Page 69 of The Revenge

“What about tonight?” I don’t want to press, but… I know his parents. “He’s had a whole day to get the background check carried out.”

“He knows who she is. Figured I let myself get whipped by her pussy—”

“Facts.” Gemini holds his hand up, waiting for a high five. When Syn doesn’t move, he drops his hand. “I don’t know why you’re bothering to deny it, because none of us believes you.”

After shooting him a look, Syn returns his attention to his phone. “He told me it was time to stop whatever the game is he thinks I’m playing, and to make sure I end the relationship tonight. He knows who she is, but if he knew du Pont was up to something, he would have told me to let her disappear and not try to find her.”

I’m not sure if that’s what I want to hear or not. “Has she gotten off the highway yet?”

Syn shakes his head. “You’re catching up. She’s nearing Riverdale.”

“Where the fuck is she going? Back to JMU?” I frown. It’s the right direction, but it’s not the best route. At this time of night especially, it would be much easier and quicker to get there from the interstate.

Unless she doesn’t have the tracker on her anymore…

“We could be chasing a ghost,” I say. “She could have found the tracker, got unbelievably pissed off at you, and dumped it in a truck to send us on a wild goose chase.”

“The tracker is in her watch. There’s no way she found it,” Syn tells me, dryly.

I roll my eyes. “Because it’s not possible for someone to have stolen it.”

“You want to go back?” Syn whips his head around to glare at me. “I’d love nothing more than for that to beanotherthing for her to be pissed at me about, but we both know she wasn’t in that fucking museum when we ran out of it.”

From behind us, Gemini starts laughing.

“You find this funny?” I glare at him through the rearview mirror.

“Are you kidding?” Gemini gives me a shit eating grin.

He’s lucky we’re driving so fast, or I’d turn around and punch him.

Still grinning, Gemini leans forward, resting an elbow on each of the front seats. “We might not have as much training and experience as most of the XXXVII—much less the resources at their disposal—but the fact that you two have completely come apart and are acting like two horny, pubescent teenagers fighting over a girl? That’s funny. And the fact that neither of you can see this is fucking hilarious.” With no warning, he smacks us both on the back of our heads.

“Fucking hell, Gemini!” I bellow, barely keeping control of the car. “Are you trying to get us all killed?”

“No more than you are.” The smile drops from his face. “Our Vixen is alone with him. If he knows what we do, he knows how to kill her and make it look like an accident. The fact that our Vixen got out of that museum with no one seeing her—or him—means he’s either not working alone, or he’s got someone else to help him. Either way, he’s dangerous, and if you needmeto tell you two to stop dicking around and get your heads in the game, then you might as well pull over and let me go by myself, because we’re all screwed.”

Neither me nor Syn have anything to say, because he’s fucking right.

“She got off the highway.” Syn’s attention is back on the phone, his game face on. “Yonkers.”

That’s the next exit.

We’re close.

XXVII

Tori

The back of the van is pitch black. There are no windows, and the door is closed so tightly, that there’s not even a sliver of light. There is a handle on the inside, but no matter how hard I try, the door won’t open.

When Preston shoved me, I was able to get my arms out quick enough to stop my face from smashing onto the floor, but I landed heavily on my left hand. Ignoring the pain, I’ve felt my way around every inch of the back of this van, trying to find… anything.

In the few seconds I was getting in, I could see the van didn’t have boxes or shelves, but I was hoping that I’d missed something.

I haven’t.

The only thing I could find was a small pile of dirt that I’m still clutching tightly to. With some leaves that didn’t crumble under my touch, and a lingering floral perfume, my guess is the van has been used by a gardener or a florist. From all the flower arrangements at the gala, a florist’s van wouldn’t raise any questions if someone was to check the area.

---