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“Yes. We know it's a great risk to you. But you're the only way in. Igno is the literal boogeyman. He's evil personified, and we need to catch him. But we recognize this is a great risk to you, so in return we want to help you find your sister. I have some leads in that respect. Not to mention we'd like to help you get your freedom. I understand you have great translation skills. If a job is what you want, we can make some calls, advance your resume in places that it couldn't be seen before.”
I smoothed down the edges of my hair before crossing my arms. “Why should I trust you?”
“I'm with Interpol. We're the good guys. All I'm asking you to do is go home and plant some bugs. That's it. Nothing more. I don't want you getting fancy. I don't want you putting yourself in the line of danger. And I don't want you telling anyone. No friends, no one. This is delicate and extremely dangerous. If anyone finds out, he could harm them. Do you want that?”
And just like that, all ideas of telling Westin evaporated. If I agreed to do this, to go against my father like this, he would hurt him. After all, wasn't that why I hadn't told him last night where I was going today, what I was doing? “And if I help you, you'll put him in jail?”
“That's the plan. We want to take not just Igno off the board, but men like your father as well. Can you help us do that?”
It wasn't even a question. I knew what my father was like. As we sat across the small study table from each other, I nodded and whispered, “Yes, I can do that.”
She pushed to her feet. "I have something for you." She slid a piece of paper over to me. "This is a lead on where your sister was sent after she left the group home you were in together. I know you've been trying to trace her without much luck."
I glanced at the sheet of paper. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry it’s not more, but at least it's a start. I can't guarantee you anything, but we'll keep on looking too."
Amelia didn't seem like a hugger, but that still didn't stop me from dropping my bag and wrapping my arms around her lean frame. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much."
She gave me a light squeeze back. "You're welcome. Hopefully, we'll be able to find her. I have to say, she's hard to track down. It's making me think maybe she doesn't want to be found."
I shook my head. "I don’t believe that, and I know she'll be looking for me. Julian must have done something to scare her off.”
"Well, hopefully, I've been able to help a little."
"This is perfect. Thank you."
“Be careful. You don’t know what disturbed stones will unearth.”
Westin
Nissa was hiding something. Of that, I was sure. She told me what she was doing last night, but she was holding something back. Like for example where she'd gotten the idea that Julian was hiding letters.
There was no way that information could have just fallen in her lap.
What had made her go looking? Had Julian said something? Slipped up somehow? I hated that she needed help and she wasn't coming to me.
I’d rotated off shift with one of Montgomery’s guards. I was supposed to head back to Rogues, but something told me I should stay on Nissa. It was like a shadow snaking down my spine, and I couldn’t shake the feeling.
But now I wasn't even following orders. Instead, I was following her.
She had been hiding something, and I most certainly didn’t believe she wanted to go to the library at all. Was she meeting someone?
I could leave her be and pretend I hadn't seen anything. I could let her live her life.
But that's not the kind of person you are.
It didn't matter what sins I'd committed. It didn't matter what my mission was. I couldn't let it go, so I followed her.
I made all of the excuses. I wasn't being a creepy stalker. I wasn't doing the exact same thing that Julian did. I wasn't deliberately making her life difficult. No. I was helping her. I was keeping her safe.
She was wearing black leggings that hugged her arse. She had no business having curves like that. Curves meant to tempt me and make me forget the promises I'd made, the vows that couldn't be broken. Nissa Montgomery was off-limits. Not because of her father or what he'd said to me, but because of what I had done. So it was better if I didn't pay so much attention to her arse.
I kept to the shadows. Thanks to the backpack she carried, I at least knew her general vicinity and interactions from a distance, so I could stay in the dark and not have to follow her too closely.
But Nissa was good. I knew she could feel that something wasn't quite right because she paused right at the stairs of the library and turned, searching the darkness.
The library was open twenty-four hours, so students were allowed to burn the midnight oil. That was what happened when you went to a prestigious university. You had to be able to learn and study and grow. Sometimes I wondered what it would have been like to have this as my real life and not pretend. What if I'd gotten into one of these schools on my own?
