Page 5 of Blind Sin

My eyes are on the road, but I can almost feel the weight of her glaring at me.”I'm not going out on a date with you. Are you out of your mind? If you're not going to help me find Lauren, I'm getting out of this car.”

I respond with a quiet determination, “No, you're not.” My eyes remain locked on the road ahead. “We are going on a date. We're going to talk, laugh and do all the things that people on a first date do for the benefit of anyone watching. And in between all of that, we're going to discuss where Lauren might be. Then we'll call Nix and Dacre, and they'll help us find her.”

I see her hesitate for a moment, her eyes narrowing as she considers her options. I continue to focus on the road ahead, waiting patiently for her to respond.

“Every second we waste is an extra second my sister is in danger.”

“I know, but we do it this way or we don’t do it at all. Dacre, Nix and I have come up with a plan.”

After a deep sigh, she slumps back into her seat. “Fine,” she concedes through gritted teeth. “But they’d better fucking find her because this is our only chance. Where exactly was the last place you tracked your phone signal to?”

“The tracker stopped working north of Albany on the 87. We thought she was being brought back to your house, but the tracker sailed right past it. Nix and Dacre are in Albany heading up to Saratoga Springs right now.

Lucinda inhales a deep breath and sits up straight. “I know where she is. Fuck! Turn off at the next exit!”

My heart leaps at the excitement in her voice. I pull out the burner phone, find Nix's contact and hit the call button.

He answers on the first ring, his voice tense with anticipation. “You get her ok?” he demands. I put the phone on speaker. “She’s with me. No bug but we’re being followed by one of her father’s assholes. She knows where Lauren is.”

I look at Lucinda and raise my eyebrows.

“She’s in Canada!” Lucinda exclaims. “My father has a house there south of Montreal. He uses it when he’s in Canada. It’s out in the countryside in a small town called Franklin.” She gives him the address. There’s a moment of silence on the other end before Nix speaks. “Meet you at Tweed at nine.”

“Go get our girl!” Relief surges through me, chasing out the trepidation I felt. Knowing where she is was our biggest problem. Everything else has been planned down to the last detail, and if none of us manages to fuck it up, we’ll be away from Waldgrave and his fuckers.

“Tweed?” Lucinda turns sharply to look at me. “Where's Tweed? We need to go to Franklin.”

I turn and give her my patented grin. “You’ll find out, but before then, we have a date to go on.”

Her eyes widen in disbelief and when she speaks, it’s with the same fury I felt moments before. “No fucking way! You heard me. I need to go to her.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Do you have a passport?”

“No.” She visibly slumps. “My father confiscated my real passport and the fake ones I had made up for me and Lauren were destroyed.”

I give her a smug look. “So how do you expect to get into Canada? Besides, you don’t want to pass up a date with yours truly. I think you’ll enjoy what I have planned for you.”

She glares at me with fury, but she knows there’s nothing she can do without her passport. I trust Nix and Dacre to get to Lauren. I just need Lucinda to keep calm long enough to not fuck up my part of the plan.

* * *

Nix is a genius, I think as we step onto a yacht, Lucinda’s hand gripped firmly in mine. I know the second Waldgrave’s man sees us going somewhere he can’t, he’ll be calling for back up, but before they get here, we’ll be long gone. I give a quick nod and the engines roar to life. There’s no point pretending to be Charles Wentworth taking Lucinda on a nice brunch date anymore, so I wave as we motor away from the dock and the hapless goon who is screaming something into his phone.

“Let me see your phone,” I say to Lucinda. She gives me a questioning look but hands me the phone which I abruptly throw over the side into the Hudson River.

“What the fuck!” she screams “My entire life is on that phone.”

“Your entire life is a shiny dog shit. Lauren is your entire life and we won’t find her before your father finds us if he’s tracking the phone.”

She rubs her face.”You’d better know what the fuck you are doing. My men will meet this boat wherever it stops, just so you know, and it won’t be me they beat to death at the other end.”

I smirk. “They can’t meet us where they can’t go. Come inside and meet our host. Nix tells me you know him.”

Lucinda follows me into the yacht. Inside is Edward Bailey, along with a small white yappy dog. To my surprise, she runs straight into his arms. “Ed! I should have recognized the yacht.” She gives the small dog a stroke. “How’s Dmitri”?

Edward sighs. “Still in the closet, I’m afraid, but that’s the fickle price of fame. He’s downstairs if you want to say hi before you depart on the next part of your journey. I’ve instructed the pilot to be ready for you.”

Lucinda looks at me questioningly, but places her arm in Edward’s. “Of course I want to see Dmitri. I’ve not seen him for ages.”

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