Her voice is rough with sleep as she whispers, “Wait, give me a sec….”
I hear movement.
“Izzie, is something wrong?” She asks a little loud.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t even factor in the time. We can talk later.”
My voice is strained.
“No, tell me what’s going on. I can hear something is wrong. It’s okay, I’m not in my room. Josiah is fast asleep. I’m downstairs in the kitchen.”
I take a deep breath. “I overheard something horrible last night. I…I had to leave Anton,” I sob, finally letting go of the pain I’ve been keeping inside.
I tell her about the call and what he said. She listens carefully until I’ve said everything I need to say.
“So, I’m at this hotel in the city, and I need to get back to Chicago without him finding me.”
“Izzie, I can get you back to Chicago in a heartbeat, but…did Anton not tell you about the meeting he had with your brother? Josiah heard about it though his people.”
“What meeting?” I ask, confused.
"Yesterday…he went to see your brother to try and talk to him, to try and make a truce, but it went really badly.”
“What happened?” I ask tensely, perched on the very edge of the bed.
“Illyin wouldn’t even hear him out. He just opened fire. He started shooting—with deadly intent. But Anton didn’t shoot back. He and his men only gave themselves enough cover fire to escape. He didn’t want to harm your brother because he knew it would hurt you.”
“He…he didn’t tell me any of this….” I mutter, shocked.
“Maybe he was trying to keep you safe from worrying about it? Your brother tried to kill him. He obviously didn’t want to stress about that.”
“He still should havetoldme.”
“Do you want me to arrange a flight for you? Do you need a driver to collect you from the hotel?” she asks.
“Actually…can you do me a different favor?”
“Anything,” she answers immediately.
“Do you have a number where I can reach Illyin?”
“I do. Josiah knows where he’s staying. I just need to go and fetch Josiah’s phone. The number will be on there.”
“Please get it for me. I need to speak to my brother.”
“Stay on the line…I won’t take long.”
I wait quietly in the hotel room with the phone pressed against my ear and my heart racing with worry. Why didn’t Anton just tell me? What really happened there? Did Illyin really try and kill him?
“Izzy?”
“I’m here.”
“Okay, I got the name of the building. I had to Google, do you have a pen ready?”
I pull the hotel drawer open and find a notepad and a pen in there.
“Ready,” I say, and as she calls out the numbers, I write them down one by one.
