Page 79 of Burn

“That, Miss Black,” Bones said in those arctic cool tones, “is what we will have to find out. However, based onyourexperiences and the resemblance to your sister, she is most likely with similar human traffickers.”

My stomach bottomed out.

“Captain,” Lunchbox said with a sigh. “She gets it.”

“No,” Bones said evenly, not once taking his cutting gaze off of me. “She doesn’t.” While that may not have been pointed at me, he never looked away. “You really don’t. You think, first of all, that you have some say in what happens next. You don’t. You think you can just leave when you want. You can’t. You might even be considering how to smother me in my sleep so that you can seduce these three idiots into doing what you want…”

“Hey,” Alphabet snapped and Goblin made a quiet noise of complaint. I forced my hand to open since I’d started digging my fingers in.

“The point, Miss Black. You can’t. Wewillhelp you. Wewillcontinue the search. However, that will have to continue inthe background.Ifwe get actionable intel, we’ll make our calls then.”

Loss and anger vied for top position in the tempest surging through me. Fighting tears was growing almost impossibly difficult. “And I’m supposed to just agree to all of this?”

“There is no choice for you to agree or disagree. This is the situation.”

“So, I am a prisoner?”

“Guest,” Alphabet said with another dark look at Bones. “You’re not a prisoner.” He sighed and shook his head. “Gracie, there is a lot I would like to just explain to you. To help you to understand. Right now, I can’t. Because we’ve already compromised you by bringing you here.”

“To your house?” I swiped at the tears that tried to escape. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want to come here.”

“We know,” Voodoo offered those two words with an element of apology. “That doesn’t change the outcome. You’re here. That means you have to stay here or with us. Fornow…” On the last word, he shot a glare at Bones then refocused on me. “If we tell you any more, we will make all of this worse.”

A huff of disbelief escaped me. “You can’t let me go because you decided to help me and bring me here. But you can’t help right now because you have something else to do and… I can’t leave because I’ve seen here. If that’s true—then it’s going to be truewhen”—I absolutely refused to sayif—“we find Amorette.” I swallowed around that lump in my throat. “Whatthen?”

“Then we’ll find out,” Bones said. “Whether you like the answers or not, now you have them. Continuing to ask will not change them.”

“You’re such an asshole,” I told him as I shoved my chair back. Fortunately, Goblin had already retreated as I stood. A prick of guilt hit me for not thinking of him.

“Where are you going?” Alphabet asked.

“No where,” I said. “Apparently.”

I left them at the table with their food, their drink, and their secrets. I took one of the bottles of water with me as I retraced Bones’ earlier path to get back to “my” room.

The deadbolt was just a twist. I had to stretch to slide the bolt out of the lock at the top and the bottom. Did they think I was going to break it down or something?

Shoving the door open, I returned to the room with the open window letting in the breeze and my view ofnothingbut the horizon to remind of the current facts.

They had me.

They weren’t going to let me go.

What about Amorette? Would theyreallylook for her? Somehow, I didn’t think I’d ever know, cause they’d never let me leave to do anything about it.

Closing the door, I headed over to the big bed. I curled up on my side, tucking my head to the pillow. Gradually, I lost the war with my tears, but I didn’t let my sobs out. The tears could go, but I wasn’t going to sob until I found Amorette.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

GRACE

Ihadn’t meant to sleep, but I’d apparently passed out. When I woke, someone had put a blanket over me and there was a glass of water on the nightstand. There was also a bottle of?—

Rubbing a hand against my face, I grimaced at the residual bruising still there. I kept forgetting that one guy hit me in the face. I should probably check the mirror and make sure it was healing.

Sitting up, I squinted at the bottle. It wasn’t just hard to read because I was tired, I needed to turn on the light. Damn, I was foggy. It was like I couldn’t quite catch my brain up to being awake. With care, I flicked on the light and then eyed the bottle again.

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