Page 73 of My Ghost

Rourke is on me now, grabbing my arm so fast I don’t have time to react.It’s when I hear the click that I register the cold metal of the handcuffs around my wrists.“Erin Skye, you’re under arrest for obstruction of justice.”

I gasp, my mind spinning out of control as I am dragged away to a black SUV.

Dave shouts something behind me and I twist to look at him.“Call Matteo!”is all I can shout before I am shoved into the back of the car.After slamming the door shut, Rourke rounds the car and settles behind the wheel.

It all happened so fast that I am only now realizing what happened.I have been arrested!Panic claws at my throat.I claw at the door handle as best as I can with my hands cuffed behind my back, but the lock won’t budge.

“Let me out, this is a mistake, I haven’t done anything wrong,” I shout, willing him to listen, to believe me.

But Agent Rourke never looks at me, nor acknowledges that he has heard me.He drives silently, not sparing me a glance.After several minutes of unsuccessful attempts to reason with him, I lean back in defeat and look out of the window.I frown.I don’t know where we are driving, but it doesn’t look like we are driving downtown to the FBI office.

“Where are you taking me?”My pulse spikes with fear.

I force myself to breathe.There must be a plausible reason, maybe there’s another office down south.But the longer we drive, the more run-down the neighborhood becomes.This can’t be right.

By the time we pull up to a red-brick building that looks more like an abandoned warehouse than anything remotely legal, I am yanking at the door handles hard enough to bruise my palms and crack my nails.

Rourke drives through a large garage entrance, and the sudden darkness is disorienting.The curtain-door slams shut with a loud screech and he cuts the engine.Then there is silence.My heart is a drumbeat in my ears.

Where is this place?What are we doing here?

The right passenger door is yanked open and I am grabbed by a pair of big hands and tugged out of the car.I thrash and scream, but Rourke merely drags me after him into a dirty hallway.He stops by a metal door and opens it.Then he pushes me hard against the wall to prevent me from running while he unlocks the handcuffs.Once done, he unceremoniously shoves me inside the room.I hear a loud clank and the click of a latch.I swirl around and pound at the door, yanking the handle hard.But it’s locked.My heart sinks, there is no way out.

I step back and look around and freeze.

I am not alone.

* * * *

Matteo

I wrap up the meeting, letting my legal team handle all further negotiations.Time to go back to my little ghost.I’ve only briefly seen her this morning and I can’t seem to go too long without being near her.I power up my phone to see a text from Erin and several missed calls.I tap her message first.

Going out to lunch with Dave, be back in a bit.

I glower at my phone and grit my teeth.That goddamn fucker.But I had promised Erin that I wouldn’t interfere in her friendships.And I also had a littletalkwith him, making it clear that a friendship was all there was going to be between them.

I push down my jealousy and open the call logs.

Twelve missed calls.Dave.

My blood turns to ice.

When I step into The Bastion,Dave and Allan are waiting for me in the lobby, as are the two guards I tasked with watching over her.

“Where is she?”I bellow from the doorway through the space.They all jump.

“M-Matteo…” Dave stutters.“The FBI, th-there was nothing I could do…”

I freeze.No…“Who?”My voice is deadly.

“Erin seemed to know him, she called him Rourke.”

I already have my phone to my ear when I give the two techs instructions to go up to the ops room and pull up the camera footage.I located her phone, but she must’ve left it behind because it still pings from The Bastion.

D picks up at the second ring.

“We’ve got a problem, the FBI took Erin.”I don’t waste words or precious time.“I’m calling Luc now.”I hang up to call him.