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I stare at Mason.
Mason stares at me.
“Guys?” Jameson asks. “You want to let me in on…whatever this is?”
My hands feel icy. My feet. “She went after her dad.”
Mason curses at the same time Jameson saystokillhim?“We have to find her,” I say, over both of them. “We have to find her right now.”
It takes all three of us on the phone for four hours to find out where Elise is, which is in the custody of the goddamn FBI. I have to sit on the floor of the shower to get clean without cracking my head open. My balance is still not great. Mason and I have a shouting match about the painkillers I’m supposed to take and compromise on half a dose now, half when I get her back. He’s so pissed that his knee starts acting up.Thenhe has to help me put my shoes on, because leaning forward crushes my ribs and makes my head feel like there’s a spike in it.
I’ve never heard such threats out of Jameson’s mouth in my life. He’s the reason we find her, when everything’s said and done. In other crises, he’s played an affable lawyer. Not today. He looks dangerous even in a man-bun.
Scott refuses to let Mason drive.Theyhave a shouting match of their own outside the SUV, Scott stabbing a finger in the direction of Mason’s knee and Mason gesturing passionately at Scott.
“Let Scott drive,” I shouted, which nearly made my head fall off. “Get in the fucking car.”
Scott drives to the FBI offices and parks illegally in front of the building. I get out of the car on my own, flooded with adrenaline and anger at these motherfuckers.
Two of my lawyers and two of Mason’s chase us into the building at a speed-walk verging on a run. The seven of us barge in, heading for the elevators. Jameson has a guess for which floor Elise might be on.
A woman in a pantsuit comes sprinting after us. “Wait—sir. Ma’am. All of you. You can’t—”
“Youwait.” I smile at her, but I can’t make my voice less sharp. “I’m Gabriel Hill, and I’m going to see Elise Bettencourt. Nobody here is going to stop me.”
She looks around at the small army we’ve gathered. “Let me get Special Agent Vernon on the phone. Just let me do that.”
Three minutes later, the elevator doors open to reveal Special Agent Vernon. I can’t be bothered to care about his clothes, or his hair, or his face.
“Mr. Hill,” he begins. “Ms. Bettencourt—”
“Take me to Elise right now, or I will have the FBI’s collective head on a platter. I have fucked more of your bosses than you could ever possibly imagine, and I swear to Christ, I will call in every favor to make sure you and anyone else who tries to keep me from her pays to the fullest extent of my abilities.”
There’s a ringing silence outside the elevator.
“Jesus, dude,” Jameson says.
“Is this your legal team?” Special Agent Vernon gives us yet another once-over.
“These are my brothers. Mason Hill. Jameson Hill.” Mason glowers. Jameson raises his hand. “The rest of these people are our lawyers. If you’d like, I can review whatthey’lldo about this agency and all its employees if—”
“If you’d come this way, Mr. Hill.”
It’s a crowded elevator ride down to a lower floor. We step off into a wide hallway that smells like cement and industrial carpet.
“A holding cell?” Jameson’s not impressed. “Really?”
I round on Special Agent Vernon. This is the thing that’s going to make me stroke out. My head is already halfway there. “You put her in a fucking holding cell?”
“For questioning.” He says that like it’s reasonable in any fucking way. I’ll break more of my ribs if I try to punch him, and I’ll definitely get arrested, but I’m this goddamn close. “This way.”
We all follow him down the hall until he stops outside a metal door with a reinforced window in the center. Special Agent Vernon knocks three times. A few beats pass, and another guy comes out. He takes his phone out of his pocket and checks the screen.
Cute. Someone texted him about us.
He puts the phone back in his pocket. “Mr. Hill, Elise is in custody because she killed a man. Evidence collected on the plane corroborates her statement.”
“She killed her father? Is that what you’re telling me?”
