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Silas peered through the peephole for a moment, then looked back at the others pointedly. All three men stood around the door as they pulled it open.
Standing on the porch was Maya, the girl from the gym.
“We’ve got problems.”
The woman stood with her arms folded, a look of concern drawn on her attractive face. For a split second those eyes flitted over me as well, but she dismissed me quickly in lieu of the guys’ attention.
“Trouble?” Silas asked.
“Yes.”
Santiago scowled. “How bad?”
“Bad enough that I still have glass in my hair.”
Cody’s pretty boy mouth went abruptly tight. It made him look both hot and frightening at the same time.
“The Garage?”
Maya nodded. “We had visitors last night. Violent ones. Jonas and I took off after them, but they were fast. And by then the damage was done.”
“Lastnight?”Santiago spat. “And you didn’t tell us until now?”
“Didn’t want to bother you over some cowardly window-smashing bullshit,” Maya shrugged. “Not until I cleaned it up, anyway. Everything’s being replaced as we speak.”
“But—”
“Besides, who the hell breaks six windows at once? With six different bricks? Not your standard vandals, that’s for sure.” She reached into her front pocket and produced a piece of folded paper. “Good thing there was a seventh brick, though. And that one came with a message.”
She handed the paper to Cody, who happened to be closest. As she did, Maya looked directly at me.
My heart sank.
“W—What does it sa—”
Cody’s grunt swallowed my question. Jaw still clenched, he flipped the note around for the rest of us to see:
GIVE HER UP
Twenty-One
BRYNNE
I expected the gym to be a complete mess, but it wasn’t. Maya’s crew had meticulously vacuumed up every piece of last night’s assault, and four of the six windows had already been replaced. The only indication that something happened at all was the presence of men on ladders. Through the window of Santiago’s office I watched them move almost in sync, running beads of clear silicone sealant along the inside of each new glass pane.
“Did you want to see the cameras?”
Jonas, I’d learned, was a squat, dark-haired man who’d been tasked with security. Right now he looked a little more than slightly nervous.
“Do they show anything useful?” asked Silas.
The man paused before shaking his head. “Not really. The attackers move pretty fast. Lots of shadows.”
“Blurry, pixelated shadows,” Cody lamented. “Those cameras are abysmal.”
“Hey, they were cheap,” growled Silas. “You knew it when we bought them.”
“But we didn’t buy them,” Cody laughed. “They came with the building. Shit, I think they were installed during the Reagan administration.”
