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Gale--the guards, whom Gabrielle knew as the driver and gardener--were outside with the dogs, making sure no one saw them leaving. He said they had reason to believe another "cattle" was coming for Larsen, so they needed to get him into L.A.
How did they get in and out without setting off the alarms? Clearly someone had tampered with the equipment, meaning it was an inside job.
Sean, though? Definitely not. But it had to be someone close to him, close enough to get the code word and convince the Dahls that Sean had sent the message that another Cabal was after Larsen.
When Davis called it in, he'd said he was taking Gabrielle to Sean. Since Sean was the executive in charge of the Dahls, the Cabal couldn't argue with that. Nor could they argue with getting the little girl out of the house before the crime scene team arrived to retrieve the dead guards and dogs from the tree out back.
Sean and Lucas were still in their meeting when we left the Dahl house. As I was hanging up after leaving a message, I saw that I had a few text messages on my new phone. The last was from Adam. Two words. Call me.
I stared at the message. I started dialing his number. I got halfway through, stopped, stared at it some more . . .
"Adam called, I presume?" Cassandra said from the seat beside me. Gabrielle was up front with Davis.
"Texted." I began typing a response instead. Stopped. Erased it.
"Do you want my advice?"
I nodded.
I called Adam.
"Just got your message," I said. "In a hurry for an update, huh? Is Paige pestering you? Or are you just bored?"
"Not really. I--"
"You're bored. Hey, you had your chance. Now you're stuck in that chair until I get back."
Before he could answer, I told him what we'd found so far. When he tried to change the subject, I wouldn't let him. I wasn't ready to talk about what I said before I left and I certainly wasn't going to discuss it over the phone. I kept chattering about the case until he surrendered, and helped me work through the possibilities.
When the topic threatened to reach an end, I said, "Whoops, gotta run. Cass and I need to figure out what to do with Gabrielle until Sean can take her."
"Hold on. Before you go--"
"I really have to--"
"I'm not going to talk about anything you don't want me talking about, Savannah."
"There's nothing--"
"I get the hint, okay? All personal stuff is on hold until you get back. But I wanted you to know that Hope is meeting with Kimerion today."
"So she agreed to that?"
"Luckily I'd asked her before the Jaz incident. Now Karl wants to get it over with so Hope can rest. He's going to be there and Benicio's going to be there, along with Benicio's top demon negotiator. Do you want us to wait until you're back so you can sit in?"
"I'm good. I'll call tonight. And I'll try to remember the time difference."
"Forget the time. Call whenever you can." A pause. "I know this has been hard on you. When you came back, I didn't mean to make it worse by . . ."
"You were angry."
"No, not angry. Just . . ."
Hurt. I took you for granted and I manipulated you, and that's not how a friend should act. I hurt you and I'm so sorry. I squeezed my eyes shut. "I should go."
"Right. Okay. So later?"
"Later."
