AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let me see it again.”
She pulls it out of her pocket and hands it to me.
You need to see what’s on this flash drive. Once you’ve watched it, there will be a black Land-Rover waiting at the corner of Pinehurst and Third. I can keep you safe.
“We don’t know who this is,” I point out. “It may very well be Benedict.”
“I was his prisoner once.” Celine finally meets my gaze. “He wasn’t cruel. In fact, there were moments when he was really kind to me. We actually kind of…got along.”
“He was trying to manipulate you, Cee.”
“Perhaps. But clearly, Ilarion is better at that than Benedict.”
I flinch when she says his name. Despite what I’ve just seen, it’s hard for me to believe. This is Ilarion. He may be a lot of things, butthis? The kind of man who makes a promise, and then breaks it? Like that?
Some small desperate part of me clings to the possibility that what we saw was only one part of the puzzle. And in order to make sense of anything, we need to find the rest of it.
“We have to get out of this house,” Celine insists.
“I agree, we do. But I don’t think going to meet this car is the solution.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“We go into the city, grab an Uber from there, and go somewhere no one knows where we are.”
Celine scoffs violently. “Fuck, Taylor. Ilarion owns the entire city. It won’t matter where we go; he’ll find us.”
“He didn’t find me for five years. We’ll be fine.”
“That was because of Dad! And w-we don’t have—fuck—we don’t have him anymore. Neither one of us knows how to disappear like he did.”
“Well, we have to try.”
She fists her hands in the roots of her hair. “Don’t be naïve, Taylor. We’re going to need help to get out of the city. Whoever this person is, if they’re willing to help us, then why the hell not?”
“Because it could be a trap.”
“Not worse than the one we’re already in!” Celine explodes, jabbing a quivering finger at the laptop.
“I saw it, too.” I gulp, my throat painfully dry. “But there’s…there has to be an explanation.”
“The hell there is!”
I grab her hand out of the air. “Please, Celine. I just don’t want us playing into Benedict’s hands. We can’t trust him.”
“We have to trust someone. And right now, we don’t have a lot of options. Go and grab Adam—we’re leaving in ten minutes. Meet me at the entrance.”
“Will they just let us leave?”
“You let me handle that part. Just get Adam. And make sure no one suspects that anything is wrong.”
“The flash drive?”
“I have it.” She wrenches it out of the laptop and stuffs it in her pocket. “Now,go.”
With a frantic nod, I rush out of her room. I plow through the house, slowing down only when I come across a maid. I find Adam in the gardens with Edna, tossing bread to the birds congregated at the fountain.
“Edna, would you mind running Adam a bubble bath?” I ask with a smile. “I’ll bring him up in a bit.”
