Chapter Forty
Erin
I’m in a small room with brick walls. There is a dirty window overlooking a courtyard, but the heavy bars in front of the glass make it impossible to escape.
There is a rusty bunk bed in one corner and a small sink and toilet on the far corner.
It must have been a dorm room for employees before this place closed down.
And there is someone sitting on the dirty mattress in the lower bed.
A woman.
She is hugging her knees and watching me with wary eyes through tangled strands of matted brown hair hanging down her shoulders.
I stand frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do or say.
Her clothes are dirty and torn, her face and arms are bruised.
But it’s the haunted look in her eyes that makes my heart clench painfully.
She looks like someone who went through hell.
“Are…are you all right?” I ask tentatively.
The woman looks at me for a beat and there are tears gathering in her eyes. “No, no, no…they took you, too.” She lets out a helpless sob.
She unfurls slowly to sit on the edge of the mattress, and I take her in. She looks to be tall but her frame is so thin she looks sick.
My eyes sting with a mix of emotions so powerful, I can’t name them all—pity for her, for what she must have been through, hopelessness for our situation, and above all, paralyzing, bone-crushing fear.
I gingerly approach, not wanting to frighten her. “I’m Erin,” I tell her while I sit down beside her.
She looks at me for a beat. “Lydia,” she says in a hoarse voice. Then she slowly extends her hand.
I take her hand and squeeze. I don’t tell her that I am pleased to meet her, because I’ll tell her that when we are outside, sipping margaritas and singing silly songs in that karaoke bar together.
“Lydia, do you know what this place is?”
She shakes her head.
“Who are the people who took us?”
Her face pales under the grime. “There are two of them, the older one and the young one.”
“Have you seen more?”
She shakes her head again.
Desperation gnaws at me. I scoot to rest my back against the wall and hug my legs, hoping against hope that Matteo will find me. He will find me. Unless… unless he already knows where I am, because he orchestrated this , a small voice whispers in my head.
No! Pull yourself together, Erin . He can’t be involved, he is looking for you. He will come for you.
My thoughts spiral and I need to get a grip.
I look back at Lydia, who has taken the same position as when I was shoved into the room.
“Were… are there others like us?” I whisper, too scared to hear the reply.
She nods slowly, gaze far away. “There were three others before you, but they didn’t stay long, they took them away in a span of a few days.”
Nausea starts to roil in my gut. “How long have you been here?”
“I…am not sure,” she whispers. “I lost count after eighteen days. It could be a month. Even more.” She is sobbing now, the sheer terror in her voice gripping my heart in a vise.
Shit. I have to stay strong for both of us.
“Lydia, listen, someone will come for us. They are looking. We just need to buy time and stay alive. And if we get a chance to run, we run. All right?”
She nods.
“Matteo will find us,” I say, more to myself than to her.
“Matteo”— her head snaps around— “as in Matteo Di Rossi?”
That gets my attention. “You…know him?”
“I work for him.”
“Me too, Data Science department,” I offer, mind spinning.
“I’m…was working as a hostess, as is my partner Jade.”
Jade. I look at her in shock. Is this a coincidence?
“Jade? The club?”
She nods.
“That’s…insane.” My head is spinning. “What is going on here? Do you know why you were taken?”
“I’m not sure, but the only reason I can think of is overhearing something outside The Bastion.
He…the younger man was there, talking on his phone about meeting the person on the phone and the next thing I remember is waking up in a car trunk.
I don’t know what they’re going to do but I overheard them arguing about keeping me as leverage or something.
They always say that I am goods when they talk about me. ” Tears stream down her face.
I take her hand again and squeeze. “Jade and Matteo”—I know I shouldn’t give her false hope, but she should know—“they are doing all they can to find you. In fact I’m—was—her new neighbor and I’ve talked to her. She’s never given up.”
She gives a small helpless smile.
“Matteo will come, he is the best for finding people, you’ll see.” I finish with more confidence than I feel.
She nods and looks at me through her tears as if I had a key to get out. My stomach drops. The truth is that I have no key, no plan, no clue how we will make it out of here.
But I am hoping like hell that Matteo is looking for us.
* * * *
Matteo
Where are you, little ghost? I am moving hell and heaven, why can’t I find you?
Hours later, D, Luc and I are the only ones remaining in my office.
I sent Dave and Allan home a while ago despite them wanting to stay to help.
We lost trace of the SUV when it drove into a neighborhood with no security cameras in the area.
There was nothing more they could do, and I wanted them gone if—when—I lost control and ripped the walls apart with my bare hands.
Now I am tearing through every shred of data, every possible lead like a madman.
Not one of them gives me any clue. The car belongs to Rourke and is registered at his home address.
Luc tore his place apart but they found nothing, the fucker is gone without a trace.
His background check gave us no clue either, it is clean. Maybe too clean.
D is sitting on a couch outside my office, coordinating research teams. But until now, there has been no breakthrough.
We have nothing.
With every second, I feel my soul fracture into tiny fragments so sharp and destructive they shred my sanity to scraps. I am not sure what will remain when the last piece of myself is crushed to dust. But right now, I can’t afford to break.
Erin needs me. The thought loops in my head like a mantra, the only thing keeping my sanity tethered to my consciousness.
I let out a frustrated breath and rub my palms over my face. The sound of my beard bristles scraping against skin sounds too loud in the silent office.
When I look up, I try to regroup, to think about what I could have missed.
I frown when something catches my eye. There is a new folder on my home-screen.
Cat pics for grumpiness relief.
What the fuck?
It can only come from her. I click to open the folder, half-expecting to see cat pics.
But instead, there is a single file named Grump.enc.
I double-click and a password prompt pops up.
I try her name, but nothing happens. I try mine, with the same result.
I try Ghost , and this time, line after line of data spill on the screen, all of them about Manticore.
Why did Erin put the folder on my desktop? I scan the data, hoping to find a clue.
A name catches my attention, Bastion . I look closer. She has saved a note about finding a trace of a message to someone calling themselves Geryon coming from here, from inside the Bastion. I freeze.
Geryon.
Someone here contacted Manticore.
Fuck .
Did she find a traitor and get caught because she came too close?