Insatiable (Steel Brothers Saga #12) - Helen Hardt Page 0,4
didn’t see a female client this morning.”
“Please,” Joe said again. “What would you do if your sister were missing?”
She sighed. “All right. But if I get in trouble for this—”
“If you get in trouble for this, you’ll be compensated,” Joe said.
She scribbled on the back of a business card and handed it to Joe. “This better not come back to haunt me.”
Neither of us responded.
We knew better than anyone that things you thought were dead and buried could always come back to haunt you.
“No answer,” Joe said. “And it says the voicemail account hasn’t been set up yet.”
I grabbed the card out of Joe’s hand. I had no reason to disbelieve him, but I had to hear it for myself. This was Marjorie. I had to be totally sure.
Sure enough. No voicemail account had been set up.
“What the fuck, Bryce?” Joe said.
“Just had to be sure.”
“And you thought I was lying?”
“No. Of course not. I just… Fuck. I don’t know.”
“I get it, man. I do. But we have to work together. We have to trust each other. The minute you and I begin to doubt each other, we’ll no longer be able to help Marj. Or my mom. Or Colin.”
I nodded. He was right, of course.
I thought about Henry, about my mom. I’d been texting her hourly to check in. No doubt she thought I’d gone crazy, but I had to make sure they were okay. I couldn’t worry about them on top of everything else.
Marjorie never left my mind. She consumed me, and a green sickness gnawed at me, forcing me to shut out the shivers that constantly threatened to erupt in me.
God, I loved her.
She saw past my emptiness, saw something in me that she could love.
I’d allowed myself to actually envision a future with her. The perfect mother for Henry and for the children she and I would have together.
Yes, I’d actually imagined more children, despite my horrific DNA.
Henry would love to have a brother or a sister, and Marjorie would be devoted to all her children, even the one she hadn’t borne herself.
I had to find her. I just had to.
I could not lose Marjorie Steel.
“Now what?” Joe said, pulling me out of my head.
“Wish I knew. Did you try Colin again?”
“Yeah. Still not answering.”
“Shit. And still no news from the Spider?”
“No. I called my friend from the club, the guy who set me up with the Spider. He hasn’t heard from him either.”
“Are they…friends?”
“I don’t know, honestly,” Joe said. “The whole thing is shady, to say the least. I mean, here’s a hacker who won’t deal directly with anyone, who doesn’t want anyone to see his face.”
“You said you trusted this guy.”
“I do.”
“Then let’s talk to him,” I said. “Maybe he can shed some light on what’s going on.”
“He won’t know who took my mother or Marjorie.”
“How do you know that? We need to check out all the possibilities.”
“He won’t see us,” Joe said.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because…he can’t risk being outed as a member of the BDSM club.”
I looked Joe straight in his eyes. “Just who is this guy, Joe?”
He looked away. “I can’t tell you that.”
Chills hit the back of my neck. Whoever this guy was, he was somebody important. Someone who might be able to help us.
“Then tell me this. How does he know a high-priced secret hacker?”
“Because,” Joe said, “he used to work for the FBI.”
Chapter Four
Marjorie
“Who? Where’s my mother? And why haven’t you untied me? This is illegal, you know. Kidnapping. Assault. Battery. False imprisonment. My brothers will see you both behind bars.”
Alex scoffed.
“Yeah, you, you dumb bitch.”
“Dom, if she calls me that one more time—”
“You’ll what?” I said. “Tie me up? Abduct me? Uh…I think you already did that.”
“I’ll crush your damned skull,” she said.
Alex looked like she meant business. She was olive-skinned and dark-haired like her brother. She was also just as muscular.
“Easy, Alex,” Dominic said.
“I don’t have to take shit from this spoiled rich girl, Dom. That wasn’t part of this deal.”
“What do you expect when you take someone? She’s pissed.”
“This is for her own good,” Alex spat back.
“Hello?” I said. “Still tied up here. I’d love to see how you’d act if someone kidnapped you and tied you up. I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the trunk of the car.”
“I told you. You were in the back of a van.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for that? It sucked. What did you do? Drug me? And who was in there with me?”