Mass ignores me. When the guard doesn’t move right away, he practically snarls. “Was I unclear?”
“No, Dragon.” The guard moves closer to me. He doesn’t quite touch me, though. “Please, ma’am, right this way.”
I don’t move. “Mass, what are you doing? Mass, hold on!” He walks straight past me and doesn’t look over like I’m invisible.
“Ma’am.” The guard’s touch on my elbow is gentle. “Please.”
Tears clog my throat. I want to break down into ugly sobbing.
Instead, I hold my chin up, try to calm my baby, and follow the guard.
MASS
Lucy’s fingers fly over a keyboard. Images of a boat appear. The picture is grainy, captured from a surveillance drone several hundred feet in the air, but I can easily make out three figures standing on the sand.
“Why don’t we have fucking microphones down there?” I growl through my teeth.
“Because we can’t rig the entire beach. Just watch, please.” She leans back, arms crossed.
The figures seem to be having a conversation. One person is standing away from the other two, holding a pair of bags and a squirming child.
Allie looks strange from this distance.
But eventually, she turns away. Whatever they said, she didn’t like it. She starts running and one figure chases after her. The third follows after making some kind of phone call. “Can we trace that?”
“We’re trying, but they used an encrypted private satellite.”
I watch the drama play out. The chase to the tree line. The guards and the search. I watch the third figure drag the second back to the boat. The pair of them get on and push out to sea. The dark rubber of the outrigger blends in smoothly with the black water. It’s impossible to follow.
“I want it found. I want it destroyed. Whoever’s involved, I want them dead.”
Lucy’s expression is grim. “We found a gun and bullet holes in nearby trees. I think whoever was chasing after Allie tried to kill her.”
I curse and start pacing. My heart slams into my chest. How did this happen? How could I have let someone get close to my wife and child?
“She was going to go with them.” I say it very quietly, but Lucy doesn’t contradict me. “Then it went wrong. Allie didn’t like something, she got spooked, something like that. She started running. But why try to kill her?”
“I don’t know. I have everyone out trying to locate the boat.”
“Is everyone else accounted for?”
“Everyone except for Satya.” Lucy’s face betrays nothing. “Should we keep searching for her?”
“I’m sure she’ll turn up.” I can’t think about the old nurse right now. She’s been in my household for years, helping out around the place. I’ve trusted her implicitly with my own child, and I can’t imagine that she’s a part of this insanity.
“Whatever you say.” Lucy taps at the keyboard again. The security station suddenly feels overwhelming and too hot. “And what about Allie?”
“I’ll handle my wife.”
Lucy nods once and doesn’t look at me. She’s frowning in concentration as she skips through surveillance footage. As I turn to leave, she looks back at me. “Go easy on her.”
“I’m sorry? You’re pushing for mercy?”
“Don’t get used to it. That girl’s been through a lot. She just had the surprise of her life dumped in her lap. Can you blame her for wanting to be rescued?”
“No, I honestly can’t.”
“There’s a reason she didn’t get on that boat. I’d focus on finding out what it is before you say something you regret.”
