Where was North? Was this because of her? Richard had claimed to be working alone and Eli believed him.
Which meant someone else had kidnapped North. What if they couldn’t find him?
“Angie. You’re going to eat,” he said firmly, placing the tray of food on the coffee table.
She stared down at it, feeling nauseous. “I can’t.”
“North is going to be really unhappy to find you’ve lost weight when he returns.”
“I just want him to return,” she whispered. “What are we going to do if he doesn’t?”
“Listen to me,” Jared said firmly. “North wouldn’t want you talking like that. Understand me? He would want us to look after ourselves. We will find him. Now, you’re going to eat something. Then I’m going to put you in the bath and tuck you into bed. And if you give me any arguments, you’re going over my knee.”
Tears filled her eyes, flooding down her cheeks.
“Shit, baby. Fuck. I’m being an asshole, aren’t I?”
“N-no, I j-just can’t imagine l-life without North.”
He lifted her, then sat with her on his lap, rocking her back and forth.
“Neither can I, baby. Neither can I.”
After a few moments, he stopped rocking her. “I have an idea.” He grabbed his phone and messaged someone. “Good Miles can get what I need. He’ll get it dropped off to us soon. But I want you to eat a little food first.” He fed her some bites of food until she didn’t want anymore.
His phone started ringing and he lifted her off him onto the sofa and grabbed it out of his pocket. “Unknown number. How would anyone I don’t know get this number?”
Jared answered it and she watched him anxiously. “Wait a minute. I’m here with Angie. I’ll put you on speaker.”
“Angie?” the voice said through the phone.
“F-fox?” she whispered.
“It is I or is that it is me? I never cared for grammar. Didn’t care for school. Seems like your man is more like me than I realized.”
Huh?
“Jared is more like you than you realized?” she asked.
“No. The other one. My Bunny has been asking about you. She wants to meet you. We’ll make that happen, Bartolli.”
“Yes, yes, whatever you want. Just tell me that again. You know who has North?” Jared demanded.
“I don’t know them personally. I know of them. I got a call an hour ago from a man called Mr. Z. I take it North never mentioned him to you?”
“No,” Jared said. “Who is he and what does he have to do with North?”
“Mr. Z runs The Collective. It’s an organization which recruits children off the street and in orphanages, mainly in third world countries. It puts them in nice homes with people who take care of them and train them.”
“Train them into what?” she asked quietly.
God. She had a really bad feeling about this.
“Sleeper assassins,” the Fox said. “They once tried to recruit me as a trainer. But I work for no one. And I’m no trainer.”
“They train children as assassins?” Jared asked. “North was in an orphanage in Romania.”
“Yes. It seems he was one of the children recruited. I don’t know what he did before he came to you. But from what I understand he was placed with you and left there for years, waiting for instructions.”
