Chapter 15 #2
I watch him perched on top of the desk in the meeting room, his gaze vacant, staring out through the window as conversations hum around him. The grey in his eyes hasn’t made an appearance today.
He’s listening in on whatever the voices in his head are discussing, what they’re plotting.
Regina and Dawson made it back here before us.
All the Egnever girls are accounted for and have left the state, with enough money to give them a better life and start over somewhere new.
Some apparently already had inclinations that the both of us were behind it, but thought it was too crazy to even speak it out loud when they saw us in real life.
I’m still not sure whether I should take it as a compliment or not.
When Rex finishes giving the low down of how yesterday went, Regina lets out a long, deep breath. “There’s no way they could think I killed all those members by myself; they must want me because they know I have files against them.”
I turn to look at her, taking her hand beside me on the sofa. “Why wouldn’t they ask for Dawson if that was the case? He has more.”
“Maybe they don’t know enough about Dawson; they might be directing everything to Gina,” Rex adds.
Louisa met him with Regina, and I know for a fact she won’t have let that slip her mind. If she believes it’s Regina and Saint working together, if they’re able to find anything on Dawson’s history, it won’t be long before they extend the invitation to him.
I don’t know if they can access his background, but I’m sure his time in the military will raise their suspicions.
They can’t have any of them.
I’m not losing another person to the Omnia, whether that be in mind or spirit.
A chime slices through the tension in the room, and Rex pulls out his phone to read a text. “Be back in a bit.”
His footsteps thump as he leaves the room, and I turn my attention back to Saint. “What are you thinking?” I ask him gently.
He eventually breaks his stare to look at me. The corners of his eyes soften, but only a fraction. “We’re going to send our people back into those woods encasing their home, and we’ll bring that fucker Barry to us.”
My heart drops.
“Saint, have you thought this through?”
He pushes off the table, walking towards the window with his hands in his pockets, the light a stark contrast to the darkness surrounding him.
“We don’t have a choice. We need to move faster than originally thought.
I have eyes on as many of the hierarchy as I can, but that’s not who we have to worry about.
They won’t get their hands dirty; they’re above carrying out a task like that on their own.
They’ll send their dogs. We get Barry first and lure the rest out one by one until we get the Montgomerys on their own. ”
Regina’s hand slips into mine, giving it a reassuring squeeze before looking at Saint. “What about Louisa?”
My sister won’t allow her husband to be willingly taken, and she’ll raise the alarm if she thinks something’s happened to him. As soon as that warning call goes out, all fucking hell is going to break loose.
“That’s for Indie to decide.”
The temperature in the room plummets at his words.
Since the day I discovered Louisa’s secret, I’ve wanted her dead.
Seeing her at her home wavered my anger, the nostalgia of our childhood, our family bond trying to make itself known through it all.
And that she somehow believes I’m innocent.
It’s all piercing through, screaming to provide me some clarity through the haze of pain.
The one way I can rein it back is the knowledge she’s willingly working beside them after what they did to me, what their sick plans would have involved if they followed completely through.
And that immediately gets me right back on track.
My fingers massage into my closed eyes. I feel a headache coming on.
I can feel his presence without even having to open my eyes. Warm hands land on my knees, and I open my eyes to find him at my eye level. “We have cells underground. She can stay there until you decide when.”
Fuck, imagine Mom finding out I held my sister hostage.
What would she think if she knew what both of them hid from her, from us both? I wonder who she would be less heartbroken for.
My inhale is long and deep as I make my decision, buying myself some time to think clearly. It’s not exactly like my sister going missing wouldn’t raise suspicions; she’ll have a national search party on the hunt for her.
I’ll use the time until she arrives on how to deal with that.
“Bring her here,” I answer, and Saint answers with a curt nod as his hands squeeze my knees and he rises to his full height.
Deciding I need to make this life-altering decision sooner rather than later, I stand up and head to my room.
I stop halfway down the corridor when a thought pops into my head.
Jenna.
She seemed to speak with a bit more clarity, and she was always the one to help me off the ledge.
Making my way to the side of the building she’s on, I hear a deep voice travelling up the corridor. Slowing my movement, I get to the top of the corridor and peek round the corner, my heart twisting at the sight.
Rex is sitting on the floor, hands on his raised knees as he sits across from Jenna’s open room, and her throaty laugh has my eyes glassing over.