Keeping her head high, she turned and walkedaway. She told herself she wouldn’t look back, but she couldn’tstop herself from glancing over her shoulder as they neared theelevator.
Kyle was receding from view, but she saw hishands pressing against the glass as he leaned toward her. As soonas she got in the shower later, she would break down and sob outher misery. Until then, she had to keep it together.
She didn’t look at Delilah as she steppedinto the elevator, but she sensed the woman’s eyes on her.
CHAPTER 26
“Why can’t Brian findhim?” Cassidy whispered.
She’d asked the question a hundred timessince Kyle disappeared nearly a month ago. It was always the sameanswer. Either Kyle was underground and Brian couldn’t locate him,or he didn’t want to be found and somehow avoided detection. Andthere was the other, unthinkable option that he was dead.
Cassidy believed it was the first of thoseoptions. Kyle would never just leave. He would never do that to hisfamily, and she firmly believed she would know if her twin wasdead. She’d somehow feel the loss of his life, but she didn’t.
“We’ll find him,” Dante assured her.
Cassidy nodded, but she wasn’t confidentabout that anymore. There had been no sign of her brother, Melanie,or Lucy since they vanished.
Shortly after her brother vanished, theydecided it would be safer to leave their apartment. They had noidea what happened to him and couldn’t take the chance it mightcome knocking on their door too. If Kyle returned and couldn’t findthem, he would contact their family in Maine or call them, but itwas safer to leave their old lives behind.
Aida had quit her job, and Dante had stoppedtaking on missing people cases. They’d rented a large apartment inthe city where they were all staying now. For the first time sinceleaving home, they relied on their abilities and family wealth tosurvive in the city, but it was necessary.
Cassidy and Julian refused to leave Boston.Brian and Abby had come to stay with them while they worked to findKyle. Her other siblings, the Stooges, and her parents had cometoo. After a while, her other siblings and the Stooges returnedhome, but her parents remained.
Though the rest of her family still came downoften to help with the search, there wasn’t anything they could dowithout any leads.
Their new apartment was the height of luxury,and Cassidy hated everything about its glass walls, whitefurniture, white paint, and sterile feel. Not even the city'sstriking view, with all its thousands of lights, could warm theausterity of the modern décor.
The only bright spot in all of this was thegrowing bump of Abby’s belly. At first, Brian was reluctant to haveher anywhere near this, but Abby refused to be somewhere he wasn’t.So, they lived in the five-bedroom apartment while they hunted forKyle or any sign of what happened to him.
Except, there were no signs.
Cassidy turned away from the floor-to-ceilingwindows overlooking the city skyline. Her parents, Abby, Brian,Julian, Aida, and Dante, were all gathered in the large, sunkenliving room with its massive, white, sectional couch.
With every passing day, she increasinglyfeared she would never see her brother again. She saw the same fearin her mother’s eyes. Her mother, ever the optimist, had becomemore withdrawn as time passed.
“Tomorrow, we’ll search outside of the cityagain,” Brian said. “I might be able to pick something upthere.”
“Where outside of the city?” Abby asked.
“Anywhere,” he said. “We’ll just drive andsee what happens.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was betterthan nothing. All her siblings, the Stooges, and most of theirmates were returning tomorrow. The apartment was about to get a lotmore cramped, but Cassidy looked forward to the noise. She hoped ithelped to drown out her increasingly morose musings.
***
Kyle paced his cell from one side to theother before doing jumping jacks, running in place, and gettingdown to do push-ups the best he could in the small confines. Everyday, or at least he assumed it was every day, he went through thesame routine as he tried to keep himself in shape.
His body ached everywhere, and his brain wasfoggy, but he kept exercising in an attempt to retain some of thesanity he felt slipping away. He couldn’t stand this not knowingwhat day or time it was, not knowing what was to become of him, orwhere Melanie was and what they were doing to her.
After her visit, they drugged him and tookhim out of the cage again. He had a vague recollection of theevents, and he’d woken back in his cell with needle marks in hisarm. He recalled talk of sunlight and the impossibility of hisexistence.
Burns and stitches had also marred his flesh.He didn’t know what caused those burns, but it couldn’t be from UVlight. What had they used on him?
He’d studied the burns to see if he couldtell, but it was impossible. They were getting more vicious withtheir experiments, and though he refused to let it show, he dreadedthe next time they came for him.
He couldn’t focus on that; if he did, he’d goinsane. He focused on staying in shape and preparing for the daywhen he got his chance to escape, because he would get thatchance.
The possibility of his family finding himdied weeks ago. If it were possible, they would have been here bynow. However, he suspected he was far beneath the ground as underthe odor of the drugs and Savages, he detected the aroma of dampearth. It wasn’t a strong scent, but it was there, which meantBrian wouldn’t be able to locate him.
