Page 40 of Bulletproof Love

His eyes dart between us before he nods. “Very well. Don’t take long. I’d like you here so you can relay details to Ivan personally. After all, it’s thanks to your hard work that this is possible.”

Fairfax waves us off and I squeeze Falin’s hand, leading her toward the stairwell. We press our backs against the cool stone wall, keeping our eyes on the dais. From here we can watch, we can run, we can fight if we have to. The shadows offer us some much-needed cover.

Now that we’re able to whisper freely, I lean in, still on alert. “Are you alright?”

She sniffs but inclines her head. “I’m fine. What’s the plan?”

My throat turns to sand before I can answer her. A side door opens and Fairfax’s masked lap dogs come through, dragging a group of people with black bags covering their faces. They’re all dressed in white, slip-looking dresses on the women and cotton pants and undershirts for the few men. Each one has a large number written in ink on their chest. Fifteen—there’s more than a dozen of them.

Their feet drag across the floor in an unnatural shuffle. Some stumble, others sway, but none resist. Are they drugged? If they are, whatever they’ve been given has turned them into puppets. The way they move makes bile rise to my throat. It’s too mechanical, too wrong. Like watching shells of living beings take a death march.

“Oh my God,” Falin breathes.

As the last of them line up before the crowd like some sick collection of dolls, one thought slams into my mind.

Bailey.

Could my sister be one of them?

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

FALIN

There’sno time for me to digest what just happened with Jasper in front of all these horrible people. Or to figure out why the hell it was so hot. I’m quite literally frozen in shock by what’s happening before my eyes. These people… Who are they and how are we going to help them all?

“We have to do something,” I say. Jasper doesn’t respond, so I tug on his arm. “What are we going to do?”

Jasper rakes a hand through his hair, forcing out a breath. “We should go, call the guys, and figure out a way to help them.”

That’s a solid plan, but what will happen to them while we’re gone? What if we get back and they’ve been moved? Too many different scenarios run through my mind… none of them giving us a positive outcome. Then there’s still the matter of Wayne in the study—like a real life game of Clue. Who killed Wayne in the study with a gun? When Fairfax finds him, I’m sure he’ll want to investigate and there’s no Colonel Mustard here to pin it on.

“And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Fairfax booms. “I trust your wallets are ready, gentlemen. As always, a portion of tonight’s proceeds will benefit the Children’s Hope Foundation.”

What a sick joke. My stomach churns as the crowd erupts in excited chatter. “We should go now, while they’re occupied,” I say, my voice hidden by the noise.

“I can’t… I need to see.”

He sounds broken and I can hardly blame him. I don’t know what we’ll do if one of them is Bailey.

I keep my eyes fixed on Jasper’s face as they remove the hoods one by one, watching hope and dread war in his expression. When the final woman is revealed, his shoulders sag. “Is she…”

He shakes his head. “No, she’s not here.”

I can’t tell if it’s relief or despair in his voice, and there’s no time to ask.

“Twenty thousand for number five!” a voice bellows from the crowd.

“Number twelve is mine, boys,” another calls out.

The room erupts in a bidding frenzy, numbers and obscene amounts of money flying through the air. I want to be sick. I thought watching Wayne die tonight would be the worst thing possible, but this… This is true horror.

I tug Jasper’s hand, getting his attention. “Come on.”

We make it upstairs unnoticed, but there’s no telling how long that’ll last. Servers bustle around the kitchen and it hits me that there’s still a normal New Year’s party going on in the ballroom. The contrast is absurd. Champagne toasts and canapes right upstairs from some poor soul’s worst nightmare. This night is a clusterfuck. Times like these I wish I’d learned more from my dad. He wanted me to go the family route… become an officer like him. It was never in me. Maybe I was meant for this life, living outside the boundaries of the law.

Jasper stops and I almost pile into his back. “Let’s find a back way out.”

There’s a server coming out of the kitchen with a motherly look about her. My heels click on the floor as I rush over to her, doing my best not to startle her as she loads a tray with more canapes. “Hi, sorry. My husband and I have an emergency at home, and well, we need to leave through a back entrance. Where did you all come in from?”

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