Page 119 of Sin

London eyed President Osborne with confusion. “But the murders? Both of them have been working together to kill the lab workers. Why wouldn’t you want to arrest both of them?”

She sighed like this was exhausting. “Mr. Whitmore, do you think I care about a bunch of twisted scientists dying?”

“Considering the point of the mission was to stop any more of those twisted scientists from dying, I thought so?”

“No, the point of the mission was to detain Mr. Delacruz. That was the objective. It’s still the objective. Which is why I’m here.” She pursed her lips. “I’m aware that Mare was your friend, but she lied, kept crucial information to herself, and is currently harboring a dangerous man. I want her, and Mr. Delacruz, found and brought in. Is that clear?”

Was she serious right now? According to her face, she was. But she couldn’t actually believe that we’d turn Mare in—

“I’ll find her,” London said, making my thoughts come to a halt. “Just give me a little more time to recover first, then we can get them and bring them in.”

“That won’t be necessary. Just give us a location once you’re recovered. We’ll send another team.”

London stiffened but nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

President Osborne smiled proudly at all of us. “You’ve worked hard, I hope you know that. We wouldn’t be this close to capturing him without all of you.” She turned her attention to me. “Once we have Mr. Delacruz, you’re free to go. I gave you my word, and I’m going to stand by it, even if you’re not the one to bring him in.”

I nodded, though I couldn’t even feel happy about it with the amount of bullshit happening right now.

With one last glance around the room, she left, the door falling shut silently behind her.

The moment she was gone, I twisted to glare at London. “You can’t actually be serious right now.”

He cloaked my mouth with his palm, and his eyebrows moved up to his hairline. “Relax, Sin.” He glanced from me to the others and swallowed. “I understand this situation just got a hell of a lot more complicated. But we’re a team, and I’m still your captain. I will always put the team first, even above any mission. So I just need to know.” Sucking in a breath, he asked, “Do you trust me?”

Chapter Twenty-Four

No accidentally murdering him

The deserted apartment building barely looked to be standing. The gray bricks holding it together were withered, and the windows were all either broken or covered in a thick layer of filth. The grounds weren’t any better. Where there had once been a flower garden, there was now only dried, dead plants and random pieces of litter, and the walkway was cracked and mostly hidden by weeds. The grass around the grounds had lost its vitality, and it crunched beneath our shoes as we approached the stairwell.

Every step rattled the metal stairs, and in some areas, I couldn’t tell if the stains were rust or blood. We ascended to the top floor and moved down the row of doors until we found the one we’d come for.

Apartment 202 appeared just the same as the others in the hall. A nondescript, gray door, simple, gold numbering, and a generic welcome mat placed before it. On closer inspection, however, I noted that unlike the other abandoned apartments, the dirt coating the floor appeared disturbed, like someone had walked, or been dragged, through it.

The lock was broken on the door, so when we tried the handle, it groaned open with little resistance. Inside, shadows clung to the walls and ceiling, and a musty smell hung in the air. London led the way inside, carefully and quietly stepping over some shoes which had been carelessly dumped in front of the door. The shoes weren’t the only things blocking our path.

Random clothes, old magazines, and a filing cabinet lay on the floor. A mountain of beer bottles had been stacked off in the corner, and an old pizza box sat opened off to the side, a moldy slice of pizza left to rot inside.

Dusty pictures were strung about the walls in a non orderly fashion. I stepped closer to one, using the hem of my shirt to clean it off so I could study it.

A family of four posed for the camera. Two little girls with their dark hair in pigtails giggled in the center while their parents tickled their sides. The little girls were dressed in matching sunflower dresses and little yellow shoes.

This was Mare’s family. Lucas’s family.

I studied Mare’s mother, taking in her long, black hair that curled around her elbows, her delicate, heart-shaped face, and her bright, wide smile. While I definitely saw some of Mare in her features, it was Lucas where I spotted the most resemblance.

In the photo, his hair was cut to his shoulders, and it was wavier without so much weight. He’d been brawnier back then, his body fit from manual labor. He had a sharp jawline with ample lips curved in a smirk, a straight, slightly turned up nose, and warm, hazel eyes full of mischief.

It was so fucking obvious now, that I once again, gave myself a mental kick for not figuring out their relationship sooner.

More pictures of their little family through the years lined the walls, though the mom became absent in the later ones, but I pushed away the urge to uncover them all and instead followed London and the others down the hallway.

The first thing I noticed was how bare the room was. It was clear no one had lived here in many years, and that the place had been ransacked of any valuables. There were papers scattered all over the floor, and I spotted one waterlogged school essay by Meredith Whelan.

Lucas lay sprawled on a peeling, leather couch with Mare sitting on the ground with her head hung low. He didn’t look so good. His skin was coated in a layer of sweat, causing his blood-stained shirt to stick to him. He was unconscious, and his chest rose and fell weakly. Almost alarmingly so.

At some point, Mare must have stitched and bandaged his stomach because the wound was now covered in thick gauze and tape. There were a couple bloody pieces of gauze on the ground by Mare’s feet, but it didn’t appear like the wound was bleeding through the gauze anymore.

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