Dusk (Dangerous Web #1) - Aleatha Romig Page 0,7

fresh air, mountains, and thousands of acres would help the women feel less cooped up.

I stopped typing upon the keyboard and looked up.

Patrick and Mason were working on the keyboards before them. Sparrow was standing, his hand on the wall above a window as he stared out the small pane of glass. His expression was a combination of rage and sadness, determination and helplessness. His wife, the woman he vowed to love and protect, was in danger. I knew what he was thinking because I was thinking the same thing.

“This, whatever this is, has been in the works for a while,” I said.

Sparrow turned my way. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“We figure out who has been testing us, pushing us and our allies recently, and we know who to blame.”

“Right now, I want the women back,” Sparrow said. “After that, we can fucking scorch the entire country, the world, I don’t give a shit.”

Patrick looked up from the keyboard. “They know that.”

“Know what?” I asked.

“Anyone who dared to take our women knew what the end result would be.”

“You think,” Sparrow asked, walking toward the table, “that is what they want?”

I shrugged. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility. The guilty party wants destruction and what better way to get it than to let the Sparrows do it?”

“I’m in the system at the ranch,” Mason said. He looked up, his green eyes gleaming. “We put in this backdoor access.” His head shook. “Holy shit.”

Lorna

“Yes, it’s me,” Araneae said as she scooted closer. “Are you...hurt? Did they hurt you?”

Was I hurt?

“I’m, I-I don’t know. I feel so odd.” Of course I felt odd. I was bound in a dark, cold place, but it was more. “Jittery and disoriented. Like I don’t know how much time has passed.” Her shoulder brushed mine. I leaned closer. “My hands are—”

“Mine too,” she said, her voice stronger than before.

“What about you? Did they hurt you?”

“I think I stopped them. There must have been something in the lemonade we were drinking.”

Lemonade?

I tried to think back. “I-I’m having trouble remembering,” I confessed.

“Don’t you remember? We were in Laurel and Mason’s kitchen at the ranch. We’d finished lunch. Maddie went upstairs, and Laurel went to the office.”

As Araneae spoke, the scene came back to me. I recalled the serenity of the kitchen with the spectacular view from the attached patio and the seclusion of the ranch in the midst of the surreal beauty of the Montana landscape. For a woman who’d lived her entire life in the concrete jungle of Chicago, I found everything about the ranch stunning.

I recalled eating lunch, the four of us. We’d all put our own plates together and poured our own drinks. I couldn’t come up with how our lemonade had been drugged. No one else had been within the house.

“Are they...? Maddie and Laurel...are they here?”

“No one else is,” Araneae replied. “Well, until now. You are.”

She was now close enough that I could feel the warmth of her skin, her arm next to mine moving as she spoke. It wasn’t much of a connection while at the same time it was monumental. For a moment, I savored the bond. Any warmth was better than the cold floor and rough wall.

“I’m sorry you’re here and we’re alone,” I said. “How is the baby?”

“I wish I was alone.” She quickly added, “Because I don’t want anyone else to suffer. The baby...” Her arm moved up and then down as if she’d shrugged. “I think the baby is all right. I told them. As soon as I woke, I told them I was pregnant and if they didn’t hurt me or my baby, my husband would pay anything.” She took a ragged breath. “I think it worked. I couldn’t see, but I think from what I heard, one man convinced the other not to inject me with something.”

There was no doubt that her husband would pay. He’d also make whoever this was pay. The truth was that without Sterling Sparrow, Araneae Sparrow was more than capable of bankrolling her own ransom. It was a complicated story, but the end of it was that she inherited a large sum of money in stocks. Together with her husband, they were extremely wealthy.

While Sparrow’s dealing may not always be legal, Araneae decided to use her wealth in a more philanthropic way, creating the Sparrow Institute, a foundation that aided and benefitted victims of human trafficking.

I thought about what she said, about stopping an injection. “Maybe that’s what