Chapter 28
Sunlight streamed onto my face and I blearily put a hand up to my eyes, rubbing them a few times before I cracked my eyelids open. The storm had blown itself out, and judging by what I could see from the sun’s position in the sky, it had to be close to midday.
“Lochlan?” I rolled over to find the bed beside me empty.
Had he gone for a walk? I sat up. His side of the bed was cold, like he hadn’t been there for quite some time.
I swung my feet out of bed and went looking for him, but the cabin was small enough that it didn’t take long for me to confirm that there was no one else here, and he hadn’t left a note either.
Lochlan and I had kissed the night before and I’d fallen asleep in his arms, so why had he abandoned me at the first opportunity?
Rather hurt that he’d just left so abruptly but still trying to trust that he must’ve had a good reason, I set about looking for the records.
A few well-placed knocks on the walls helped me find the secret compartment in the wall, but it took more than half an hour to figure out how to open the panel and drag out a heavy trunk.
The lock on the trunk wasn’t overly difficult, and I set about picking it, slowly working my way past each set of tumblers.
I heard footsteps approaching the cabin and jumped up to see who it was, then relaxed when I saw Lochlan.
At least he hadn’t abandoned me forever.
Making sure my face was arranged so I didn’t look as upset as I felt that he’d left me without saying anything, I went back to focus on the trunk.
I wasn’t going to be the nag who demanded to know where a man was every second of every day and felt forgotten every time she was left alone for a few minutes.
I might be a girl, but I wasn’t going to be that type of girl.
The door opened and Lochlan stepped inside. “I knew you wouldn’t waste any time finding that,” he said.
“You’re right. I don’t like wasting time.” My voice came out a little snippier than I meant it to. I paused, then couldn’t resist adding, “You left.”
“Did you know you hit in your sleep?” he said with an amused smile. “It was sort of hard to sleep next to that. Apparently, you don’t like being touched when awake or asleep.”
A blush crept up to stain my cheeks. “Oh. Sorry.”
“No matter. Can I tempt you with a cinnamon roll?” He dramatically brought out a basket from behind his back.
In it were several cinnamon rolls, a small jar of jam, and some fruit, and the handle was tied with a ribbon.
“I wanted to get back in time to surprise you with breakfast in bed, but the path was soaked and it slowed me down.”
My frostiness immediately melted. Of course he would be sweet and want to get me breakfast. I had been silly to be hurt that Lochlan was gone when I woke up.
There he was, trying to surprise me by trekking all the way back to town for food because we didn’t have anything here, after I’d hit him the night before in my sleep, and I had been resentful that he didn’t sleep in as long as I had.
“I’d love one. Just let me finish here. I almost have the lock undone.” With a small click, the lock popped open. I threw it to the side and took the roll he offered me. If this was what it was like to have a man in my life, I was highly in favor of the idea.
“Let’s see what we’ve got,” Lochlan said, eagerly opening the trunk. I leaned in, prepared to dig my hands into sheafs of papers and spend hours going through to uncover my sister’s record, and found…nothing.
Apart from a single piece of paper, the trunk was completely empty. With shaking hands, I pulled it out.
To those seeking what was already stolen:
I have taken these records, and with them, the names of every life you sold. I will find them all, and when I do, I will remember who was responsible for their suffering.
Your days are numbered. Revenge is coming.
The Employer
It was written in Ambrose’s familiar handwriting.
Lochlan read the paper over my shoulder. “The Employer?” he asked.
“The one who issues and pays the bounties for all the hunters,” I said breathlessly, still staring at the way the letters were formed.
Ambrose couldn’t be the Employer. He was wheezy and bookish and dull.
The Employer was supposed to be powerful and strategic and almost omnipotent.
“The Employer controls the entire Syndicate.”
“And he took all of Roderick’s records,” Lochlan groaned.
I vividly recalled being in the Employer’s office and going through the filing cabinets.
There had been a file listed as Revenge in there, and I’d simply passed it by.
I’d been so focused on getting to Roderick’s information that I’d skipped straight over what I really needed all along.
Was Ambrose the Employer? No wonder he alone had access to the office and seemed to always have inside knowledge.
“We have to go back to the Syndicate,” I told Lochlan. “I think I may know where the records are.”
“The Syndicate was raided, remember?” Lochlan said.
I stared hard at the note. “That’s the problem. I remember too much,” I said softly, then shook myself. “But the Nightsworn might not have taken everything. I have to try.” If they had Ambrose, and Ambrose really was the Employer, they might get him to talk.
Lochlan took the paper from me. “We could ask the Nightsworn for help,” he suggested. “I know where their central location is.”
“Are you crazy? No!” I said. “They’d never help.”
“They helped me before,” Lochlan said quietly. He dropped the note back into the trunk. “That day I sold you to the slavers, I went straight to the Nightsworn and told them what was going on. I didn’t know if Peter and I would be able to extract you otherwise. I needed backup.”
An icy shiver ran down my spine. Lochlan had gone to the Nightsworn. The bounty hunter part of me that always avoided them was horrified, but the newer, girly side of me was touched that he would be willing to go to so much effort to make sure I was safe.
“They sent someone in to pose as a purchaser, then once it was confirmed, they organized a strike for about twelve hours later. They’re very efficient.”
Strangely, this information helped me to relax. The face of the woman the slavers had sold had still haunted me, and now Lochlan was saying it had all been a ploy. She was safe.
“Then at the wedding, I went to thank them,” Lochlan said. “But I didn’t want you to overhear. I thought you might be angry with me.”
“Did you tell them about the pixie dust as well?” I asked. A tiny drop of doubt niggled at the back of my head. If Lochlan was on speaking terms with the Nightsworn, and I’d seen them with the jar of pixie dust…he could’ve done that as well. “They raided our first hideout and took the dust.”
“That wasn’t me,” Lochlan said quickly.
My unease grew. Someone had told the Nightsworn about the pixie dust, and Lochlan had just told me he had sent them to the slavers’ warehouse.
I couldn’t imagine that Peter or Roderick would’ve been in contact with them, and I knew I hadn’t, so that only left Lochlan… unless it truly had been a coincidence.
But there were too many coincidences to ignore. The raid for the pixie dust, the warehouse, then the raid on the Syndicate… They were being passed information, but through whom?
I bit my lip. The Nightsworn already had Ambrose, and they had raided the Syndicate the night before. If there was any chance that my family’s paperwork had been moved, I had to find out. I needed to know.
“I’m not going anywhere near the Nightsworn,” I said. “I don’t trust them. But I am going back to the Syndicate to see if they left anything behind. Will you come with me?”
“If you didn’t invite me, I’d follow you,” Lochlan said with a grin. “I won’t let you go that easily.”
The Nightsworn were nowhere in sight as Lochlan and I cautiously entered the Syndicate and picked our way through the broken glass and ripped papers that littered the floor.
At least there weren’t any blood stains.
Had the Nightsworn come in and only taken prisoners instead of injuring or killing people?
Ambrose’s office was a complete disaster.
All the listed bounties had been ripped off the entire wall, and papers were scattered all over the room.
Drawers had been emptied, cabinets flung open, and furniture tipped over.
I stared around at the wreckage. If Ambrose truly was the Employer, it was a brilliant setup to remove the target from his back.
He could claim he was in communication with the Employer, and everyone would overlook him as simply a messenger or secretary.
How could I have been so oblivious? All the bounty posters on the floor and notes strewn about were in that same familiar handwriting that Ambrose used each time I saw him jot down any kind of note.
I’d never asked him how he became involved with the Syndicate, and now, the Nightsworn had him.
What would he tell them? Had he assumed no one would ever figure it out and that he’d be safe to play secretary all this time?
Next to me, Lochlan dug through the papers, then paused after picking one up.
It was a picture of his father, with the offered bounty listed below.
I brushed past him, still looking around to see if anything was missing.
The Nightsworn would’ve wanted to shut us down; I understood that.
But they should’ve taken more things. I would have, if I’d been able to successfully take down an enemy’s command center.
But they seemed to have left everything here.
I moved into the Employer’s office, which hadn’t fared much better than Ambrose’s. The filing cabinets had been opened and files were strewn about the room.
Please, please, please, I thought, digging through everything, hoping to find something intact, and for once in my life, luck was on my side.