Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
She stands up, leering over me. “That’s just it. I’m not a mother. It’s like I told you. Felix and I had to remake ourselves. We remade ourselves into a childless couple. We even changed our names. We’ve moved around a lot.”
I get to my feet and meet her gaze. “Why did you change names? Why did you move around a lot?”
She breaks eye contact with me and sinks back into her chair. “We had our reasons.”
“So Dragon couldn’t find you once he turned eighteen?”
She doesn’t respond.
So that’s the truth. She doesn’t want her son. She doesn’t want anything that reminds her of the daughter she lost.
And now she’s hardened. Hardened into an old woman with no heart.
Dragon will get nothing from her. Certainly not any maternal love. So I’m done interrogating her.
Time to move on.
“I need you to tell me something, then,” I say.
She squats down and grabs the cigarette that fell from her lap. “What’s that?”
“Tell me everything that happened the night your daughter disappeared.”
Chapter Nineteen
Dragon
It’s my private investigator, Alayna.
“Dragon Locke,” I say into the phone.
“Dragon, it’s Alayna. I’ve got a lead on this Order of the Serpent.”
“Is it some kind of cult?” I ask.
She pauses. “Yes and no.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I found a group with that name. It’s a mysterious group with immense power and dangerous reach. They aren’t exactly a cult. More like a secret society. They’ve got their fingers in everything, from politics to crime. I’ve heard rumors about them, but this is the first hard lead I’ve had.”
“Sounds shady,” I say, my voice heavy with skepticism. “What’s the connection to Griffin?”
“If they have her…”
“Just say it, Alayna.”
She sighs through the phone. “Here’s the thing, Dragon. They buy women. Men and kids too, for that matter.”
“But why? What for?” I ask, though my own experience tells me I already know the answer to the question. It’s something I don’t let myself think about.
“You’re not going to like this, Dragon.”
She pauses, and I can almost hear her grimace through the phone.
“It seems they’re using them for rituals. Dark ones.”
My stomach churns. Rituals? Like some twisted version of human sacrifice? God, I can’t go there.
I gulp. “So what do we do now?”
“Whoever had Griffin before probably either sold her off, or someone saw her and arranged for her abduction.”
“But why would—” I stop myself.
Why would whoever had her sell her off? Or have her someplace where these lunatics could see her and abduct her?
Easy.
Whoever has had her all these years is a kidnapper himself, and God only knows what he’s done to her.
The thought makes me sick.
Because I know.
I know what horrors can be done to a small body.
“Dragon?” Alayna’s voice pulls me from my thoughts. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I force the lie out. “How do we find these Order bastards?”
“Leave that to me for now. I’m going to grab some colleagues and check out a compound in Albuquerque.”
“I’m in Taos now. I’m not too far from Albuquerque. I need to be in on this, Alayna.”
She pauses again. “It’s better if you’re not.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’m going to be in on it.”
“You know how to shoot a gun?”
I let out a light laugh. “Hell, yeah.”
That was one of the first things I learned to do when I turned eighteen. No way was I going to be anyone’s victim again.
“Do you have one on you?”
“Well…no.”
My gun is in a locked case back in Diana’s penthouse. Why I didn’t think of bringing it with me, I’ll never know. I was so laser-focused on finding my parents, I guess I glossed over some of the details.
“Leave it to us pros,” she says. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I know anything.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Not a problem. You’ll hear from me soon.”
The call ends, and I call the number that was left for me in the metal box. To my surprise, someone answers.
“What is it?” the voice on the other line says.
“I need your help,” I say.
“I’ve given you all the help I can.”
“Are you the person who had my sister all these years?”
No response.
This is so bizarre. In some warped way, I think he cares for Griffin. Cares that she’s gone and is trying to get me to help him find her.
“I need to meet you,” I say.
“Not going to happen.”
“Look. If you kept my sister alive all these years—”
“What makes you think I’m the person who had her?”
“You’ve made that pretty clear. You had that fabric from her pajamas that she was wearing the night she was taken.”
I don’t know for sure if she was wearing those pajamas, but I’m assuming so. They were her favorites, and she probably wore them because they reminded her of me.
Griffin loved me. Griffin probably missed me. She did miss me, according to my mother. She kept asking about me.