Sarah stood beside them in the cramped kitchen, leaning back against the counter. “I know you have a million questions, so I’ll cut to the chase. Both of you are going to die. How that happens is up to you.”
Eliana tore her gaze from Faith and looked at Sarah, the murderous “Sister.”
Who is the Mother? How could she order you to do this? Why do we have to die?
So many questions rolled through her mind, but with the gag over her mouth, she could ask none of them.
Sarah glanced behind Eliana. “Are you done with her phone?”
“She’s got restrictions on the operating system,” one of the men said. “It won’t be as easy as I thought. I need a minute.”
Eliana frowned, asking the question without being able to say it.
Sarah smirked. “Turns out you’ve been messaging Faith here, convincing her that life after the Sisters won’t be good for her. Encouraging her to put an end to it. Turns out she’s going to kill you and then herself. Maybe the other way around, if you killher first and then die because you can’t handle the guilt of what you’ve just done.”
Eliana stared at Sarah, breathing hard.
Faith whimpered.
“I’ll console Carlos, don’t worry. I’ll make sure he has all thecomforthe needs.” Her eyes gleamed with something sick.
Eliana pulled against the bindings holding her hands behind her back.
Sarah opened the drawer beside her and took out a pistol. “One of you is going to kill the other. Whoever goes first gets to give me their dying wish. Don’t go first? You get no concessions. So what’s it going to be?”
They were both going to die. What kind of deal was that?
“You have a minute to decide,” Sarah said. “And then we get to see what Eliana Hope Banbury Jaxton is really made of.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Officer Ryson? We spoke on the phone. I’m Special Agent Laramee Fox.” The agent wore a gray suit and white shirt, her dark hair straight and loose over her shoulders. She motioned to the third person in this alcove, just outside the elevator on the sixth floor of the Chicago FBI field office. “This is Special Agent Justin Glor.”
He shook hands with the guy, trying not to be intimidated. “Carlos is fine.”
At least six five, Glor had short brown hair cut in a military style and a solid presence not diminished even a little by the blue of his eyes.
“Or Ryson.” He didn’t need to be called “officer” when this was about his sister.
“If you’ll follow me this way.” Special Agent Fox motioned down the hall, and they started walking.
This could be any office building in the world, but for some reason Carlos figured the place where the FBI worked would look… less generic. He glanced over at Special Agent Glor. “How long have you been an agent?”
“Fifteen years or so. We’ve been working the case against the Reverence Sisters for three years, trying to make some progress between our other cases.”
“I know you guys were sitting on that house across town,” Carlos mentioned. Just so they were aware that he had information.
He’d been in contact with the Bureau since he moved to Chicago, but their public relations office hadn’t given him much—until he explained who he was—and even then, the information had been sparse. Very much like,We’ve got it handled. As if he should leave Luci’s fate to them and presume that once they rounded up all the members of the group and filed the charges, she’d be rescued in due course.
Carlos had found that life was rarely so simple, and he definitely didn’t want it to take another three years. He figured the FBI didn’t want some beat cop with a personal angle against the Reverence Sisters sticking his nose in and messing up their case.
“Right. The house.” Glor nodded as they approached a huge room full of desks and people, with screens all over the walls. “No movement in days. In fact, it’s been remarkably quieter since you started asking about the Reverence Sisters.” The tall agent folded his arms, pulling the sleeves of his suit tight across his elbows. “Why might that be?”
Carlos shrugged. “Maybe ask the person who knocked out Eliana and I, stuck her with a needle, and disappeared before we could talk to them.”
Glor didn’t like that. “Right. The abandoned compound.”
“Did you know about it before Eliana and I went there?”
