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“Impossible or not, we just fucking watched it,” Eastern says.
“Pink was in a room, being filmed. She held up a newspaper of today’s date. She said she was okay…” Kate explains quietly, confirming what we’d seen with our own eyes.
Mr Burnside shakes his head. “I had nothing to do with that. I swear to you.”
I want to believe him. I think he’s a good man, and yet…
“If not you, then who?” Sonny asks, scraping a hand through his hair.
“I uploaded the movies onto the computer myself… It makes no sense, none. There was nothing like that on the PC this morning…” He hesitates, looking at Mr Carmichael, then at Cal and Frank.
“What?” I ask.
“Unless…”
“What group went before these guys?” Cal asks, following the same train of thought as Mr Burnside.
We fall silent, realisation hitting us all at the same time.
“Bram,” Ford grinds out.
“That little prick!” Camden turns on his heel and rushes towards the door, but Cal steps in front of him, shaking his head.
“Stop! Beating the shit out of Bram isn’t going to help. Let us deal with this,” he warns.
“What? Like you’ve dealt with everything else? Fuck that! I’m going to kill the little bastard, but not before I find out where they’re keeping Pink and my mum! Every day that passes they’re in more danger and you’re doing NOTHING!” he shouts, all restraint gone.
“We’re doing everything we can,” Cal insists, calmly.
“Bullshit!” Camden tries to shove past Cal, but I reach for him.
“No, wait!” My fingers dig into his biceps, squeezing hard enough to bruise. “You saw what the message said. You know how this works, Camden. You know better than anyone.”
Why didn’t we think!Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
“Tell anyone, she dies…” Kate hushes out.
Seeing her like that, so fucking brave and unreachable had flipped a switch in all of us. My fear has ramped up to full power, a thousand volts pummelling my insides, flaying them. That fear is what made my feet follow Camden and what, eventually, made me see sense and not react. But Camden’s resolve to keep himself in check went out the fucking window the second the video stopped.
“Fuuuccckkkk!” Camden roars, slamming his fist against the wall, denting the plasterboard.
“We are so fucking screwed!” Sonny blurts out, pacing up and down. His agitation makes me feel so much worse. But he’s right, we are. We’re beyond screwed.
“They’ll kill her.” My voice cracks. Eastern reaches for me, hauling me into his side. He brushes his lips against my hair, trying in his own way to comfort me.
After a beat, Mr Carmichael gets to his feet, a dark look spreading across his face like ink in water. “What. Did. The. Message. Say?”
No one answers.
“Look, we can watch the footage ourselves, but you can save us all time by telling us right now,” Cal says, looking between us all. When no one says a word, he continues. “Weallknew this would happen. The King has played his hand. Now we have to play ours. Tell us.”
Pressing my eyes shut briefly to hold back the sting of tears, I meet Cal’s gaze.
“Looks like my father wants to meet me at last,” I say.
