Page 94 of Pin-up Girl

When she didn’t come back right away, my heart started to race. What if they knew something was up? I’d never save my sister.

“Calm down,” Emmett whispered, and took my hand. The physical contact helped, and I was able to breath again.

Finally, the door opened. The secretary was hesitant now, even fearful. But she let us in, quietly slipping away without a word.

“Mr. Kingston,” said a booming voice from behind us. Stupid me, I was too intrigued by the secretary’s change in attitude, allowing someone to sneak up on me.

The man who greeted us looked less dangerous than the secretary. I’d never met him before, as I wasn’t nearly important enough to warrant a direct meeting. Looking at him now, I had no idea how he held any kind of power in the organization. Short, pudgy, with jiggling jowls.

But then, evil came in many different packages, and sometimes the ones who looked the least intimidating were the most dangerous.

“Mr. Bradley, may we have a seat?” Now that we were in the presence of the person in charge, Milo dropped all pretenses at friendliness.

“Sure, sure. This way.” He toddled out of the waiting room, through another expensive wood door into a large office. Massive tinted windows brought light into the room and overlooked the mountains. He definitely took advantage of his position.

He had to pull over a third chair from a table in the corner so each of us had a seat in front of the desk. His own chair creaked as he sat down, and a drop of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

“Ms. Stanton, I assume you’re here about Elliette?”

Milo leaned forward, gripping one arm of the chair. “Actually, we are all here about Elliette. We understand you won’t let her leave?”

His mouth opened and closed so many times, he looked like a fish. “Well, now, Mr. Kingston. I’m sure you of all people understand the way we run things here.”

“I do?” Milo raised his eyebrows in seemingly genuine curiosity.

“Given who your father is, I would imagine you are very familiar.”

“Hmm. And do you know my father?”

Mr. Bradley tugged at the collar of his suit, looking everywhere but at us. “Yes, I do and have for many years. I called him when I found out you were at my door.”

This time Milo smiled, but there was nothing nice about it. “And what did my father say?”

“That if I didn’t see you, I’d pay the consequences.” He gulped. “I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but your father is never a man to be trifled with.”

Emmett rested his arm along my chair, rubbing small circles on the back of my neck with his thumb and fingers. I rested my hand on his leg, saying I was glad he was here with me.

“You’re right. But you don’t have to worry about him right now. We’re here to take Elliette out of here. She won’t be coming back. Elise is now her custodian and will see to her needs and schooling.”

They arranged for me to have custody? And not our worthless mother, who hadn’t seen her in years? I bit my lip as darkness closed in on the edges of my vision. A firm squeeze to the back of my neck brought me back. Fainting here would be bad.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that. There are people much higher than me that would frown on my decision to let Elliette leave.” Mr. Bradley grabbed a tissue and blotted his entire face.

Emmett removed his hand and scooted his chair forward. “We have all the paperwork you need to see right here. You’ll find everything is in order.”

There was something mocking in Emmett’s voice, and I realized why when he passed over one of the folders we had collected at Chao’s.

Cautiously, Mr. Bradley accepted the file, setting it on his desk and straightening it before he flipped the top flap open. From my vantage point, I couldn’t see the picture clearly, but it was very crisp, and obscene.

“Oh, God!” he wailed as he closed it. His chair produced a high-pitched scraping sound that caused me to cringe as he pushed away from the table.

“You haven’t even looked at all the documents.” Emmett stood up just enough to open the folder and slowly flip through each picture. As if frozen in sick fascination, Mr. Bradley never took his eyes off of the images.

“What do you want?” he squeaked.

Milo signaled Emmett to sit down. “We want Elliette. She’s never to come back here. As of now, she ceases to exist for Infinity.”

“I would love to give you what you want, but I don’t have that power.” He still had his gaze trained on the photo. I started to bend forward to get a look, but Emmett caught my arm, shaking his head no with a pained grimace on his face.

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