Page 27 of Forbidden Bond

“Plan D? That’s good. Do we have a plan B through C?”

“Yep.” She put the gun in Conn’s pocket, keeping its reassuring weight in her grip. “Go to my grandfather’s.”

She’d been avoiding it. Sort of. The notion of going was far less appealing than the club, but they’d struck out there. Strat already struck out at the loft, though that would be next on the agenda.

“What do you think we’ll find there?”

“Evidence.”

“Of what?”

“The amount of blood, the direction, pooling. Unless someone has cleaned up,” because who would? “If they haven’t, there should be evidence of medical intervention too.”

“They didn’t call nine-one-one.”

“No. But if their doctor is decent and Conn was that bad, wouldn’t the doctor have come to him with supplies?”

“Isn’t the plan to find Ire first? He’ll tell us all that.”

What was her thinking? That was his unasked question.

“It’s also the last place I know Conn was alive. Just like we did with your search, took it step by step, we have to do it with this too. If Conn was hurt and they needed to take him into hiding, he might have left something, a note or an address, anything that would point me to the right place.”

“The last he saw you, Ronald was dragging you off, don’t forget.”

How could she? “One of us would always have to find the other. Something has to give.”

Something. Yes. But what? And what did Play mean? She knew what to do?

“Okay, your grandfather’s it is,” he said, already driving that way, “will you get in?”

“We can go in the back way. I know where the tunnel is now.”

“Tunnel?”

“Yeah, apparently Henry’s house is like a secret location for Indiana Jones or something. It’s the way my dad got in.”

Not that he’d been explicit about that.

“You have a key?”

“I have you,” she said, widening her smile when he glanced her way. “You’re my lock pick.”

“Nothing shady about that,” he said, “us sneaking into a dark, shadowy place to start picking locks.”

“You know, getting arrested wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

“For who?”

“At least then Conn would know where I was.”

Just like Strat said, the superintendent’s daughter being arrested was newsworthy. What better beacon was there than the cops? They had, inadvertently, outed their relationship after all. Law enforcement had its uses.

“Let’s call that plan E… or Z.”

She inhaled and repeated his words. “One step at a time. One step.”

The truth would find her eventually. The only concern was whether she was ready to accept it.

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