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My phone rang on the table. Seren grabbed it before I could and answered it. “Hello?”
He listened for a minute before speaking. “I know, bro. But you can’t let on that you know anything. Promise me you won’t say a word on the property or around your phone. Everything will backfire if you do.”
Given his warning, it had to be Saint on the other end. And the fact that he didn’t have to go into detail, told me Saint had already been filled in on the details.
“I have a plan,” Seren continued. “I just need you to listen and relay it to Sawyer.”
He listened for another minute, closing his eyes tightly in frustration. Saint clearly wasn’t following his directions the way he’d hoped. “Dude. Just fucking listen to me!”
A few people scattered around the café looked over to see what Seren was so angry about.
“The bastard threatened Grace,” he continued a little quieter, causing the people to get back to what they were doing. “He showed her footage from inside our treehouse. The only time we can speak is when you’re away from the manor and on someone else’s phone. Do not go rogue on me. It puts everyone in harm’s way.”
Again, he listened to Saint.
“I need you to come up with an excuse for being down in the dungeon.” His eyes cut to mine, realizing what he just called the basement at the manor. He shot me an apologetic look. “Once you’re down there,” he continued into the phone, “you need to locate the camera so you can avoid it. If for some reason you’re caught on it, pick something up like it’s what you’d been looking for down there. Report back to me after that.”
He listened to Saint, nodding his head like Saint could somehow see him.
“Then we wait for him to leave. He’s gotta be going out of town soon. You’ll return to the basement—avoiding the camera you already found—and turn off the main power from the breaker.”
Oh, good idea. Shut down all the cameras in the house in one shot.
“We’ve got three minutes before the generator kicks on. So, while the power’s off, Sawyer needs to get to the third floor. There’s got to be something in Martine’s office. Something we can pin on him.” Seren’s eyes cut to mine. “The stuff he was putting in my mother’s drink. What was it in?”
“A small clear tube,” I said, knowing if they could get it and there were still some remnants inside, it could be tested.
“A small tube,” Seren repeated to Saint. “I need you to let me know when it’s going down. I need to be on the phone with you so if anything goes wrong, I can help.”
He listened again.
“Give me your word you won’t talk about this on the property or around your phone. Grace swears he can hear without the phone being used. Oh, and go buy you and Sawyer prepaid phones so we can talk moving forward. We’re gonna take this motherfucker down once and for all.” He ended the call and just stared at my phone, a million thoughts clearly running through his mind.
“You okay?” I asked.
“As long as Saint follows my plan.”
“You repeated yourself enough for him to know what’s at stake,” I assured him.
“I think they can handle it,” he said, though his words didn’t hold much conviction.
“They definitely can,” I said, knowing he needed to hear it just as much as I did. They hadn’t seen the way Martine switched into someone unrecognizable at the drop of a dime. The man was a sociopath capable of unthinkable things. They needed to be careful.
“I’ve got practice in an hour,” Seren said, glancing at his new phone. “But I don’t want you to leave.”
“I need to go back,” I said, starting to get myself worked up. “He could see that I haven’t been there. He could get suspicious.”
Seren reached across the table and linked his fingers with mine. “You haven’t told me about the dolphins.”
He was trying to calm my fears, and I needed to let him or else I’d be right back to where I’d been when I arrived. “I haven’t gotten to work with them yet. But I’ve been training and learning all I need to know for when I do.”
“Sounds promising,” he said.
“I just wish…”
“What?”
“That I wasn’t only there because Martine made a donation to get me in.”
