“No, but she’s not available either way.”
“We need to speak immediately. Are you Sable?” he tries again.
I stand this time, crossing the room until we’re chest to chest, though I tower over him. “You work for my family, so why are you here bothering us right now?”
“I’m sure you’re mistaken. I work for the police department. My name is Detective Askey, and if you don’t want to let me speak to Miss Briarwick, I will return with an arrest warrant, and we will be able to hold her for questioning. It would be a lot easier and make her look better if you all played nice.”
“Detective, I’m Hadrian Vale. You know my father.” Hadrian raises his eyebrow at him, defying him to deny it.
“Hadrian,” he says. “No, I don’t think Ihavemet your father.” His tone challenges, demanding that Hadrian prove it or shut up.
“Really?” he asks. “That’s astonishing. You mean to tell me I didn’t see you at my father’s house last summer?”
“I have no idea who your father even is.”
“Son of a bitch,” Hadrian murmurs under his breath.
“Are you boys really going to make this difficult for me? Miss Briarwick, your uncle may be dead, and we have reason to believe you could be involved.”
Sable opens her mouth, and I clap a hand over it. “Be quiet,” I whisper in her ear. “The first rule of law enforcement is saynothing.”
“If that’s how it’s really going to be.” He sighs. “I’ll be back with that warrant.”
“You do that,Askey,” Hadrian says, and I know it’s taking everything in him right now not to try to throw his weight around, but if our families are working against us, it won’t help anyway. We don’t have what we need to get them to turn against our parents right now.
When he leaves, I help Sable up. She stares at me with these wide, frightened eyes, and rather than say something I don’tbelieve, I kiss her and let her feel the love for her that consumes my every thought. Hadrian comes over to take her other hand.
“Do you think they’re coming back to arrest me?” Sable asks.
“Not if we have anything to say about it,” I reply.
“Even if they do take you in for questioning, they won’t be able to keep you,” Hadrian says. “They keep saying disappearance, so that means they haven’t found his body. Everything is going to be okay, Sable.”
We both hold her for a minute before going to find the rest of the guys.
CHAPTER 65
ORION
“I thinkwe should pack our bags and just leave,” I say for the fifth time.
“We will,” my brother agrees as we sift through the journalism department. We’ve only been apart from Sable for an hour, and I miss her so badly my chest aches.
We promised Sable we’d find whatever Nina was talking about and bring it to her right away, and I don’t want to break a promise, but it’s harder to find than we expected. All the alarms in my head are telling me to just leave. Sable doesn’t need a jealous half sister who tried to drown her in a bucket. Take it from me, siblings aren’t always worth the fuss. I laugh at my little joke, and Soren shoots me a look like I’m crazy.
We have enough money in the bank to last us a while. Between the five of us, we aren’t starving. I can’t believe I’m the one to pressure Soren about leaving this place, but here we are. The old department was closed many years ago and has been gathering dust ever since. I wondered why this hasn’t all been thrown away, but now I wonder if more strings are pulling Bellthorn than the four families.
“All I’m saying is that it’s not safe. Our own families are fucking with us,” I tell him.
“That’s not news.” He brushes it off.
“They were never this apparent. Things are changing if even Liliana knows.” I haven’t had enough time to come around to calling her something else, unlike my brother.
“What if what she said is true?” Soren asks.
“What part?”
“The part about Sable’s dad.”
