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Lock didn’t answer right away. He looked up and met the eyes of his men before he pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.
“Most are,” he said, “but some of them aren’t.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” I asked him, but deep down I knew. These were victims of another kind of violence.
I brought my hand to my mouth when he didn’t reply, and mumbled, “Oh God!” into my hand. I stood to my feet and stammered back from the table, practically falling on my ass to try and get away from the table.
Lock reached out to steady me, but I fell against the wall and stayed there, eyes wide, unable to move my eyes from the pictures on the table.
I found my voice, albeit scratchy, and asked, “All of them?”
“No, not all of them. Like I said, some are just missing.”
“H-how m-many?” I stuttered, praying he wouldn’t say some outrageous number like fifteen out of twenty.
“Five so far.”
I glanced at him, not sure how much wider my eyes would go, but I felt the skin around my shocked eyes stretching to painful heights.
“Five!”
Oh God!
I started shaking and began pacing.
I couldn’t believe this. This was impossible. I stopped abruptly and voiced my thoughts. They had to be mistaken. “You have to be mistaken.”
“Why?” Lock stood and faced me.
“B-because I would have known if something happened to them. He would have called me and told me.”
“Who?” Lock pushed.
I paused for a few seconds but decided to tell him. If these women were murdered on our watch, it was our fault. We told them they were safe, promised nothing bad would ever happen to them again. We lied to them.
“Phoebe, who?” he repeated, his voice deepening, darkening.
“Garrett.” I stated, my voice sounding distant and foreign to my own ears.
“How would Tyler know about these women, Phoebe?”
I straightened my spin and admitted, “Because he and Reed helped me get them to safety.”
It was Lock’s turn to have wide eyes. I ignored him though and stepped to the table to retrieve my phone.
“I need to call him. This is his job, his baby. He’s supposed to monitor and keep these women safe.”
I brought my phone to my ear after I found his number and pressed send, but he didn’t pick up. I cursed, ended the call and tried again. And again nothing.
“Son of a bitch!” I yelled and fired off a text.“Answer my call you fucking idiot, something has happened.”
I tried to call him again.
“He’s not picking up, is he?” Ayana asked, shaking her head. I brought hard eyes to her.
“Of course not, he’s a fucking man.” I spat through gritted teeth, growled when he didn’t pick up again, and slammed my hand down on the table in front of me.
“Hey, calm down,” Lock soothed, rubbing my back as I dropped my head to my chin, my hands resting on the table. I tried to take a few deep breaths, but it was hard. There were five women out there that would no longer take a breath, ever. And what about the others.
