Page 31 of Captivated with Them

So, Dillon wasn’t being held in the same place as Rue. Or, if he was, he was being kept well away from everyone else. But he’d been taken from the restaurant in a different direction. Why would they do that if they were being held together?

Frankie was most likely using Dillon as a way of controlling Rue as well. If he could threaten to have Dillon hurt, she would do what he wanted instead of trying to escape or fight back.

Maybe Dillon hadn’t been taken anywhere. I’d just assumed he had been. I didn’t want to say anything while we were within earshot of the girls, unsure what they would take back to Frankie, but I made a mental note to speak with Kodee once we were done.

We uploaded everything onto the computers. They would need some manipulation before they were ready, which was what took the time and skill. I also remembered our promise to one another that we would make a mistake with these passports, so the girls didn’t get where they were intended. They would be picked up at passport control, and hopefully given an opportunity to tell their side of the story. I wished we could let the girls know they still had hope, but I didn’t want there to be any possibility of them letting it slip to Frankie. Not only would it put us in a massive pile of shit, it would also ruin their one chance at rescue.

The door buzzed. Frankie’s men were back to collect the girls.

The two women had relaxed a fraction in our presence, but the moment Frankie’s men walked through the door, they shrank back into themselves again. I hated to see it. It reminded me of Rue and how she must be feeling back under the Capellos’ ownership.

“All done?” one of the men asked.

“Yes,” Kodee said, “we have what we need to make the passports, but we still need another twenty-four hours to work on them. We’ll drop them off to Frankie when they’re done.”

“No need. We’ll send someone back to collect them.”

“We’re happy to come to Frankie’s. Save him the trouble.”

I knew what he was doing. If Rue was being kept at Frankie’s, going to the house rather than have someone come here might give us the chance to see her again. Not only that, it would give us an idea about the layout of the house and if there was any way we could get in there without someone noticing.

His tone grew hard. “I said we’d send someone back. If you think I’m going to invite you both to Frankie’s house, you’ve lost your goddamned minds.” He grabbed the brunette girl, May, and she let out a whimper. “Now, do your jobs, or Frankie will decide you’re not worth keeping alive.”

His partner took hold of Skye and yanked her toward the front door of the apartment. The young woman glanced over her shoulder, peering through strands of her blonde hair, and threw us a smile that was both grateful and laced with regret.

Kodee stood in the middle of the apartment, his broad shoulders tensed and arms folded across his chest, while the men pulled the young women from the apartment and shut the door behind them.

Even after they’d left, he didn’t move, just stood there, staring at the door.

“It was worth a try,” I told him.

He turned to face me, his features hard planes carved in granite. “Didn’t work, though, did it?”

“We’ll figure something else out.”

“I just thought, now that we know where she’s being held, if we could get into the house, we might be able to come up with a way of getting her out again.”

I nodded. “I know, but we’ll work something out. This isn’t over yet. What about Dillon? If he’s not being held at the house with her, it might mean he’s at the restaurant?

Kodee frowned. “How is that possible? Wouldn’t someone see him?”

“The staff all know what the Capellos are like. I guess as long as he’s somewhere the general public aren’t likely to stumble across him, or hear him, then it wouldn’t matter.”

“True. What are you suggesting?”

“That we check the place out.”

Kodee shook his head. “You’re crazy. How do you think we can do that? A big black guy and a man in a wheelchair are hardly going to go unnoticed.”

“We’re going to have to find a way. If we know where Dillon is, we can’t just leave him there.”

“Once Rue has done her thing in court, the Capellos might let him go.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Do you really believe that? Once they’ve got what they want from Rue, they’re more likely to kill him. They’re only keeping us alive because we’re useful to them.”

“So, we need to make sure they knew Dillon is useful, too.”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I just don’t think that’s going to be enough.”

Even knowing where Dillon and Rue were being held didn’t seem to have gotten us any closer to bringing us back together.

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