a few deep breaths. “The girls. He said he’s taking them away. They were being loaded up somewhere. But he didn’t say where.”
Oliver raised his hand that held Corbin’s cell phone, then turned to face his colleagues.
“Thomas, can you crack the password on Corbin’s phone and see if you can find a trail? He wanted to destroy it, which makes me think there’s information on it as to the girls’ whereabouts.” Oliver ran his hand over Ursula’s hair.
Thomas took the phone. “No problem. Give me a few minutes.” He sat down on the bed and pulled out a small electronic device from his leather jacket, then plugged the attached cable into Corbin’s iPhone.
Ursula wrapped her arms around Oliver’s neck. “You saved me.”
Oliver smiled and motioned to Cain. “Technically, Cain helped me, but if you want to kiss me instead, I’m game.”
He had barely finished his last word, when Ursula pressed her lips on his and seared them with a kiss. Had Cain not been standing there, watching them, Oliver would have allowed himself to indulge in more than just a kiss. But the situation wasn’t over yet, and there were still innocents that needed saving.
As he looked to the hallway, he noticed several of Vera’s girls approach. “Shit, they must have heard the gunshot. Cain, I think you’ll have some cleaning up to do.”
Cain nodded when all of a sudden Vera burst into the room. Her gaze darted from Oliver and Ursula to Cain and Thomas then back to Oliver. “I found Ophelia dead in one of the rooms,” she murmured, shutting the door behind her. “A broken neck.”
Oliver closed his eyes. “Oh, shit. Corbin must have killed her.”
“Corbin? The new client you referred?” Vera asked.
“So that’s how he got in.”
Cain lifted his hand. “I’ll fill you in shortly, Vera. But first you and I will need to clean up.” He motioned to the door behind which Vera’s girls were still hovering. Oliver could hear their concerned voices through the door.
Cain ushered Vera out of the room, following her.
Oliver looked at Thomas who stared at his gadget, deep in concentration. Knowing he shouldn’t disturb him, he pulled Ursula aside.
“How did you know that Corbin would come for me?” she asked quietly.
“When I found Corbin had moved everything out of his house, I was close to going insane. I knew then that he’d set up the trap to get two birds with one stone: get me and Scanguards off his back, while snatching you to take you and the girls away.”
“I never suspected him being the boss,” Ursula admitted. “He was just like any other leech. He didn’t stand out.”
“I guess that was the point. He wanted to blend in so that he could keep an eye on things. I’m just wondering how he could hide the fact that he was an addict. I saw no signs in him.” Oliver couldn’t believe that he’d been so blind.
“Maybe he wasn’t an addict.”
“But how?”
“What if he never drank much of our blood?”
“Go on,” Oliver said with interest.
She lowered her voice even more, obviously not wanting to by overheard by Thomas, even though Oliver knew that his colleague could hear her if he was inclined to listen. “Remember when you used mind control to make me think you bit me?”
He nodded. How could he forget? “But mind control doesn’t work on vampires. The guards would have noticed.”
“He could simply have dug his fangs in on that side of the neck that was turned away from the guard, but never sucked on the vein. The guard would have smelled the blood because he punctured our skin, but we would have never known that he didn’t drink from us because he used mind control to make us think we sensed him sucking on our vein.”
“My god, you might be right. How else could he have maintained control?” He smiled at her. “You’re very smart.”
She returned his smile then turned serious again. “Will we find them?”
Instead of an answer, he turned to look at Thomas, who looked up from the phone at the same moment, a triumphant grin on his face.
“Got it!”
37
The truck stop along the freeway was busy. More than two dozen large trucks, most of them eighteen-wheelers, were parked in neat rows, many of them presumably resting there for the night. Some of the drivers were most likely already sleeping in their cabs, others still sat in the diner eating a late dinner.
Oliver pulled the minivan into the parking lot and turned off the engine.