Page 46 of Lure

It wasn’t his job to look after me. It wasn’t any of their jobs. Despite that, here we were. The conflicting reactions competed for dominance over my mood and left me even more restless than when I’d tumbled out of the nightmare.

Dressed in an oversized sweatshirt, again, and a clean set of sleep shorts, and thick socks, I finger combed my wet hair so I could go downstairs. One second before I reached for the doorhandle, I hesitated. Most nights when I woke up and Voodoo was in here, I didn’t leave the room.

What if they’d locked the door again?

Would they do that? They hadn’t since those first days, but would they when I was asleep and didn’t know? Wrestling with thewhat ifswas just giving me a headache. Now as annoyed with myself as I was with them, I turned the handle and the door opened.

See.

The mental castigation didn’t do me any good. The house was dark save for a couple of night lights that led to the landing the stairs. Dark and quiet. The other doors along the hall were quiet. Weirdly, I didn’t know where anyone else’s bedrooms were. I’d not bothered to look.

Note to self, time to stop soaking in my self-pity stew and figure that out. I was supposed to be convincing them to help, to keep looking, to do more, and was I doing any of those things?

Eleanor would slap me, if she could see me right now.

The thought stopped me dead at the top of the stairs and pain bloomed around my heart. Eleanor was dead. She wasn’t going to be doing anything anymore. She was dead and I had to ask myself if that wasalsomy fault. Was it really an accident? Even when the guys described it, they didn’t make itsoundlike an accident.

Grief twisted up my insides. Tears clogged my throat, and I had to swallow hard to try and choke that emotion back down. I’d never see her again.

Never hear her salty tone when she wanted me to get my shit together. Never savor the laughter in her voice when she chortled over coming out on top with a competitive deal. Never share a toast when we cross another item off the bucket list of my career and hers.

Closing my eyes, I dipped my chin and fought the tsunami of emotion threatening to drown me. The silence closed in on all sides, leaving me alone with the painful thump of my wounded heart. Flexing my hand against the newel post, I wasn’t sure how to breathe anymore.

Then a masculine sound drifted upward, piercing the quiet. A hum of a voice. I could hear them speaking, but I couldn’t quite make out the words. Someone was awake. Blowing out a breath, I made myself head down. Once on the first floor, I recognized the voice

It was Alphabet.

Following the sound, I found the door to Alphabet’s office open. Light spilled out into the hallway, and his voice grew clearer and clearer with each step I took.

“Standby, I’ve got the codes. I want to be fully into their system before you make entry.” Music rolled out of the room, but it wasn’t cranked up.

It was alsodisco.

I blinked at the clear notes from Donna Summer singing aboutMacArthur Park. Cool song, but also… weird.

“Okay, I’m in,” Alphabet said and I moved closer to the doorway. Goblin sprawled on his bed, completely flipped onto his back and snoring. He shifted a little when I appeared and his eyes slitted open. He thumped his tail twice, but when I didn’t come any closer, he seemed to go back to sleep again.

“Keep your pants on, Bones. This isn’t just picking a lock. I am rewriting their logs to erase any trace of us being here.” Alphabet sat at his computer, his screens all lit up with a dozen different images including what looked like security camera footage.

Arms folded, I frowned. Bones was clearly off on some mission somewhere. If he was gone and Alphabet was here, I’dbet that Voodoo or Lunchbox or both were with Bones wherevertherewas.

“Cycling the power now. Fence is shutting down, you’re clear to go through it or over it. Dealer’s choice.” He rolled his fingers against a track pad and the camera angles changed.

There the guys were. All three were visible briefly. The images were kind of green and they were moving at speed. Something landed on the top of the fence. Then they were over it. One. Two. Three.

It was almost blink and you would miss it. They were off the cameras again.

“Hold, ten seconds,” Alphabet ordered and his fingers flew as he counted it down. When he got one, he merely said, “Go.” Then the screens rotated again. I couldn’t see where anyone was or even where they were. It was all dark, even with the green tint.

“You are clear in three, two… go.”

His fingers flew in a little symphony of their own over his keyboard.

“Doors open, boys. Come on in.” Then the screens changed to interior shots. The sudden brightness had me squinting even across the room from the monitors. Alphabet had a headset on, so he could hear the guys and I couldn’t…

Wait, there they were. They were dressed in dark clothes and masks or balaclavas or whatever those things were called. The guys were moving steadily through wherever the hell they were. I glanced over at Goblin again as his snores climbed in volume once more.

Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t upsetting. At least it wasn’t upsetting for Alphabet at the moment. I had a dozen questions, but I didn’t want to interrupt. An entirely different tension wound through me.

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