s here. You two are here. I’m here. We’re all… connected now. Whether we wanted to be or not.”
My heart stumbles.
He steps closer—not touching, not crowding, but close enough that I feel the heat off him. His voice lowers to something almost careful.
“And I know why they’re here.” He nods at Silas. Then Gideon. “They’re your guys and my uncles.”
Silas and Gideon both go still.
Talon’s eyes stay on me.
“But me? I don’t know where I stand,” he says softly. “Not after last night. Not after what we just walked into. Not after everything that’s happened with you.”
He pauses. Breath unsteady. Then?—
