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His silence was pissing me off, now.
I whirled on him, nostrils flaring in anger. “Fuck you, Forest Brock. Why don’t you just give into that shadow self? Team up with Apollo, yourbrother? Between you I’m sure you’d be a real force for the world to reckon with.”
He opened his mouth to say something.
I shook my head and cut him off. “Forest, hethreatened my family! He’skidnappedJenni! Get over yourself and help me move my family somewhere safe,now! If they get hurt, this is all your fault. And that will be a far more monumental fuck-up than keeping a little secret from you.”
FOREST
Iwas silent after Ria’s barrage of insults. What could you say after being stung so many times in quick succession? No one had ever pulled me apart like that, not even my brothers. Not even Apollo. Perhaps not even our late father, Emory Brock, who had a habit of breaking everyone down, so he could try to build them up in his image.
I’d thought he’d only succeeded with Apollo. Maybe I was wrong.
I ducked into another room to give Ria some space, and made a call to my security team to start setting up one of my safe houses for two families – Ria’s family, and Mrs Jamroz and her sons. I also sent a van to go and pick them up, armed security guards and all. One could never be too cautious.
I went back through into the room where Ria was. She was staring at the wall where the video footage had screened, which was now blank.
“My security is on its way to your house to pick up your family. And my housekeeper.” I sounded shaken. I supposed I was. But Ria was right, there was no time for my feelings right now.
She’d burned through her anger and now seemed merely tired. “And then what?”
“I’m getting a safe house set up for you all as we speak.”
Ria’s phone started ringing.
She looked at it, then stood up. “It’s Jenni.”
“Pick up. Put it on speaker.”
Ria nodded. She answered the call. “Jenni?”
Jenni sounded odd. And not her usual odd. More of a ‘held at gunpoint’ odd than usual. “Oh, hi, Ria!”
“What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Oh yes, I’m quite fine. I was just calling to ask if you could pass on my notice to Mr Brock, please?”
She’d been calling me Forest since I’d asked her to. Her saying ‘Mr Brock’ was a sign things were not okay, even if she hadn’t called to quit her job after being possibly captured by my brother.
Ria was frantic. “Jenni, he’s there with you? Can you say anything?”
“I’ve decided to take a little sabbatical. Really discover myself.”
“I’m so sorry, Jenni. We – Forest – will try and find you.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me!” She laughed, nervously. “I’m not vanishing. Just taking some time for myself. Anyway, I’ve got to pack! See you soon!”
The line went dead.
Ria stared at her phone. “What is happening?”
“Apollo’s tactics are unpredictable. She really could be taking a sabbatical at his command. He’d find that funny. Or she could be being forced to work for him from now on. Or... I don’t know. There’re too many options to consider.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“There’s nothing you can do for now, Ria. I’m going to take you to the safe house with your family. Apollo might have just been trying to keep you on your toes with his threats, but we can’t take that chance.”
Ria thought about it for a second, then growled in frustration. “I do need to go to them. My mom and gran will be freaked out.”
