Mav opens his mouth, but I put up my hand to stop him. ‘We’ll explain in the car.’
Shade
‘Where would he take her?’ I vaguely hear Blake ask.
‘I don’t know. We try the house first,’ I reply, my head reeling.
I try to get my shit together as we go through the tunnels, coming up about ten minutes later at the graveyard where we parked the truck. Mav drives because, right now, he might be the most level-headed of us, but he still puts his foot down like he has a death wish. At least there’s hardly any traffic on the road since it’s barely three in the morning.
Blake explains to Mav about the keychain while we travel, and I think back to the day Daisy was found in the woods.
‘He probably used the same drug back then,’ I say aloud, wondering how I never saw this side of my brother.
I mean he’s been an asshole for years, but I always assumed he was pretty much harmless. Kind of weak, happy being Pop’s favorite stooge and pretending he was better than me in all the ways that mattered to him. But the way he carried Daisy out of there like she weighed nothing… He was prepared. He’s had a clone of my phone, maybe for years. He’s been planning this for a long time. Why?
We have to find him.
I try his phone again. No answer. Maybe if I could just talk to him, figure out why he’s doing this…
‘Stop calling him,’ Blake growls through clenched teeth. ‘You’re letting him fucking know we’re coming for him.’
Reluctantly, I put my phone away.
‘When we get closer to the house, slow down,’ I say to Mav. ‘I can open the gate, assuming Andy hasn’t had my access cancelled, and this isn’t the first time I’ve turned up in the middle of the night. But don’t act suspicious. We don’t want that butler to stop us from going in.’
Mav does what I say and pulls up, even grinning into the camera on the gate as I open it with my phone.
It parts slowly, and we enter the Novelle estate. Once we’re through, Mav punches it up the long driveway. We skid to a stop just outside the front door, and I’m out of the truck before the engine’s off.
I run up the stairs and pound on the door. As soon as it opens, I push my way in, ignoring the exclamations of the new butler who’s in his pajamas as I sprint through the foyer and down the hall to the office.
Andy isn’t here and there’s no sign of Daisy.
‘The police have been called,’ the butler says, out of breath as he enters the room. ‘They’ll be here in minutes.’
I grab him by the lapels of his long-sleeved pajama shirt and throw him into the nearest bookcase.
‘Where is he?’ I snarl.
‘Who?’
‘My brother!’ I bellow.
The butler scoffs at us. ‘Mr. Novelle is not here.’
‘Where then?’ Blake yells from behind me.
Mav pushes the butler against the shelf hard again.
‘Tell us what you know, or I’ll break bones you don’t even know you have,’ Mav promises darkly, but all the butler gives us is a haughty silence, clearly intending to wait us out until the cops arrive.
‘Maybe I can help,’ says a small voice from the door.
Samantha, the maid who helped Daisy escape Nasty Nurse and got our girl’s passport for me is standing just outside in the hall, hair disheveled and looking half asleep.
Behind her, I see a few other members of staff standing in the corridor, looking wary. The whole house has clearly been roused by the noise we’re making.
‘My brother kidnapped her about ninety minutes ago,’ I tell her. ‘Do you know where he could have gone?’
