one step—enough to be imposing, slightly intimidating, but still giving me space to breathe so I didn’t scare away.
He was so measured, so calculating.
“My sister contacted you the day before yesterday. I want to know where she is.”
All the oxygen left the room, and my head started spinning again. “You think—what? No.”
“Yes.” His voice was hard now. Gone was the subtlety. “Brooke asked me to keep tabs on you. She cares about you. You work for a network that specializes in helping people disappear, and I know she was desperate. She went to you; I know this much.”
He took another step toward me.
I sat up straighter, rolling to my knees and then to my heels, ready to spring if I needed to.
Another step.
He squatted next to the bed so he was level with me, and now I could see him. He’d shifted out of the shadows, and I saw how fierce his eyes were. They blazed with anger and determination.
His perfect lips barely moved as he grated out, “You will tell me where she is.”
I swallowed again. The lump in my throat had doubled in size.
He wasn’t going to take no, but I had to try. “Before I saw your sister on the news, I hadn’t really heard much from her since you drove her away from Hillcrest. I swear to you that’s the truth.”
His eyes narrowed. “I know you know where she is, but don’t worry. If you won’t tell me, I know others who will.” He stood abruptly and went back to the main room.
I scrambled out of bed and padded after him.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. I don’t think anyone could’ve been.
I thought he had been reading a book, maybe looking over files for his business. I’d been sleeping in his bed, and he was waiting with a glass of wine beside a fire. Something cozy like that.
I was so wrong.
As I got to the doorway, I saw them, and someone started screaming.
It was me. I knew it was me, but I didn’t hear it that way. I heard someone else scream from far away, even though I was the only one who had her mouth hanging open, the only one who started vomiting right there on the floor.
I fell down, not feeling a thing, as I couldn’t bear the scene in front of me.
He had four Hiders there.
I recognized them by the way they were dressed: all in black and all with the same pin we wore to signal who we were. It was the one thing survivors were told to look for, a penguin. As my senses came back to me, I knew these were the four Hiders dispatched to rescue me.
Their hands were bound behind them, and they lay on the floor, their feet crossed over each other, bound around the ankles. Rags had been stuffed in their mouths, and all of them looked bloodied and bruised.
That sick feeling slammed back into my chest again, and I bent over, emptying the little that remained in my stomach.
I wretched in a corner, and no one made a move.
There were three guards standing behind the four Hiders. Kai stood off to the side. They all waited for me to finish. No one had a look of disgust or irritation—just patience, and that sent my stomach hurling once again.
“Are you done?” Kai asked a few seconds after my last round.
I didn’t trust what I would say, so I didn’t look at him. I didn’t respond.
“Riley.”
That same softness as before. Damn him. I felt him pulling, chiding me for not paying attention, and feeling that power I hated come over me, I looked at him. I couldn’t refuse. My body reacted without my permission.
His eyes were hooded. He gestured to my co-workers. “You know where my sister is. I know this. You know this. Perhaps even these four know, so I will give you an option. You tell me where she is, and I will let your friends go.” His head tilted to the side. “I will let them live, if you tell me right now where she is.”
He was delusional.
He was mad.
He was cruel.
“I’m not fucking lying!” I spat. “I don’t know where she is!”
Let these people live. Let them go. Let them be free.
He stared at me a full thirty seconds before he nodded.
One of the guards jerked forward, grabbing the back of the nearest man’s shoulder. He pulled him up. The Hider began kicking, trying to lift his bound hands, but he couldn’t