Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
There that girl was, just walking to school, and the next second she’s snatched up off the bus stop and taken to a third world country where she was treated like a doll by a drug lord who found it amusing to have her.
In the two and a half weeks that she’d been gone, she’d received a cut right above her left calf that had needed stitches. Unfortunately, the drug lord who’d kept her imprisoned hadn’t thought to get it treated, and by the time that we’d found her, it’d been so infected that we thought she might lose the leg.
Turned out, it was much worse than that.
“Fuck,” I said, unsure what to say.
There was nothing right in this particular situation.
“Fuck,” Autry agreed. “Just thought that I would reach out and let you know before you heard it on the news.”
I nodded my head and thanked him, then went back to my blanket.
I’d just finished it, tying off the very last loop, when my sister came into the room looking worried.
“Can’t you knock?” I asked. “Can’t any of you knock?”
Zip didn’t look apologetic.
In fact, she looked worried.
Which had me straightening up, blanket forgotten.
“I could,” she said, no humor in her voice. “But then where would be the fun in that?”
I studied her face for a second before saying, “What is it?”
She bit her lip, looking torn.
“Just spit it out,” I urged.
This had to do with one of three things—only a few things would she be hesitant to share—and none of them were good.
One, they could’ve found out about what I was doing with Winston and were pissed.
Two, there was something wrong with the circus.
Three, was a little trickier. I’d only truly gotten irritated about it once, but there was only so much invading my privacy that I allowed. Which had to do with Folsom, an old worker for our circus, and a woman who was scarily good with a computer.
Then again, it wasn’t just a computer that she was good with. She was also adept with anything that could connect to the internet, whether it be a twelve-year-old flip phone, a computer that had seen more dust than the floor, or some crazy good security system.
If the woman wanted to hack it, she could.
She was better even than Winston’s guy, which was saying something because that man was spy-on-the-president good.
“So, what is it?” I asked when she didn’t quite spit it out fast enough.
She sighed, then dove straight in.
“Bro,” Zip blurted. “Folsom just called me because she found out some information that you might want to hear.”
I rolled my eyes.
I asked Folsom to stop monitoring everything I do, and she’d kept her promise.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t still nosy as hell.
“What did our little hacker find out?” I asked as I started folding the blanket.
“Keene, look at me.”
The tone of her voice had my head snapping up.
“That girl you met at the airport that you’re not sharing anything about? Well, we invaded your privacy and had Folsom look into her. We’re sorry. Really sorry. But something happened yesterday.”
I sat up straight.
Was that why she wasn’t answering my calls and texts?
“Is she okay?” I asked, voice sounding a bit more rough than usual.
“She’s okay,” she hesitated. “But her sister isn’t. According to the search Folsom did when her name pinged, her twin sister, Addison, died of an apparent overdose.”
My brows rose.
“But here’s the thing,” she said hurriedly. “The girl didn’t commit suicide. She was this health-conscious nut who didn’t take anything that was even remotely medication-like. She didn’t even take Tylenol or Ibuprofen, according to the search into her. She had a prescription for those pills, filled by a doctor on base. But she’s never even once gone to the base doctor outside of the routine physicals she’s forced to do. Everyone she sees is holistic, and she pays out of pocket to them because her insurance doesn’t cover them. There’s something shady going on here.”
I slumped and started to rub at my face with both hands. “How the hell do I tell this woman that I’m really into that my sisters are huge invaders of privacy, and know literally no boundaries?”
“She’s home,” Zip said, ignoring me. “She flew in early. She’s been at her house alone for thirty minutes.”
I stood up, tucking the blanket underneath my arm. “You know who she is, right?”
I looked at her. “Who?”
“Her,” she said, pointing at my blanket.
“More info, please,” I urged, not feeling the desire to play a guessing game when she clearly had the answers.
“Her name is Ande Carter. She’s the sibling of the man that Val saved five years ago,” she said. “Remember?”
I opened my mouth, and then closed it.
“Really?” I asked, surprised.
“Really,” she said. “Did you not get her name?”
“I mean, I got it,” I admitted. “And she told me she had a ton of siblings, but I never made the connections.”