Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Dragon
I retrieve my cell phone from the pocket of my jeans and stare at the number scrawled on the paper. The blue ink is smudged slightly from where I gripped it too tightly. I enter the number, hit the call button, and hold the phone to my ear. Each ring seems to slap at me—a reminder of my sister’s abandoned room, her missing smile, that last Christmas morning we spent together.
The ringing stops.
Then a pause.
Finally—
“Who’s this?”
Do I say who I am? The package was addressed to me. Well, not addressed so much as it just had my name affixed to it.
“I’m the person who you gave this number to.”
Tense silence.
Then a voice.
“Ah, Griffin’s brother.”
Her name in his voice sounds like a curse. Though I expected something like this, shivers slide down my spine, and I tighten my grip on the phone, my knuckles turning white.
“What do you want?” I rasp out.
Another pause. “To talk.”
My heart thunders. “About what?”
He chuckles coldly. “About Griffin, of course.”
The room seems to tilt. I know it’s in my mind, but still I grab the edge of Diana’s counter to steady myself. “Where is she?”
“Are you going to stop investigating?”
I clear my throat. “Already done.”
Not true, but Alayna assured me she would be more discreet. Or maybe she already was discreet. Maybe whoever this is just assumed I was investigating. After all…whoever it is knows where I live, which means they know the penthouse is owned by Diana Steel.
Maybe they think I’ve got access to Steel cash, so they assumed I’d hired someone.
Oh, God… If they think I have access to Steel money, they’re going to want me to pay for information.
“Good,” the voice says. “Keep it that way.”
“And then what?” I ask, my grip on the phone so tight that my fingers begin to ache. “You tell me where Griffin is? That she’s safe?”
A low laugh, chilling me to the bone, echoes through the line. “Safe is relative.”
That’s the final push. The last straw. My blood comes to a boil.
“What does that mean?” I shout.
“Calm down,” the voice says.
Is there a familiarity to the voice? Is it the same voice that called me from the other numbers? Something nudges at the back of my mind, but I can’t place it. I force myself to take a deep breath before speaking again. “Tell me where she is.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Another silence stretches across the line, but it’s shorter this time. “Because I don’t have her anymore.”
Anger surges through me. Whoever this is on the other end of the line just admitted to having my sister! If I could reach my fist through the phone and mutilate him, I’d do it.
But I breathe in.
If he hangs up, all is lost.
“Then who does ?” I demand.
“They call themselves the Order of the Serpent.”
“The Order of the Serpent?” I echo, my blood chilling. Whatever the hell it is, it sure doesn’t sound welcoming. It sounds like some kind of bizarre cult that could be doing God knows what to my sister.
If this joker isn’t trying to pull one over on me. How is my sister even alive after all this time?
Someone is playing me.
Who else would know about her pink flannel pajamas with rainbows, though?
Only my parents…
But if she was wearing them when she was taken…
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
My parents. I swore to God I’d never speak to them again, but if Griffin is alive somewhere, they might have information I need.
I’ve got to find them.
The person on the other end of the line doesn’t reply, and then the call ends.
“Damn it!” I have to stop myself from hurling the phone at the wall. I need it. It’s my only link to Griffin.
What is the Order of the Serpent? Why do they have Griffin? What do they want?
I’m left with more questions than answers and a racing heart.
I should call Alayna. Tell her what I know—what little I know—but how can I explain this to her when I can’t even grasp it myself? How could a bunch of cultists kidnap my sister? And who the hell had her for the two decades before that?
But first, my parents.
I don’t bother plugging their names into the search engine. Been there, done that.
Instead, I call Alayna after all. If she’s as good as the Steels think she is, she should be able to find Felix and Stefania Locke…and tell me what the hell the Order of the Serpent is.
Alayna picks up on the second ring. “Dragon. Any updates?”
“Yes,” I reply, trying to keep my voice steady. “I got a package. It contained a piece of fabric from some pajamas I gave Griffin for Christmas before she was taken.”
“Are you sure it was hers?” Her voice remains even.
“No, of course I’m not sure. But it also contained a phone number, and I called it.”
“And…?”
I relay the conversation to her.
“Your parents,” she says, no question in her voice. “They’re the only ones who would know about the pajamas.”
“Yes,” I say. “Do you have any leads? Because I need to find them right away.”
“Already working on it. I may have a lead on their whereabouts. Stefania Locke has been making small donations to a certain charity. Might be nothing. Might be her.”
My heart sinks. I need certainties, not maybes. “Where?”
“New Mexico,” she replies. “Taos, to be exact. They’ve been lying low, living under fake names. The donations are in the name of Stefania Locke, but the address is to a Christina Delaney in Taos.”
New Mexico. Not too far from Colorado.
But why would they be using fake names?
My heart drops.
Have they done something illegal?
Or are they hiding from someone?
My God…
Are they hiding from me ?
But they can’t hide from me anymore.
“When can I go?” I ask.