AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wasn’t allowed to do anything but observe, and this was made even clearer when my father edged in front of me. He cut all direct eye contact off, at least from my grandfather to me.
“Might we get on with this then,” Dad said, and that was exactly what my grandfather and his team moved on to do. Grandpa had everyone escorted into a quieter room, one cut off from everything and everyone.
Well, everyone but my father and all the people who’d come with us. Him and his team filled up a good portion of the room, which had been fashioned into some kind of conference room. There was a long table and chairs. Grandpa and his people took one side, and those who could fit on Dad’s took the other.
LJ and I surrounded Dad, security around us. The men on both my side and across the table began speaking right away, and I shifted my focus from one to the other. People chimed in like popcorn over a fucking fire, and it took all I had to just keep up. Everyone here knew exactly what to talk about.
They were all clearly well-acquainted with this topic.
I wasn’t surprised to hear this on my dad’s end. They’d been working tirelessly to find Sloane, but Grandpa… yeah, that was surprising.
It sounded like he’d been working on this just as hard as us.
“I’ll be starting to pull my men in closer to the city if that’s okay with you, son,” Grandpa said. “I feel their services are better here than wide with the intel your people gave us this morning.”
To my surprise, my father faced me. “We know she hasn’t gotten anywhere via any services offered to the public. Knight had some contacts that took care of that. Airports, buses, trains, and even cabs and rideshares are all out. She hasn’t used any of them, and from what your grandfather told us today, she wouldn’t have had a lot of money to anyway.”
“She used her credit card once at an ATM to get cash the day she left.” Grandpa slid a document over. “Took out five hundred dollars. Bru never used his, and though I can’t be sure how much they had on them before they left, I do know they mostly used their credit cards when they were living here. I’ve also acquired their vehicles. Bru’s Audi and Godfrey’s Chevelle have all been picked up by my men, and from what we know, the kids never got the chance to use them. We were able to get to the cars first, so there’s a strong possibility you’re right, Royal.”
Right about what?
My attention shot to my dad, and he edged closer.
“There’s a strong possibility she’s still in the city,” Dad said, and my heart fucking stopped.
It crashed.
She was in the city? But how could she be? We’d looked everywhere. The town and I had looked everywhere. My friends and I had covered a lot of ground long before my dad caught us.
“She’s got the most famous face in the world right now,” Grandpa said, sighing. “If anyone saw her… Anyone tried to help her, I think we’d all have heard about it. Especially with the reward her parents have posted.”
I think we’d all heard about that. The Mallicks had posted an amount they probably felt was low, but to anyone outside of our world it would have been life-changing. If someone had seen Sloane, no one would have kept that information to themselves. They had far too much to gain by selling her out.
But I didn’t understand this, any of this. If she was still in the city, why hadn’t we found her?
Why hadn’t I?
The talks moved on after that, me staying silent while the adults continued to talk. They were combining forces. This was something I’d wanted, but chilling thoughts surfaced again. My grandfather was right. Sloane had the most known face in the world, not just in this city. If she didn’t get help and was still in this city, she was lying low.
And doing so on purpose.
Chapter Twelve
From: [email protected]
Subject: Wolf
Ares Mallick is one of the smartest people I know. He’s the one I go to when I don’t know something. He’s the one all of us go to. He’s top of our class and probably could have gone to any STEM school in the goddamn country if he’d have chosen to. In fact, had he not been such a modest shit, he might have taken up one of their offers I know he’s gotten in the past. He’s brilliant, beyond it.
And even he couldn’t find you.
You know, your brother used to look for you? When we were kids, he drove himself crazy trying to find his twin. It was his days, his nights, his weekends, and his life, and it went on so long I’m not even sure of when the searches began.
I just know how they ended.
I wished you knew the person Ares was before he realized he couldn’t find you. He was still dark. I mean, how couldn’t he be? He’d lost a piece of himself in never having known you, but he’s always known about you. Your parents, Ramses and Brielle, were very open about those few days in the hospital they got to be with you before you were selfishly taken from them, but no amount of recollection from his parents could ever really let him know you. I mean, even they didn’t.
