She hasn’t been missing for long enough to be in the group of girls being shipped out tomorrow night, but if I can get those girls to my house, I can start asking questions about my sister.Maybe find out whether they’ve seen her–and where Dom is keeping her.
“Daniel,” I snap, moving toward him again before the thought is complete.“I want you on comms and extraction vehicles for tomorrow night.Give me the best way to get those girls away from the port and back to the house.And Luke?”
He snaps to attention like he’s been waiting for his orders, and I want to hug the kid.He has no idea how hard it is to find loyal people in this line of work, and a large part of me wants to shield him from anything bad.Protect him from the life I’ve had to lead.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time for that.
“I’m giving you the most important job.Figure out whether Dom is using a schedule when he moves Brooks.I want to know if there’s a pattern.Find out what he’s trying to teach her and how to use it.How and when I can get her back out.”
I turn and head for the door, my mind on both Brooks and Corinne, and try to figure out whether I can use one to find the other.Brooks thinks there might be girls in the basement at Dom’s mansion, and I wonder abruptly if Corinne isthere.It would be just like Dom to take my little sister and then keep her in his own house–a house she knows–just to try to hold something over my head.
Or threaten Brooks.
I have no way of knowing until we get some of those girls, but I suddenly want to be back near Brooks.If they move her again, I want to be the first to know.I reach the door and push through it, furious at the world for putting me in this situation, and nearly run into someone right on the other side.
I’m confused as all hell when I see that the someone is Camille Landry.
And right behind her stands Kate Fontenot, with a girl I’ve never seen before.
“What in the actual fuck are you two doing in my house, and who the fuck isthat?”I snap.
Camille looks at me with such lazy arrogance that for a moment, I almost forget that I don’t hit women.
“We’re here because Brooks told us if we ever needed a safe space, this is where we should come,” she says.“And that’s Laura Boone.She saw her best friend get snatched yesterday and we brought her here to ask her a few questions.Find out what she knows.Brooks told us you’d probably want to question her yourself.”
Everything around me goes so still I can hardly breathe, and for a long, slow moment, I feel like my brain has actually stopped working.
Then I start asking questions.
“Brooks knows you kidnapped a girl?”
“God, do you have ears or what, Lucien?”Kate snaps.“We didn’t kidnap her.Her friend was kidnapped.But she saw it happen.”
“And you brought her here to question her?”
At this, Camille rolls her eyes.“Obviously we brought her here.You used to be a lot smarter.What happened to you in the past week?”
Brooks happened, I don’t say.Brooks and her insane plans and need for constant danger and incredibly bad ideas.I’ve spent the last week chasing after her and trying to keep her alive, and it’s evidently taking all of my brain cells to do it.
Wait.
“Brooks told you to bring her here?”I ask, suddenly realizing what else they said.
Both girls nod, looking at me like they suddenly have something they don’t want to tell me.Camille has her lips pressed together and Kate’s eyes have gotten much larger, while Laura–the kidnapped/not kidnapped girl–is looking between the three of us like she’d rather be anywhere else.
She must know they’ve just let something slip they shouldn’t have.
“You’ve...talked to Brooks today?”
Camille nods slowly, her eyes considering.Probably because she knows theydidjust say something they shouldn’t have.
“How in the fuck did you talk to Brooks today?Have you been to the mansion?Did Dom let you in?What’s happening there?”
Kate and Camille share one long, loaded look, and suddenly I know exactly what they’re not telling me.
“Brooks has a phone,” I say slowly.“She called you.”
“Actually, I called her,” Camille corrects.
