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That we’ve been so blind and stupid turns my frustration and annoyance into full-blown anger, and I do not know how to channel it into something productive. If we’re right in our assumption, we’re all sitting ducks.
“I’m sorry, Martin.” Baby’s small voice slices through the pregnant and loaded silence. “I’m the only one to blame for not telling you. It was my oversight.”
CJ walks over to Baby and leads her back to the chair she was occupying earlier. As soon as he’s sitting in it, he pulls her down with him. “Right now, it doesn’t matter who did or didn’t do what. We need to figure all this out, and you said it’s all connected. What else is linked to this?”
“My brother got headhunted for a new job.” Before any of us can ask why this matters, she delivers the finishing punch. “It’s a German company, and the owner is called Luis.”
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
“Let me get this straight,” CJ says in a deceptively calm tone. “Luis paid good money to have you dance for him every Wednesday, which was fine and dandy. Now, he’s headhunted and employed your brother. Have you talked to Luis at all?”
Shaking her head, Baby says, “No. The only time I’ve seen him since… Well, it was at Mark’s funeral. I haven’t seen him since or spoken to him.” Then she scrunches her eyebrows together. “Lila implied that he wanted me back at Serendipity when she reopens, and tonight… When Kas and I were about to leave, she reiterated that I’m not welcome back at the club.”
“What?” I irrationally shout. With every revelation that’s coming to light, that’s hardly important.
“It didn’t sound unfriendly or hostile,” Baby continues.
Kas speaks up, “No, it didn’t. It almost sounded like a warning when she added that security had been instructed to call the police if Mia shows up.”
“She’s warning you away from the property?” Martin asks, looking as confused as I feel.
“Maybe,” Baby murmurs. “She said it after I discovered she’s missing a finger, so I might be reading too much into this—”
“But it didn’t sound like a warning against Mia, more like a warning to Mia,” Kas finishes.
I feel as though my head is about to explode from everything I’m learning. Yet, I get the urge to laugh now that I get Kas’ reference from earlier. He was right. This is exactly like finding the beginning of a circle because all roads seem to lead to fucking Rome right now.
“Do you have a picture of Luis?” CJ asks, catching me off guard with the seeming randomness of the question. While Mia and Martin look at him like he just declared the sky is green, me and Kas shake our heads.
I even feel guilty, saying, “I don’t have any.” Since CJ is the only one who’s never met Luis, it makes sense that he wants to put a face to the person. Well, that’s not true. He saw him at Mark’s funeral, and then in the picture Mia took from Lila. But that one is old.
“Maybe I can find a picture through the security tapes from Serendipity,” Martin offers, and when I take him up on the offer, he leaves to see what he can dig up.
One look at CJ tells me he wants to put on an avenging cape and drag Luis back to our basement.
“What are you thinking about, sweets?” Kas asks, looking at our girl who’s biting so hard on her bottom lip I’m sure she can taste blood.
“I think I saw Luis at the wake,” she says, “When Coen and I were…” Her eyes dart to the door Martin disappeared through. “You already know Coen and I came inside later than you guys. Anyway, I thought I saw Luis, and I was about to say something to Coen, but he was gone when I blinked.”
Needing clarification, I ask, “Luis watched CJ getting you off, and you said nothing?”
“I wasn’t—and I’m still not—sure he was even there. He was there and gone in the blink of an eye. I thought maybe… I don’t know what I thought.” Mia tightens her lips as though she’s trying hard to keep the unspoken words inside her mouth.
“You thought you were imagining him, and you didn’t think it was the right time to bring it up when I had my fingers buried inside you,” CJ softly says.
“It’s a message,” Kas abruptly says, looking between us. “Hiring Reid has to be a message. It’s likely his way of saying he can get to Mia’s family.” I nod because that makes sense.
If what we suspect is true, Luis is playing a game with us, which means he’s already created the board we’re sitting on top of. Sighing, I run my hands through my hair, not happy with the conclusion I’ve already drawn. “If he’s a predator, we should wait for him to make a move. He’ll be in touch one way or another, and we probably don’t even have to wait long for him to make the first move.”
“So, you want us to do what? Hide?” Kas sounds like I’ve mortally offended him, and maybe I have.
“Do you have a better suggestion? CJ has never seen the guy in real life.” Baby did show him the picture she stole from Lila, and while CJ thought the eyes looked similar to the guy he knows, he couldn’t be sure. “Where should we go looking for him? And how would seeking him out give us a better vantage point?” I look at my brother, hoping he understands that even though I don’t want to play the waiting game, I don’t see a way around it.
“We go to New York,” Baby says with steely determination. “My mom said they’re throwing a surprise party for my brother, and she invited all of us. We go, and we see what happens.”
“Baby, I don’t think—”
She seethes, cutting me off, “I’m not just going to sit around and do nothing. I fully understand if you don’t want to go, and I’m not—actually, scratch that. You’re going, Alec. I want all of you to come with me. We’re a team, are we not?”
