“You could have unlocked it for me, but you didn’t. Did you want me to know your code?”
“If it helps to keep you safe, yes. If anything happens to me, take it and call for help. You’ll remember that number, won’t you?”
“Somehow, I think you already know I will.”
Ben snorts. “I love the way you just take it in stride. Anyone else would get an injunction against me.”
“You’re a comfort more than a menace. I kind of like knowing you’re probably there…somewhere,” I admit.
“You really trust me, then?”
I nod. “So far, you’ve proven to be trustworthy, yes. If thatchanges, I’ll call exterminators to smoke you out of the walls.”
He laughs again, a quick burst of sound he smothers before propping the door open and inviting me inside the cottage. I find Cas’s number easily enough in his contacts list and hit the call button. There are three sharp rings before he picks up.
“Ben? It’s three in the morning…what—” Cas pauses, shuffles and then sounds a hell of a lot clearer. “What’s wrong?”
“Cas, it’s Jules. I’m with Ben. Someone just came into the apartment. Ben got me out, but the intruder entered my room, looking for me.” Ben holds up his hand, warning me to stop there.
“Are you secure?”
“For now, yes.”
“Was the man a stranger or one of us?”
Ben nods. I answer, “One of yours.”
“There are two men in the security office. I’ll call them both now for an update. I’ll call you back in five minutes.” He disconnects.
“Don’t tell him too much,” Ben instructs, pulling out a laptop from a shelf under the sofa.
“You don’t trust him?” That wasn’t how things had looked earlier. Cas and Ben seemed close.
“I don’t trust anyone,” Ben admits, “but Cas is okay. It’s his line that I can’t be sure about. Plus, we want this to unfold as if he knows nothing is going on. Plausible deniability.”
The phone rings in my hand. I hold it out for Ben, but he taps the speaker icon and allows us both to listen in, while he boots up his laptop and starts signing in to software.
“No answer from Conroy,” Cas reports. “Kellan answered, but he wasn’t in the office. Kellan said Conroy was in a mood, so he went out to run patrol and cool his head. He reported that everything was fine.”
“Did he say where he was?” I ask.
“The apartment. Said he thought he heard a bang through the ceiling when he came back inside and wanted to check everythingwas okay.”
“And your thoughts on that?” Ben asks.
“Kellan is our mole. He doesn’t have permission to enter the apartment. Other than myself and Aiden, none of them do.”
“Agreed, but he’s working with someone else. Give me two minutes to check the cameras,” Ben commands. I watch as he flicks through each of the cameras relating to the apartment. No one appears within range, but even I know there are black spots. He scans the main house, hovering an extra second in the empty foyer. We both breathe a sigh of relief. My phone isn’t tapped.
Ben then flicks to the exterior cams. I see us moving further and further away from the compound and am both horrified and reassured that the cameras extend far down the main road leading to the house. Ben stops flicking. There on the screen is a small, black car with two people waiting out front. It’s tucked into the hedgerows to be as inconspicuous as possible, but from the camera’s angle I can see them clear as day. The man leans on the hood. The woman paces back and forth. The light on her phone illuminates in sporadic bursts of blue light.
“Do you recognise either of them?” Ben asks. The sad part is that I do. I recognise both of them.
“Yes. The man’s name is Turner. He works for Franz. He came after me before at the hospital.” His grin. His haggard suit jacket. The stench of cologne in the cramped elevator. ‘What’s your name, pretty girl?…I can definitely make you scream.’Yeah, I remember him.
Ben jerks around to look at me. His eyes are wide with horror, and his lips drawn into a tight, pinched line. “When?”
I don’t need to tell him. From the way his expression crumbles, I can see he already knows. His guilt is clear as he wonders if the one time he ran off to find Sylvie was the one time he wasn’t there to help me. Still, if I don’t hold it against him, I’m not going to let him hold it against himself.
