From deep in the house came the sound of a woman yelling, maybe that they were coming. It was too muffled to tell, but the tone carried thatjust a minutefeeling. Not long later the door opened on a woman with shocking blonde hair that curled in every direction, wearing a gray tweed dress. She didn’t appear to be much older than Seb, with a sparkly pink headband keeping her hair contained and cartoon-character earrings.
“Hello? Are you the policemen my brother agreed to speak to?” She blinked at each of us in turn with large doe eyes that made me really wonder how sheltered Seb had been before he made his grand getaway into the life of a sex trafficking ring.
“Yes, and you are?” Jayce answered quickly.
“Aurora. My mother asked me to stay here with Seb during the day so she can go to work without worrying.” She smiled around at us. “Won’t you come in?”
“Thank you,” Jayce replied smoothly, pulling out his most polite British tone as we all filed in past her. She beamed at him but didn’t make a move to lead us deeper into the house. The front hall was enough to have me nearly swallowing my tongue. It was the most ridiculous, over-the-top room, yet seemed to fit. High-gloss gold-inlaid flooring with a compass pattern graced the middle, a skylight overhead with a crystal covering breaking rainbows on the floor, and exposed wooden beams, like the inside of a ship, stretched across the rest of the ceiling. Obviously immune to the view, she stared at us, and I could see her smile waver before it crumpled, and her chin wobbled. I was standing in the way of a head-on collision, unable to jump out of the path of doom.
“He wants to talk, but I’m not sure how great of an idea this is. My brother was always… well, my dad called Sebastian a bull in a china shop. Our little bull. He never thought about what he was doing before he did it, just charged ahead.” She took a deep, shuddery breath. “We loved him, and it was awful when he first went missing. And then… we thought he was dead, and it was bad.” She ducked her head and curls fell in front of her face. She shivered and swiped her hair back, and then her smile was fixed firmly on her face when she was done. It was almost scary. “His first day home, Sebastian was ranting. Mom didn’t want to send him anywhere yet, not when he was gone for so long. He wasn’t okay. She finally agreed to send him to a private hospital to detox safely from all the horrible drugs they were giving him. He’s only been back a couple of days.”
I snorted. “He stuck his arm out for the drugs. They didn’t do that to him, it was a request.”
Aurora’s smile thinned dangerously. “He is addicted now, yes, but he didn’t leave here that way. Those people hurt my brother.”
“How can you know?”
Jayce shook his head at me, and my stomach cramped with the idea that I might be displeasing him.Fuck.
“Miss,” Jayce said, again pulling out his good manners, “may we speak with your brother? He’s the one who has all the answers here, and our speculations mean nothing without his knowledge.”
She turned toward him and her smile thawed. “Certainly. This way, gentlemen.”
She seemed convinced her brother was a saint, but I certainly wasn’t, and the look I shared with Jayce let me know he wasn’t sold on her version of events, either. She guided us through several rooms as grand as the entrance, that no one seemed to inhabit regularly—dust-and-personality-free—and at last we came out into a broad, airy space that was packed with windows on both sides, so it was almost like being outside. The ceiling above was a rosy tinted glass. On a couch in the middle of the room, surrounded by potted plants, books, snacks, and electronics was Seb. He frowned down at an old-school Game Boy that brought fond childhood memories of tedious car rides surging into my mind, and let out a small “damn it” before he tossed it aside.
Our eyes met and he cringed. I had to admit he was beautiful, or at least he was now. His skin seemed to glow with good health, his bright blond hair was actually clean, and he was wrapped up in blankets and pajamas like he was recovering from a long illness. Whoever had put him where he was didn’t seem to want him to have to go very far for anything, although in a house like this, it might be a real trip to get to the kitchen. The obvious care that had gone into the mess of stuff around him made me feel bad because if he’d been drugged up for years, he probably really did feel like hell, even if he was easy on the eyes.
“Can you leave us alone, Rory?” he directed toward his sister. She hesitated, her palm going to the waistline of her dress, though she didn’t rest her hand there, almost like she was afraid of wrinkling the fabric.
“Mom wouldn’t want them here at all. I don’t think—”
Jayce pulled something out of his pocket, and I realized it was a badge he easily flashed at her. The golden shield glinted in the sunlight. “I’ll keep him safe and sound for you, miss.” He laid that accent on extra thick, and her cheeks pinked up. I tried not to allow the immediate irritation that swarmed through my chest to linger, but it burrowed in and pressed there until she was all the way out of the room.
We didn’t bother sitting, there weren’t any other chairs near Seb anyway. He sat up straighter on his couch cushion and made the mistake of meeting my gaze again.
“Talk, you little shit.”
Slater and Jayce both whirled around to glare, but Seb only shrugged.
“About that night…,” he said softly, and inspected his blanket like it was the most interesting thing in the world. “I didn’t know… I mean…. My group therapist for the counselling I’m going to said….”
Pure fury pelted through me, and only a stern glare from Jayce kept me from swearing again. “If you brought us here so that I could be a rung on your twelve-step therapy ladder, I am so not amused. Unlike you, I work for a living. I have places to be.”
He flinched, but I was nearly frothing at the mouth with anger.
“I donotaccept your apology.”
“I really am sorry, but no, that’s not why you’re here.” He glanced at me. “I told Mr. Slater and Mr. Paxton I would talk to them.”
“I still don’t accept.”
His eyebrows furrowed with a little crestfallen wrinkle.
Guilt tweaked at me. “Okay, fine. I accept that you didn’t mean to hurt me, specifically.”
He perked up at that. “You weren’t the first.”
“First what?”
