My stomach lurched. “Jesus, is she—Have you checked the—” I swallowed. “Would it show up if she was already—”
“Louise!”said Sean, and this time he gripped my upper arm so hard it hurt. I turned around. “Call her,” he said.
I looked at him as if he was crazy. “She won’t be able to answer!” I snapped. “She’scritical!”
“Call her.”
I pulled out my phone and viciously stabbed at the screen, not understanding why I was doing it. One ring. Two rings.
“Yo,” said Kayley’s voice.
The phone almost slipped from my fingers. “Are you—are you okay?” I spun slowly, looking at the hospital around me. “Whereare you?”
“I’m fine,” she said, bemused. “I’m at the apartment.”
I looked up into Sean’s horrified face. I’m guessing I was doing the exact same expression.
We ran for the car and raced back across town, tires screeching and engine howling. We made it back to the mansion less than an hour after we’d left it.
But it was too late.
The table was empty. The entire crop was gone.
55
SEAN
“No,”said Louise. The horror of it hadn’t sunk in, yet. She was still just staring at the empty table in disbelief.
Me? I was cursing myself. How had I not realized the phone call was fake? I should have got her to call the hospital to confirm or at least stayed at the house to protect the crop. I’d left it exactly when it was most vulnerable: we’d done everything except fucking gift wrap it for them.
“No,” said Louise again. The mounting fear in her voice resonated right through me, making my heart ache.
I never would have made that mistake, six months ago. I would have seen it for the obvious ploy it was. Hell, if I’d been asked to steal someone’s crop, it’s exactly the sort of thing I would have done myself.
I’d gotten soft.
I’d gotteninvolved.
“No!”Louise’s voice had risen to a wail. “No!”She was gripping the edge of the table, staring at the empty surface as if she could wish the crop back into existence if she only wanted it hard enough.
“It’s Malone,” I told her. “I called him this morning, while we werebagging, to tell him we were ready to make the deal.” My voice grew tight. “He must have figured, why pay when he can just take it?”
“Buthow?How did he even know where we were growing?”
I shrugged. “My guess is, he tracked you down and found out where you lived, then had someone follow you here one day.”
She didn’t reply. She just staggered away from the table, tears in her eyes. I gave her space for a moment—she was too fragile to even touch, right now, a bomb ready to explode.
“It’s not just money,” she said in a choked voice. “Doesn’t he understand that? It’s not just money that he can steal, it—it’slife.It’sKayley’s life!”
I nodded. The weight of it all was crushing me down, a black granite rock a thousand miles high. “I know,” I said. And now Ididreach for her, but she backed away, shaking her head.
“All that time,” she croaked. “This whole six months, we could have been—Jesus,I’ve barely seen her! I’ve barely seen my sister!”
“I know,” I said slowly. I held out my arms. “Come here.” I could see she was close to cracking and I needed to get her into my arms before—
“I got it wrong,” she whispered. “I got itall wrong.”
