“What boy?”
Her shout sounded more like the snarl of a ferocious wolf as she knelt down in front of me, grabbing me by the front of my shirt so that our faces were only inches apart.
“You know damn well what boy. Now, answer me. Where is he?”
I merely laughed in her face.
“I honestly don’t know. Hopefully, somewhere safe by now.”
With a frustrated huff she let me go and stood back up. My back slammed against the ladder, making my arm scream in pain again, but I bit the inside of my cheek to keep quiet. The injury was impossible to hide, but I still wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of letting them see my weakness.
The woman returned to her partner’s side and patted him on the shoulder. “He’s useless to us. Just get rid of him. The boycan’t have gotten far. If we hurry up, we might be able to catch him.”
The man thought for a second, then with a shrug he raised the rebar like a baseball bat, ready to swing for my head.
Was this really how it would end?
Beaten to death in the back room of an airport?
I’d never really considered my death before, not even when there were bullets flying at us, but I’d certainly never thought this was how it would happen.
I hoped Jordy managed to escape.
Had he found security to report to, or had he stumbled into more of Calderon’s people?
I knew there was a chance she had paid people off among the airport security as well.
What if Jordy ran to someone he thought was safe only to end up right back in the clutches of his abusers?
No. Jordy was smart, and he was a survivor. He knew how to handle these people better than I did. If there was anyone who’d be able to spot a crooked security officer a mile away, it was him. He had to be safe.
I was certain of it.
The rebar came swinging down toward me. I braced to try and dodge away from it. Escape was impossible, but I was going to try anyway.
However, before the male handler could follow through with his swing, another voice called out.
“Stop. Keep him alive.”
Grave Calderon picked her way through the construction mess until she stood before me. At almost six feet tall, she created an intimidating image, especially with the canvas military jacket she wore adding extra width to her narrow shoulders.
“Who do you work for?”
I stared at her blankly, confusion making me forget my pain for a moment.
“What?”
“Who do you work for?” she repeated. “You’ve gone to great lengths to catch me. Why? No mere lawyer would go this far just for a case. Are the bell ringers paying you? Or someone else? If you tell me, I might let you live.”
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. Even though it made my shoulder hurt more, I just couldn’t control myself in the face of such absurdity.
“Who am I working for? Are you really in a position to be asking me that, considering who pays your bills?” With my uninjured arm I managed to grip one of the rungs of the ladder behind me and pull myself into a more upright sitting position. “Although, the bell ringers aren’t paying you anymore now that you’ve betrayed them. Water got too hot, and you decided to bail. Even stole some of their Angels on the way out. You just can’t help making enemies wherever you go, can you?”
For the first time, I saw her calm facade crack. She stepped forward, kicking up dust with her boots as her face contorted with rage. “Everything was?—”
As suddenly as her anger flared, it faded. She took a deep breath and regained her composure as easily as one would put on a sweater. “Everything was fine until those investigators started poking around where they shouldn’t. They even took down one of our facilities. Do you have any idea how much that cost us? We almost had the case thrown out when we got rid of their lawyer, then you stepped up as their new lawyer and kept the trial going. I thought the writing was on the wall, but perhaps I was wrong.”
Calderon eyed me up and down with a slow glance. Her eyes were also blue, in a very similar shade to Jordy, but they were nothing alike. Jordy’s eyes were warm and inviting.
