Page 51 of Forged in Secrets

“What?”

“Donald Fairman was acting so shifty for the entire phone call. Every time I asked him a question, I got the feeling he just wanted me to shut up. But at the same time, he admitted to me that he and Jade’s dad are good friends. Craig Gorsky has been a longtime mentee of his, in fact.”

“Interesting,” Ben said as they strode out of the elevator and into the lobby of the hotel. “I think we need to talk to Jade’s dad ASAP.”

“Way ahead of you. I called Craig right after hanging up with Donald, and he was even more standoffish. He only kept me on the phone for about five minutes. I did find out that Jade’s mother is deceased, and he confirmed that the girls had use of the boat.”

“Did he know why she might have lied about it?”

Grace shook her head. “He said he had no idea, but that he’d talk to her about it. I tried to tell him that her behavior is actively hurting our search for Katie Fairman, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. He acted like she was just a typical moody teenager.”

Ben let out a snort. “Jade has to be at least twenty. And I don’t know any teenagers with her level of bad attitude, anyway.”

“Agreed. But it’s not like I was going to tell him that.”

“Fair enough. So, what’s next?”

Ben looked down at her expectantly as they stepped out into the humid island air, his hand still gripping her own. She could see in his face that he was sorry for dismissing her earlier.

Maybe he really did want to hear what she had to say, but she wasn’t going to let him off the hook so easily.

She’d just have to wait and see what happened next.

The last time she’d failed to listen to her gut, a church had been blasted to smithereens, and she’d found herself buried beneath the rubble.

She wasn’t going back to that again.

Not ever.

Not even for Ben Forge.

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

CRAIG

The phone vibrated against the nightstand, dancing across the smooth surface as a familiar name glowed on the screen.

Craig Gorsky took a few slow breaths.

He stuck a bookmark between the pages of the novel he’d been trying to read for the last hour, too distracted to gather the meaning of the sentences as his eyes ran across the letters.

“Hi, Donald,” he said at last as he lifted the phone to his ear. “How are you doing?”

He could hear Fairman’s heavy breaths on the other end of the line, making him sound even more stressed than Craig felt. It was morning in China, and Donald should have been at work by now, slinging AveroTech microchips for his latest desperate business deal. If he was calling, something was probably wrong.

He climbed out of his bed and sauntered over to the window of his boat’s most luxurious cabin, glancing out atthe water. An orange and purple haze lingered along the horizon, slowly following the sun as it bowed out of sight.

Another day had passed, and everyone was still alive.

“I just got a phone call from the private security people investigating Katie’s disappearance.”

“Oh? Is that surprising?” Craig said, trying to keep his tone neutral as fresh guilt bit at his insides.

“It was when they mentioned Lumen,” Donald replied, his voice rising in pitch with each word.

“Calm down, please,” Craig said calmly, his words not quite a command. “I know. They already called me.”

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