AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s notmyhumanitarian.”
“He’s not?” She looks back up. “But he’s okay with all of this? With what you do?”
“He’s implanted, so yeah, I assume he’s okay with it.”
Bridget’s eyes slide away. “You should definitely ask him before making that assumption. He wasn’t raised in The Guild, so he actuallydoeshave a choice.”
She turns and leaves me standing in the hallway with doubts about Sandesh, my upbringing, and my siblings.
35
SANDESH
My truck idles before the Mantua Home’s front gates as armed guards check my credentials and the undercarriage of my truck. There is some serious campus security here. Can’t help but wonder how people don’t question just how serious it is. Not like every school has enough security to anticipate armed gunmen or bombs. Then again, maybe every school in America should.
Still, none of it matters when the threat is inside the building.
I pick up my ringing cell.
Justice says, “You ready for my family?”
My heart warms at the sound of her voice. “Ready and willing.” Knowing we have end-to-end encryption, I ask, “What’d you find out today?”
“Dada’s sleeping with her Brothers Grim informant.” Maybe I should take back thereadypart of my statement.
“That can’t be good.”
“Yeah. Betting money’s on her or Bridget right now.”
The guard approaches my window. “One sec, Justice.”
I take the ID he hands me, along with a printed pass with a barcode that he tells me needs to be displayed on the dash. “Will do,” I say, as the other guard withdraws the mirrored pole she’d been using to check beneath my truck. They wave me inside.
Slowing over the speed bump, I stop at the stop sign. This is my first time entering here on my own and unblindfolded. The overcast and misty afternoon doesn’t lessen the beauty. Ofcourseit would be beautiful; a school this prestigious has a reputation to uphold.
“It’s beautiful here,” I tell Justice.
“It is.” There’s a smile in her voice. “Go left at the stop sign.”
I do, starting my drive through a campus that stretches over rolling hills.
“What do you see?” she asks me.
There are brick school buildings, dorms, a library, and cafeteria hub, and winding among all of them, walkways lined with elegant streetlights. “A lot of girls of varying ages. They all look so young. Innocent.”
Is it possible for Walid to find his way here? I grip the steering wheel and talk myself down from that thought. No. Mukta Parish has kept this school safe for forty years.
“Looks can be deceiving. Just look at my sisters.”
“Speaking of… You’re no longer thinking it’s Gracie? Having to send away your son and the love of your life because he found out the family secret sounds like serious motivation.”
“I don’t know. Bridget said some weird things today. She thinks she’s got some kind of super-brain that can tell what people are thinking. Or something like that. It was really weird.”
“Strange.” I wait for the teens passing through a crosswalk before I turn right on Parish Court, then head up the hill to the mansion. “What about your brother, Tony?”
“I got nothing from him today, but the day I arrived back from Jordan, he told me he’d given Momma a plan before the BG mission to take out the Brothers separately. She never brought it up to the team, and he seemed really upset about it.”
“Have you seen the plan? Could we use it to get Walid?”
