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Cora sat, and so did Gabe.
“We owe you thanks,” the taller man explained. Huge thanks. You rescued our younger sister.”
“What happened to her?” Cora asked.
"We came to Paris last week. We are here for a reason, trying to help the family. She was in a bar, trying to get some information, and she thinks that her drink was spiked. She got dizzy, and then she woke up in a place where – where bad things happened to her. She was kept prisoner for a few days. She fought hard. But they took her somewhere else after that, and they said she would work for them or else. Then you appeared, and she said that you freed the women from there."
Cora nodded, understanding the background. The woman had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she'd been unlucky. That was how it happened, as simple and brutal as that. She must have fitted the type they were looking for.
“I asked her if she knew somebody called Rose or if she'd heard of her. I'm looking for Rose. She was trafficked here, to Paris, a while ago. I heard that place used people who’d been trafficked, so I went there. I asked the women there about Rose when I’d helped get them free. She handed me this note with an address and time to meet. So here I am. What does she know? I helped her. Now it’s time for her to help me."
“We know that,” the man said. He glanced at his brother. Instinctively, Cora knew that look meant there was trouble. Something was complicating the situation.
She tensed. There had been too much of this going down already today. She wasn’t sure how much time she had for any more of it.
"I need to know the answers. You said you owe me thanks? Now help me. I'll do whatever it takes to get to Rose. I'm not going to beg for answers, and I don’t want to have to force them out of anyone else," she snapped. Automatically, her hand moved down to her stolen gun. Why were people being so secretive? What were these guys hiding? Her aggression was peaking, and it was Gabe's calm voice that helped to smooth things over.
"Gents, we want to rescue a woman in trouble. Why's there an issue? Your sister's safe now, and it can't hurt to tell us this, surely?"
The older of the two men took a deep breath. He’d shredded a paper serviette into tiny fragments while Cora was speaking.
"There is an issue. It’s nothing to do with you."
"It sounds as if you're making it to do with us," Gabe said.
He nodded.
"The reason we are here at all, in Paris, traveling from our small town on the Swiss border, is because we are looking to find someone. A family member came here a few years ago, and she has recently stopped replying to our messages. We know - we know some of what happened to her," he said. “We know where she is.”
"But we don’t know what to do now," his brother said, and now his gaze was pleading as he stared at Cora. "My sister said you seem like you might be able to help us. She thought you had that skill because she watched what you did."
"She's right. I am a PI," Cora said. “I help people. It’s what I do. But I don’t know who you are or why you want help, or why you’re not telling me what I need to know.”
"She asked if we would plead with you. Can you find her? We will pay; we have money. We have gotten nowhere so far."
"And if I find her?" Cora asked. She could see the desperation in their faces now, it was genuine, and her anger was simmering down again.
"My sister knows something. I don’t know what she knows. She is still very traumatized and has not even told us everything. But at the very least, she could give you the address of the place where she was taken. She remembers the view from the window. It was a narrow view, but there was a landmark she recognized, and when she was taken out in the car, she memorized the street view and the street names." The taller man stared at her. “Is it possible that we could come to an agreement? That we help you, and you help us in turn?”
Cora stared back at him, eyes narrowed. This wasn't what she'd wanted or expected. This was a complication.
But these people were desperate; she could see it. And the address of the place where this sister had been taken would be a good starting point.
Finding people was Cora's specialty. She was good at it.
At any rate, it couldn't hurt to have more background.
"Tell me the details," she said.
CHAPTER FIVE
This was a twist Cora had never expected. Here she was, sitting squashed up at a table in a high-end bar, with Gabe next to her, talking to two men who were literally refusing to tell her what their sister knew about Rose. Instead, they were discussing an agreement, and that got all her impatience flaring.
She felt like punching the truth out of them. She'd have stood up and stormed out of that place if she hadn't been so desperate for answers. And if she hadn't seen the same desperation now in their faces as they explained the situation.
"She's our cousin," the taller man said. "Heidi Le Roux. I'm Stefan, by the way. And she's from our town, a little mountain town which is all the way on the Swiss border."
"And what happened to Heidi?" Gabe asked.
