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“From the zoo, Carter. The spider. Stegodyphus lineatus,” she repeats, like I’m supposed to know what the fuck she is talking about. And I’m so beyond confused and filled with anger, I can’t even move or respond. I see her eyes begin to water before she spins and walks out the door.
The bang of the door has me jolting, and I get a grip on myself. Fuck my girls and their animal references. I haven’t yet had the heart to tell them I didn't finish school and have no idea what they talk about half the time.
Their knowledge is one of their most incredible qualities to me.
I wait a moment and walk out after her, watching as she greets Daniel, him grabbing her arm and then parading around for a moment longer, talking to people and shaking hands before he whisks her out the door, leaving for the night with daddy dearest following suit.
I pull out my phone and start to research this fucking spider. She mentioned we saw it at the zoo, so I go straight to the zoo’s website, but I can’t remember a fucking thing about it. Where is Ivy when you need her?
“What the fuck is going on?” Sebastian barks as he, Dante, and Nico crowd around me, and we make ourselves inconspicuous at the back of the room.
“Stegodyphus lineatus. She said something about a Stegodyphus lineatus… It was a spider we saw at the zoo a while ago,” I say, my head down, searching the zoo website, but finding nothing.
“Let me search it,” Dante says, grabbing his cell. I continue to look through the information from the zoo in the hopes something comes to mind.
“The Stegodyphus lineatus is a spider from the southern Mediterranean,” Dante says after finding it on an internet search.
“A spider? What the fuck has a spider got to do with anything?” Sebastian says, angrier because I know none of this is making any sense.
“The male is known to exhibit infanticide, by killing the offspring of already-mated females…” Dante says out loud before looking at me.
I roll the information over in my brain as Dante reads on. “Infanticide increases the male's ability to force females who have already mated to mate again with them.”
It comes to me then. “Fucking asshole. I am going to kill him. I am going to fucking gut him, then strangle him with his own fucking intestines,” I grit out, looking at the boys who all look confused.
“They have Ivy and are baiting Cat with her own daughter to play the part,” I say to the boys, everything now locking into place and Cat’s scared face etched into my mind.
“I am going to slice him from fucking belly to throat and watch him bleed out!” I all but yell, trying to keep it contained, given the amount of people in the room.
“What the fuck?” Sebastian pulls back, looking at me in astonishment.
“In the bathroom, Cat told me about this animal we saw at the zoo the other day. She told me that they are watching her, was thinking they were listening in too, so she wouldn’t answer my questions directly. It all makes sense now. They grabbed her and Ivy and now are forcing Cat to play a part so that Daniel can portray a happy, successful doctor to help him win the Senator seat,” I say quickly, trying to get them all up to speed.
“So that they can win, and then get full control of the city,” Dante finishes for me, everyone now fully understanding that she didn’t play us at all.
“Fucking hell,” Nico says in awe.
“We need to find out where they are holding her.” My eyes flick around the room, hoping something or someone jumps out that may give us a clue.
“I put a tracker on their car. Our boys in the valet sorted us out,” Nico says, and the three of us all look at him.
“Smart move, Nico,” Sebastian says with a nod, approving his initiative before his eyes land on me. "She is smart, after all, your girl,” Sebastian says to me, but I feel little pleasure in his observations, already murderous and out for blood.
We walk out of the room, moving as quickly as we can, weaving in between the guests and the staff and making our way outside. Our car is already out front and waiting, and as the four of us get in, Nico grabs his cell to see where they are.
“Straight ahead, then make a left. They are going down Fifth Avenue,” Nico says, watching the blue dot of the car tracker on his map.
“Her father has a penthouse on Fifth on the Upper East Side,” Sebastian adds, and Dante nods from the driver's seat, already knowing exactly where we need to go.
A penthouse is going to be hard to penetrate, so any ideas I had of walking into a house and grabbing her and Ivy and leaving are pushed from my mind. I try and work out ways for us to enter the building and get to the top floor. Whatever scenarios I think of will take time. A fire drill, walking in fully armed, all of the options will take too long… I need to get her tonight.
“Jesus…” Dante murmurs from the front, and I look up as we park across the street. It is an older apartment building, one of New York's finest, most established. Where the ‘old-monied’ residents live. Whilst it may not have all the mod cons, we are under no illusion that it will be any easier to enter. Some of New York's richest people live in this building, and they take their security very seriously.
“I need to get in there tonight,” I grit out, my hear thumping, my skin crawling with tension as I try not to jump out of the car and do something really stupid.
“Fuck, let me think,” Nico says, looking around the streets.
“What the fuck!” Sebastian barks out, leaning forward in his seat, his eyes looking into the brightly lit foyer.
