Page 15 of Savage Heart

My phone vibrating against my hip rouses me from my daydreams about her, and I lift it up in front of my eyes to see who’s calling. Focusing, I see it’s Helix. Odd. He usually doesn’t bother me with work after the sun goes down.

I scrub the last of my nap away and head down to his office. Maybe someone pissed him off royally and he wants me to do a job ASAP. That’s not really Helix’s style, though.

As I pass through the entryway into the other side of the house, I see Kerry on her way upstairs. She smiles and points toward the hallway to her husband’s office. “He’s burning the midnight oil tonight. I think something big is happening back home.”

Back home? The plot thickens. Even more curious now, I pick up my pace.

Helix is standing near the window in his office that looks out toward the pool area. He doesn’t look particularly perturbed about anything, so maybe this is just him wanting to get a jump on tomorrow’s work.

“What’s up?”

When he turns to face me, I see a hint of something different in his expression. Maybe worry? I quickly decide it has nothing to do with any of his own kids since Kerry wasn’t upset, but if it has to do with back in the States, that means one of my cousins is in trouble.

Or maybe one of my siblings? Or my mother?

“Sit down, Alaric. I want to talk to you.”

As I do as he orders, I joke, “Sounds serious. Something happen to make the world turn upside down?”

When he walks behind his desk, he continues to stand, which confuses me even more. What the hell is going on?

“Something’s happened.”

I wait for him to continue, and when he doesn’t, I ask, “With?”

“With the situation back in Connecticut,” he answers in a serious voice, frowning.

Fear races through me. “Who? Is it my mother?”

She looked okay the other night I was at the estate. Unhappy I wouldn’t stay but still healthy like always. What could have happened?

Helix shakes his head, and a smile replaces the look of unhappiness from a moment ago. “No. Why would you think that?”

A headache begins forming at the base of my skull from all this spoon-feeding bullshit he’s doing. “Because you said something’s happened with the situation back in Connecticut and you look downright concerned. Since neither of us is crazy about my father, I figured it had to do with my mother. So would you mind just cutting to the chase and telling me why the fuck you called me down here tonight?”

He takes his own sweet time sitting down and getting settled so I’m about to explode when he finally starts to explain what’s going on. “Something’s changed with Sienna.”

My heart drops into my stomach at the sound of her name and the words something’s changed. “What? What’s changed? She’s graduating. Is that it?”

I sound distinctly unlike me right now. It’s like I can’t stop my voice from ratcheting up higher and higher as I speak, and all I want to do is shut up. But I can’t.

“Is that what you mean? Do you want to send her a card with a nice big fat check? Why are you telling me anything about her?”

As always, he’s calm and merely shakes his head as I start to ramble. “Because you care about her. Stop acting like a dick.”

Even as my heart continues to race, I take a deep breath in and blow it out of my lungs in the hope that I can relax. Something’s happened with Sienna. That’s not good. If it was merely about her graduation, Helix wouldn’t be bothering to even mention it to me.

Something’s changed means something bad happened.

“So what’s changed?” I ask, unsure I want to know the answer.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much of your father in you until tonight. It’s not a good look on you. That’s for sure.”

His mention of my father sets me off, but I’m not in the right headspace to fight with Helix tonight. I stand to leave, preferring to walk away if he doesn’t want to tell me what the hell has happened. Fuck him. I can fly up there and find out on my own. It’s not like he’s the only way I can learn about what’s going on with Sienna.

Just before I walk out of his office, he says, “Her brother found out where she is. He sent someone to get her.”

His words stop me cold. Is he telling me she’s dead?

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