Page 77 of The Devil We Know

“Another?” I ask.

Antoinette turns to me and smiles as she responds, “Oh, yeah. Darius is the king of getting kidnapped. We’ve had to save his ass so many times.”

“You’re kidding,” I say in surprise.

“Totally not kidding,” Carolina answers. “Actually, I think the only one who hasn’t been kidnapped is Matt.”

Now, Lilith laughs as she says, “There ends that streak.”

Kaian’s tired voice interjects, “I see they weren’t fucking kidding about you people.”

Antoinette gives him a suspicious look and then asks, “Did I not warn you?”

He raises his brows and nods. “You did. You sure did.”

“Warn him about what?” I ask curiously.

Kaian goes to answer, but Antoinette puts her hand up and responds, “Our fondness for misplaced humor and ridiculous taglines.”

I snort because I would have thought those two things would be obvious at this point.

“And big words that sometimes come off as unnecessary,” Carolina adds proudly.

Then Lilith adds, “And the deep tendency to go off on tangents and completely overlook the seriousness of the situation.”

Kaian and I look at each other, and he shrugs as I shake my head. Then Camilla says, “I’m going to go find my face while you guys figure it out, and I’ll be right back.”

She takes off in the direction of the bathrooms, and Kaian frowns after her, still shaking his head and muttering to himself.

I jab him with my elbow and say, “The bathrooms are that way if you want to get cleaned up. I don’t think a few more minutes delay is going to make or break this whole mission.”

He smiles gratefully and then slowly walks off in the direction Camilla just left.

The group of us return to the workstation, and Antoinette picks up her phone, glaring at the screen as she says, “Still no movement.”

Lilith glances at the screen and then says, “It will take them a bit to move them anywhere. Then again, they may not need to, considering that facility is generally secure.”

I frown and then ask, “What do you think they’re doing to them?”

Lilith makes a dismissive motion with her hand as she says, “Probably nothing at this point. It always takes them a while to get their shit together. And most of the time, they call in someone else to do the dirty work.”

“So, they don’t just go right to hurting them?”

She shrugs and replies, “Well, they might smack them around a little bit, but nobody’s going to do anything that would truly offend them or hurt their feelings or anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m not necessarily worried about their feelings so much as their physical person, but I get what you mean.”

Carolina speaks up from my other side, resting her hand on my arm as she says, “Those guys are used to this shit. They can handle it.”

I frown and ask, “But don’t you worry about them?”

She laughs almost bitterly and then says, “Well, of course. Every fucking day.”

“Then how do you stand it?”

Carolina gives me a closed-mouthed smile, but it’s Antoinette who answers, “We don’t have any other choice. This is the life we all signed up for.”

Carolina adds, “Hence the inappropriate humor and completely ridiculous coping mechanisms.”

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