Kate and I both tip the cups to look like we’re taking the meds, and I quickly hide the pills under my tongue.You know, that trick you learned in school when you didn’t want the teacher to know you were chewing gum.It’s harder with pills because they taste terrible and are solid, and therefore harder to hide, but these guards don’t seem to have much interest in actually checking to make sure we’ve swallowed.
Given their industry, you’d think they would be more concerned with swallowing, but what do I know.
The problem with this process is that we have to get the pills back out of our mouths before they start to dissolve.We watch the man intently as he walks along the wall, checking the other girls to make sure they’re adequately docile.As soon as he turns the corner, we both spit the pills back into our hands and put them in the pockets of the trousers we’ve been given.As soon as we have a moment alone, we’ll use the brick we found to crush the pills into dust.
Right now, though, I’m intent on watching the changing of the guards and trying to figure out what we’re going to do.
“So let me get this straight,” Kate suddenly says, like her mind is moving along the same path as mine.“Your friend went missing and Lucien happened to be in New York, and happened to have information on said friend.”
“Not her specifically,” I correct, my eyes on the guard that just came into the room.He’s heading for the office that’s attached to this space, and I want to see how he gets in there.
“Right,” Kate says wryly.“But still, Lucien has information.He says he thinks it’s all going down in New Orleans and that you need to come home with him.”
“Not with him.I mean, not specifically.”
“Of course, not specifically.”
She’s grinning, but I ignore it.The guard is close to the office, now.
“And then he tries to lock you in his house to protect you.Instead, you break out, do a bunch of research, and then head to your dad’s house to try to corner him into telling you something.You end up at this ball, where you meet Colonel Sanders, and you decide it’s a good idea to get caught yourself so you can figure out…”
“Where this all leads,” I say, finally turning my eyes to her.“We can’t find an exact ship date or where they’re sending girls or who’s running it.And we need to know that if we’re going to stop it.”
She bites her lip.“And yet you came in here without a fucking plan to get back out again.Even if you get that information.And Lucien has no idea where you are or how to save you.”
My blood freezes at hearing it laid out so plainly, but she’s not saying anything I don’t already know.I made a mistake coming in here without a plan, and an even bigger mistake not discussing it with Lucien first.I thought I could handle it, but now that I’m here, without my weapons or any way to communicate with anyone, I’m thinking I was beyond stupid.
I didn’t even realize I expected Lucien to be my safety net until I cut him out of the picture.And now that he’s absent, I feel like the ground has disappeared from under my feet.Like the world has turned sideways on me and I don’t know how to fix it.
And I’m sure there’s some deeper meaning there, if I want to look for it.Something that says ‘Brooks, you’ve always been able to do whatever you wanted because you knew that at the end of the day, you could run home to Lucien and he’d help you out of the jam.”The problem is, I’m starting to think that’s the truth.Just look at how he reacted when I asked him for men to take to New York with me.He barely even blinked an eye.Simply made the deal for how we were going to get his guys up north.
To fight my battles.
Just like I knew he would.
It brings a surge of emotion crawling up the back of my throat, and I swallow hard.I haven’t thought deeply about my feelings for Lucien in a very long time.Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever thought deeply about them.He’s just the guy who’s had his hand on my lower back, supporting me, since I was twelve.
Now that hand is gone and I’m not even sure it’s still available.What if he hasn’t come because something has happened to him?What if he came after me but my father’s men caught him and he’s now dead?
What if the last thing I said to him was that he needed to stay out of my way while I conducted a plan I hadn’t bothered to tell him about?
I gulp… and push the thought aside.I don’t know how I feel about Lucien, and this is not the time to sort that out.I’m sure he’s fine.I’m just stressed and overreacting.
I’ve never experienced that before, but I’ve heard it happens.
And in the meantime…
I come back into reality just in time to see the guard I’ve been watching get to the office.He puts his palm on the pad to the side of the door—this ring is evidently a big fan of tech—and the door unlocks.Shit.That’s going to be hard to replicate without a guard’s hand, and I don’t have time to replicate that sort of thing.I also don’t want to kill someone and chop their hand off.
Pretty sure that would draw the attention of the other guards.
But I’ve been watching these guys long enough to know they’re sloppy, and the guy who just went into the office is one of the worst offenders.
I watch, my breath catching in my lungs, and wait a few seconds, and for possibly the first time in my life I send a prayer out to universe.Please let something go right for me, please let something go right for me.
It does.When he leaves the office a few seconds later, he doesn’t close the door all the way.It’s still on the latch, and that means it didn’t lock.
Go time.
