“Yeah, but this?—”
Bryson tried to imagine his father asking for him to be tortured. Tried to understand the reasoning behind it.
Suddenly the smell of Regan’s sweat filled the cab, and Bryson had to concentrate on the road.
His eyes slid in and out of focus as he felt Regan’s body on top of his. The burn of his skin as Regan gripped Bryson’s waist.
“It’s just hard to believe, even for Dad,” Bryson finished, sweat breaking out on his skin, voice hollow.
“I don’t think it’s hard to believe at all,” Elena said, her voice cold.
Bryson immediately felt guilty. Elena was the last person who needed reminding who their father was.
“Maybe Adria’s X guy can help us. He is supposedly some sort of computer genius. If we had proof,” Bryson said, trying to ignore the sounds of Regan breathing above him.
Elena sighed.
“What?” Bryson asked.
“We trust this X?”
“Adria trusts him.”
“Okay, well, Adria isn’t God, right? She can make mistakes.”
Bryson gripped the steering wheel. The phantom sensations of Regan pressing into him caused a wave of nausea and heat to roll through him.
“X worked with Cahill, and apparently there is no love there. He is trying to take him down. In exchange for Adria’s help, hewill help her find her mom,” Bryson said, repeating the words Adria had told him, trying like hell to concentrate on the road.
“Big ask,” Elena said. “Small risk for him, but big risk for Adria.”
Bryson thought about it, and Elena was right.
“Well, we are gonna meet him in a few weeks. We can judge for ourselves,” he said.
Elena looked at her phone. “Eric sent a text with the place for us to stay. Looks like we are staying at different hotels tonight. We will meet at Vega’s in the morning.”
Bryson ground his teeth together. He didn’t like being separated from everyone. He understood the reasoning behind it, but it still felt dangerous.
If they could just get to Vega’s undetected, they would have a good shot at traveling to X’s and no one would have a clue where they were.
“Kaydon’s gonna meet us at the hotel,” Elena said, still looking at her phone.
Like Kaydon would allow it to go down any other way.
CHAPTER 21
Adria sat in the back seat with her mother. She watched as the people passed by her window on the sidewalks. Other families walked together. Fathers and mothers pushed strollers and wagons.
As far as Adria could tell, no one else had a special man that followed them around, like Jonathan did.
“They’re here,” Jonathan’s voice came from the driver’s seat.
Adria looked up to see his eyes staring at something in the rearview mirror.
Adria tried to sit up and turn to see what Jonathan was looking at, but her mother stopped her.
“Eyes ahead,” her mother said.
