Page 712 of One More Kiss

“Hand sanitizer?” he asked with a laugh.

“I’m good. I like to live dangerously.”

“Okay. Follow me, ladies.” He led us down a dim hallway to a steel door and flipped open a retinal scanner. One look and the door slid open revealing a set of steel stairs that had to go at least two floors underground.

Our footsteps echoed in the eerie silence as the normal noise seeping through doors and windows faded away to be replaced by a thick silence and eventually a dull hum.

The dull hum of electronics.

The inner sanctum.

We followed more long hallways at the bottom, made two right turns, and finally a left before arriving at a corridor of steel doors.

“River’s in pod twenty-one,” Gunnar said, pointing to the end of the corridor.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t say another word, just nodded and disappeared around the corner the way we came.

“I don’t know if I should be pissed right now that she didn’t tell us about this, in awe she made it in, or thankful that she finally let us in on it,” Lexi said as we headed for River’s pod.

“Well, I’m pissed,” Talia said.

“I can’t lie; I’m feeling awe more than anything right now,” Lexi added.

“I guess that means I’m the thankful one. That should use up my supply of good manners for at least the next month.”

“Anyone else feel like their life is about to change?” Lexi asked in a hushed whisper as we reached the door.

I glanced at her over my shoulder, this latest revelation just one of many factors in the past year, changing who I would become. “It already has.”

* * *

River snappedthe door open right after we knocked, as though she’d been anxiously waiting for us to arrive.

“You have some explaining to do,” Talia said with a hard glare.

“I know,” River said, sliding her hands through her messy auburn waves. “It’s all been happening really fast and the shit I stumbled on—I’m not gonna lie, guys, I can’t even tell you I feel safe talking about it in here.”

“No wonder when there are bodies involved,” Lexi said.

I took a seat and met River’s panicked eyes. “Start from the beginning.” I perched on the edge of the chair, the pressure I felt before to be ready to flee only increasing with River’s secret.

“Someone in The Scorpio Society is corrupt,” River blurted out.

Talia, Lexi, and I all looked at one another before I turned my gaze back to River and stifled my urge to laugh. “Girl, this is not news.”

“No, corrupt corrupt. They’re not living up to their oath and they’re getting sloppy. The kind of sloppy that could expose the whole society. For the past month, I’ve been narrowing down the possibilities.”

“And?” I asked, an unusual hesitation in my voice.

River paced the length of the wall in the small lounge, her footsteps silent on the plush carpet under her feet. “I don’t like what I’m coming up with.”

“What are they doing that’s so bad?” Talia asked.

“Trafficking women.”

The buzz in my ears filled my head until I couldn’t hear anything coming out of River’s mouth. I could only stare as her lips moved, her hands waving through the air with every word.

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