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“Until we are sure what’s happening, I’m canceling all outside missions,” Mason announces. “Everyone stays inside the hotel, and I want security tripled. I don’t care if everyone has to pull double shifts.”
We all nod in agreement.
“I want all communications monitored as well until we know how they made it look like the message came from Griffin’s phone. We need to be extra careful,” Mason continues. “We need to find the threat and eliminate it immediately.”
“We already know who the threat is. Let’s draw her out,” Trent offers. “It looks like they came for Nat, so why not use that to our advantage and?—”
“No,” Mason and I say at the same time. He raises an eyebrow at me, questioning without words why I was so quick to deny.
Feeling the need to explain, I do just that. “Natalie already got hurt today, plus we don’t know if they want to hurt her or not. They tried to take her, yes, but we have no idea for what.”
Surprisingly, Natalie stays quiet. Knowing her, I expect her to jump in, to volunteer to go, but she doesn’t. She only stares at her hands folded in her lap.
“Obviously we wouldn’t send her in without backup,” Trent huffs, annoyed. “What is going on with you guys? You’re all acting weird as fuck.”
“How would you know what we act like? You’re never here,” I snap.
“Christ.” Mason runs his hand through his unruly hair. “None of this is productive.”
“Why don’t we all take a breather,” Teagan intervenes. “Let’s sleep on it and come back here in the morning when Griffin is back. I highly doubt someone’s going to try something else today.
“Teagan is right,” I agree, before the room settles into an uncomfortable silence. “We should all take a breather and continue this tomorrow.”
“Great. Are we done here?” Natalie finally asks, “I’m ready to take more pain meds and go to bed.”
“We’re done,” Mason announces. His gaze meets mine before bouncing back to Natalie. He gives me a stern look, telling me without words to keep an eye on her. I nod in agreement and follow Natalie as she gets up from her chair and walks out the door without another word.
“I know you are angry?—”
“I’m not angry,” she snaps. “I’m tired, and I want to go to sleep without talking.”
I hate how suspicious her outburst makes me. Why is she so closed off right now? She has every right to be angry with her brother, unless she actually is hiding something.
We step into the elevator, and Natalie punches in her code. Only when she hits enter, the elevator doesn’t move. Instead, a red light flickers on the bottom of the panel.
“What the fuck?” She types her code a second time just to get the same red blinking light in response. “That asshole revoked my access code.”
“Maybe there is just a malfunction.” I try to calm her down. I type in my code and push for floor seventeen, Natalie’s suite. The elevator slides shut and starts moving one level down.
“Told you,” Nat spits. Crossing her arm over her chest, she leans against the elevator wall until we make it to her apartment.
“Why don’t we take that shower we talked about earlier?” I ask when we walk into her place. “Maybe that will help relax you a bit.”
“I’d rather be alone right now,” she huffs, heading to her bedroom.
I stop in the center of her hallway. “You know I can’t leave.”
“Yeah, I know you are on babysitting duty, but I doubt Mason would be okay with you taking me to the bathroom and tucking me into bed.”
I sigh at her lashing out. I’m not sure what brought all of this animosity on, but I do wish Griffin was back already. Maybe he could help me make sense of what’s going on with her.
15
NATALIE
Ihate this—all of it. Hate the way my brother spoke to me, how Teagan looked at me, and above all, the way Dallas hovers over me. I also don’t appreciate how Griffin is not here. It feels like something is missing when he is absent, and part of me hates that, too. I can’t get attached to him, or anyone. I need to stay focused.
For the first time today, I’m alone, but I don’t trust Dallas not to burst into the bathroom. So I wait another few minutes before I pull the folded up paper the intruder pressed in my hand from my back pocket. I unfold it quickly, nervous about what I might find. I’m not sure what I expected, a heartfelt note by my mother? It’s definitely not what I get. All I find is a string of numbers with a single word OVERWRITE written on the small piece of paper. It doesn’t take me long to realize what this is. The hotel’s security system overwrite code. she must think I’m a prisoner here, and I guess in some ways I am. Mason has people watching me twenty-four-seven, and my access code doesn’t work anymore.
