Page 20 of Savage Beauty

“Knox is with your sister. He’s been a wreck since your brother died. And the guy is finally happy. I’m not letting you take that away from him. Your sister has to get back to her job, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, she’ll go back. Knox will go with Sage to ensure she’s safe. She’ll be safer in Asheville with Knox. I’ll go with you. If you think answers are back in your apartment, I’ll go with you.”

“I can go on my own.”

“No. You can’t.”

“I’m not leaving my research.”

“There’s a very good chance your lab, or someone at that lab, is behind your abduction.”

“We can agree to disagree.” That’s what I say, but there’s a chance he’s right. Doubtful, but an annoying nagging insists it’s conceivable. It’s hard to say. “But whether they are or are not involved isn’t the point. I’m going to figure out what’s going on, turn the responsible parties in to the authorities, and get back to my work.” Because my work is important.

“Fine.” The tone of his voice and the meaning of the word conflict. “But you’re not doing it alone.”

CHAPTER5

Max

“Hey. Sorry to wake you, but we’ve got to move. Sloane and I are headed to the airport.”

“Wait. What happened?” Knox sounds groggy. “Hold on a minute.”

I wait, sitting back in the den section of the hospital suite. There’s a nurse beside Sloane, preparing to remove the IV line. The doc cleared us to leave, but I’ve got a whole page of symptoms to watch out for. The flight we’re about to board is a long one, and Stella couldn’t get business class seats, but she managed to get us two first-class seats at the last minute. I can’t even imagine how much those puppies cost.

Click.

“Hey, I’m out in the hall. Sage is sleeping.”

“Figured. Sorry about that, man. We got an alert that two men connected to Solonov went through customs in Kuala Lumpur. Could be unrelated. In fact, chances are it’s unrelated. If they wanted to come through undetected, they would’ve come in on a boat somewhere in Malaysia and driven here.”

“Not everyone has the resources for a water entry. I’ll wake Sage.”

“No. I don’t think you need to. I found a small tracker inside Sloane’s shoe. You know those cloth things she was wearing with the grassy woven sole?”

“Yeah.”

“After we got the call, Sloane said she had nothing with her other than the clothes on her body. So, I found those shoes and dug a knife into them. Bingo.”

“Shit. I checked her for jewelry…didn’t think about the shoes.”

“Yeah, well, Sloane’s determined to get to the bottom of this. She and I are boarding a commercial flight to Los Angeles, then we’re going to take a private plane to the Caymans.”

“Run that by me again.”

“You’re taking Sage back to Asheville on the flight tomorrow, as planned. They shouldn’t have any way of locating you and Sage. But be alert.”

“And what exactly are you planning on doing in the Caymans?”

“Sloane wants to get her stuff. Her laptop. And…” I let out a loud sigh, letting him know I’m not totally on board with this plan. “She believes if she can get on her work server, she can figure this out. She wants to access that report she was working on. See who else accessed it. Look at it again to see if that could be what kick-started this. She’s as confused as we are about why someone would come after her. Why they’d keep her alive.”

“If they’re killing over data, it’s no longer accessible.”

“I’m aware, bro. But she’s determined. And I can see it from her side. What’s she going to do? Run from all this indefinitely? Plus, she’s worried about her boss. Wants confirmation that she’s okay. Reason dictates her boss is involved, but Sloane swears she wouldn’t be.”

“Dammit.” Frustration drips in his huff. “Sage is going to want to be there.”

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