Page 10 of Quiet

No rings, no jewelry, no scars. She was barefooted, wearing a black nightgown that was practically sheer. I resisted the urge to find something to cover her up with as I moved the chair upright.

I didn’t untie her. I still couldn’t trust her.

She didn’t look familiar, but she was definitely too innocent-looking to be mixed up in our business.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Grayson. He picked up on the first ring.

”Yeah?”

”Grayson, did you leave a girl tied up in the storage room?” I didn’t bother with a greeting.

”What?”

”Just tell me the truth.”

”No. What the hell, Teo?”

I let out a long breath, trying to calm my nerves. ”Okay,” I said. ”Bring everyone down here. We need to talk.”

”You think it was one of them?”

”Grayson.Now.”

”Sure thing, boss,” he said before he hung up the phone.

A few minutes later, we were all crowded around the woman who’d somehow ended up under Neon. She was upright now. I’d checked; she was breathing and her pulse was fine. From the way her face looked, I could tell she wasn’t doing too well.

Victor was the first one to arrive. He nodded at me as he approached me silently, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at her. ”I didn’t do this,” he said, his gaze lingering over her.

”I didn’t think you did,” I said, sighing. ”But someone did.”

Jace and Grayson arrived shortly after, clad in all black. They exchanged a puzzled glance. ”Who is she?” Jace asked.

I’d been working with them for years; I had a pretty good idea of when they were lying. I didn’t think they were lying then, but Ihopedthat they were. If this wasn’t any of their doing, I was certain our lives were about to get considerably more complicated.

”You guys know you aren’t supposed to bring anyone down here,” I said.

None of them answered, and the woman in the chair stirred, her eyes fluttering open.

After a brief conversation with her, I was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to tell us anything. She was too roughed up for a coherent conversation anyway and I quickly determined that our best course of action was keeping her around before we could attempt to extract information from her.

”Victor,” I said. ”Take her to HQ.”

Victor looked at me with a question in his eyes, but he answered me with a curt nod. He knew better than to question me in public. A conversation could–might–come later.

”Jace, can you review our security footage?”

”On it,” he said, taking his phone out of his pocket.

”Grayson.”

”Yeah, boss?” Grayson asked, his eyes on the woman as Victor unbound her.

”Get this mess cleaned up,” I said. ”Everywhere, not just here. We need to change the locks down here, too. Can you take care of that?”

Grayson nodded. ”Of course,” he said.

”Good,” I said. ”The more expedient we are about this, the better. We have plenty to worry about without…”

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