Page 93 of Hard Wired

“We pulled them, just like the kid wanted.” Tanner sent an accusatory glance back at her. “Starting to wonder about that.”

So was she, though she didn’t want to say it aloud.

Dominic unbuckled his restraint and reached for the door.

Sylvie grabbed his arm. “Wait, you can’t go. That’s not the plan. Raymond’s supposed to meet us out here.”

“But if he doesn’t come out, then we need to go in.” Dominic got out of the car.

She met Tanner’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“I figured you both would get pissed if I activated the child locks. I’ll go with him.”

“Then so will I. Rex can wait here for us.”

“Sure,” Tanner said breezily. “Why don’t we stop by a frat party, chug a few beers while we’re at it? Fuck.” He tugged on a windbreaker, clearly meant to hide the gun in his shoulder holster.

They hurried after Dominic, who had already charged up to the building’s entrance. The door was locked, but a couple of girls had just gotten out of an Uber and were tottering toward the door, their keys in hand. Their eyes widened when they saw Dominic. Sylvie didn’t know if they were afraid of him or stunned by his attractiveness. But it didn’t really matter.

She stepped forward. “We were just heading in. Can I help you with that?”

The girls gave Sylvie their keys. She unlocked the door and handed them back. She had half a mind to follow them to make sure they got back to their room safely, but Dominic was already running down the hall.

He stopped at a door. “This is it. Raymond’s in room 104.” His knuckles rapped on the wood.

“Does he have a roommate?” Tanner asked.

“It’s a single.” Dominic knocked again, louder. Then he tried the door, but it was locked. Sylvie could feel his panic. He was running his hands through his hair, cursing. “This can’t be happening. Where is he?”

A couple of people opened other doors, peering out.

“Anyone know Raymond Crane?” Tanner asked. “He could be in trouble. We’re trying to help.”

Raymond’s neighbors said they knew him, but they had no idea where he was. Then a shirtless guy stepped out of the room across the hall and said, “I saw him earlier, leaving with a bag. He said he was taking a few days to go see his family.”

Dominic practically pounced on the man. “When was this?”

“Um, midnight maybe?”

After they had the phone call with Raymond. But why would he have left so early? That was hours ago.

Tanner thanked them, and the students went back into their rooms. “Wherever Raymond is, he’s not here. We need to go. We could be blown.”

Dominic was pacing frantically across the hall. “I’m not going without him. There’s been a mistake. He wouldn’t have just left.”

He raised his phone to his ear again, probably trying Raymond’s number. He turned around and paced away from them, muttering to himself.

A terrible thought had just occurred to Sylvie. Priyanka hadn’t detected any data coming in from the Russian hackers’ system. Did that mean they already knew what she and Dominic had tried to do?

Had they gone after Raymond?

But then why would Raymond have left on his own?

Tanner pulled Sylvie aside. “This situation could get very bad very fast. We need to get him out of here. If those Syndicate people come back, we could be putting every kid in this building in danger.”

“Okay, but then what? We have to do something.”

“Yeah, we’ll call the police on the way. But we’re not doing anything else until after Dominic’s in the safe house. This is more than we can handle right now. The best we can do is get him secured so this doesn’t explode in our faces. Then we’ll see to his brother.“

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