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Rebecca inhaled deeply. “Yeah.”
“They were looking for me, Rebecca,” I said, my voice soft. “They were trying to find me.”
“Oh God,” she breathed. “You knew?”
The words gave me pause. “What?”
“I thought you didn’t know,” she answered. “The cameras had audio, in some of the audio…” she paused, and I heard her sniffle, “…in some of it, you could hear them asking f-for you.”
My stomach heaved. “You’ve known all this time, and you—?”
“Aria, you are my sister,” she said firmly. “I don’t know what exactly is happening, but I expect you to keep yourself safe. Okay?”
I started to nod as if she could see me, and then I caught myself. “Okay.”
“Good. Now, does this have anything to do with Azazel Ambrose?”
His name had me glancing around to check that he wouldn’t come crawling out of the woodwork. “Why?” I whispered. “Did he contact you?”
“He showed up at your apartment earlier. He said that you were supposed to meet him to renegotiate your contract, but you didn’t show.”
“Fuck.” I sighed. “Yeah, he emailed me an offer—”
“I know,” Rebecca interrupted. “He showed me. You even agreed to be there.”
“No, I agreed over the phone…”
I trailed off as Sariel returned to the kitchen. I couldn’t see him, but his scent and the sudden shifting of the room’s energy were enough to warn me.
“But he showed me an email response, Aria,” Rebecca replied. “It… I mean, it evenreadlike you’d written it.”
“They’ve hacked into my account,” I said, eyes widening as Sariel entered the room. His expression was grim, indicating that he’d overheard.
“Holy shit, they can do that?”
“They can do anything they want,” I answered distractedly. The gravity of my situation was hitting me once more. “Rebecca, I need you to put the twins on the phone, so I can say bye.”
“Aria—”
Sariel interrupted her as I switched the phone to the speaker. “And then you’ll have to get rid of your phone. Any phone in the house, actually. Anything traceable.”
“Who the hell is that?!”
“That’s uh… he’s…” I scrambled to make up a plausible explanation for why I was in the company of a man I’d just met, but he beat me to it.
“Sariel Ambrose, ma’am,” he answered for me, lips twitching like this was funny to him. “I’ll be helping Aria stay safe.”
“From your father?” Rebecca asked skeptically. I could hear the hardness of her tone, and I could just imagine her; pacing around her living room, steaming mad. “After you got her here in the first place?”
Sariel’s expression shifted right before my eyes. “I didn’t get to apologize to Aria because I’m not sure words are enough of an apology, but I intend to make it up to her.”
“Aria, this is a terrible idea. Come home, and Sean will keep you safe—”
“No, he won’t,” Sariel interrupted again. “Sure, he’s been keeping your secret, but if he's ever approached by the Council, he’s going to say he had no idea. He wouldn’t risk his status as alpha for her.”
Rebecca’s silence was unnerving. I knew he was right, and her silence just confirmed it.
“We could run,” she suggested weakly.
