The apartment they’d kept us in was similar to the one Axel, Marc and Raven had lived in, just empty. There were two more rooms on the opposite side of where I’d been kept. Those doors were closed.
The central living area had a setup like an office: folding table, simple office chairs, computers that were monitoring the cameras. There were four people in here, one was the old Buble, now dressed and cleaned up. The others appeared Hispanic as well, two with similar enough features they could have been family.
The moment I was brought out, there were eyes on us, me specifically. Axel stood in front of me to give my nakedness some cover. I was given a simple T-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants.
“She’ll need to change again if she’s going with us,” Axel said. “Shoes and better fitting clothes.”
“We want this done quickly. Then she can wear whatever she wants,” Joe said. “She’s less likely to be trouble and run without shoes.”
The old Buble stood up from his computer and came around to us. “Hey, roommate.”
“Was that the real Buble?” I nodded behind me, toward the closed room.
“Yup,” he said. “My name’s Lupe. Thought you didn’t know him enough but might have heard of him.” He shook a long forefinger at me. “But you’re good. Ever want to work for us?”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“They’re cartel,” Axel said behind me. He was close enough I could feel his breath on my hair. “When Alice caught up with us in the car crash, I sent an emergency signal Blake gave to me in case we got caught.”
“What?” I asked, too stunned to put together a reason to call in a cartel.
At that moment, from the other room, Blake appeared. He was dressed, too. He had similar bruises around his arms but his face was clear of any harm. He looked confused seeing me and did a short finger wave. “What’s she doing out here?”
“Axel said to take her with us,” Joe said.
Blake rolled his eyes. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“She was going to find a way out,” Axel said. “I was listening. And she could figure this out with us.” He turned to the guard. “I keep telling you, none of this is helping you. It didn’t help Alice and she had us all captured longer. And leaving her behind is a mistake. She’s my best one. You wanted to trade our lives for the money and help us get Alice out of the way, right? I personally think that’s a fair trade. We don’t give a shit who gets the money.” He had one hand on my back but used the other one to wave in the direction of the rooms. “You still have every advantage with everyone locked up. She was going to be more trouble. She can’t be intimidated being naked in a room. It doesn’t work on her.”
“She has been really crazy,” the guard said to Lupe. I gathered Lupe was in charge, at least out of everyone here. “She broke the camera. She figured you out in like two seconds.”
“I know,” he said. “Okay, she goes.” He waved a finger in my direction. “But listen, I don’t like messing with dead bodies, but I will if I have to. We’ve got your brother. We’ve also got your husband. They’re ours until we’ve got the money. ¿Comprende?”
I glared at him. Axel implied to trust him. Did they trust this group? I got the gist now. When push came to shove, Blake called in some backup, promising them the large reward for getting us safe and taking care of Alice. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t lock us up or harm us if we tried to stop them. In the meantime, we were racing the clock if Alice had poisoned anyone else, and it sounded like Natalie, the pregnant one, was already in trouble and rushed to the hospital.
And if Alice thought we had Mr. Murdock, this could take a while. Since she didn’t have him and the Academy didn’t have him, someone else did.
The cartel…When we found Blake, he was getting involved in drugs throughout the city. There was something about a cartel then. Must have been the same people.
Blake combed his fingers through his blond hair. “Okay, okay,” he said. “No one wants anyone dead. We’re working together on this.”
“We get our money, we let our boss know, and we leave town with Alice and her crew, however many we can find,” the guard said. “No more trouble.” He pulled an empty chair around and offered it to me. “Have a seat. We’ll be on the road in a few.”
I sat down, sharing glances with Axel and Blake. Blake seemed sheepish, but then grinned at me with a wink.
It told me a lot. So far, no one was dead. We were just held hostage. If that was the case, it was in our best interest to find Murdock and his money so we had no more reason to be kept here.
Axel was stoic, as always. He stood beside me with his arms crossed, waiting. Unreadable.
The Academy was going to boot him for sure now, no matter how this went down. Bringing in cartel to steal stolen money and get rid of an enemy?
If it came down to desperation, what drove them to this decision?
Me.
Or maybe when they finally had us all together. If she got us all, it was game over. So he called during the car crash somehow. She might have brought us in, but at some point, they took over, found us.
But could they be trusted to keep their word?
YOUR ENEMIES ARE MINE
We were loaded into a black van just outside the main entrance of the Sargent Jasper as soon as the sun went down. No one had been in the lobby except one guard, and he only nodded once to us as we left. Apparently, he was a replacement provided by the new group. I understood the plan now. Even now, we passed by people coming in and out of the building, people who still lived here. Wait until late tonight, like they said, when everyone was mostly asleep, and move everyone out. Maybe if we got lucky, they wouldn’t move anyone if we got them what they wanted.
Inside the van, Axel, Blake and I sat together facing three men I didn’t know, part of the cartel team. Lupe was driving. The guard, Joe, had been left behind with several other people to keep watch over who was left.
I was still in the T-shirt and sweatpants but barefoot. Everyone else was dressed in black, long sleeves and combat boots. Some had weapons, but they were small. Pocket knives and cell phones in their pockets. Only two had holsters with any sort of gun, and they had to be small caliber. Nothing exciting. Nothing pointed at anyone’s head.
Everyone else was ready for action. I was dressed to wait in the van.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Do you remember Mr. Smith?” Axel said.
I had a memory of a tall guy, looking like Lurch with a tan. “One of the guys with Nightingale, the nonprofit charity that the board members might have stolen money from.”
“He was looking for Murdock, too. Only he hasn’t been seen in weeks.”
“Checking out his place?”
“Alice claims she scared him off of looking, saying he won’t know where Murdock is.”
“But she lies.”
Axel nodded. “She lies. So we’re looking for proof.”
Lupe called from the front. “Just hang tight,” he said. “This will be over if we find him and we can get to Murdock.” He said this in an odd way, in a very odd tone.
Lying to me?
After he said it, Axel gave me a long look. I didn’t totally understand him, but he was signaling something.
After dark, Charleston’s roads were nearly clear. I wasn’t sure of the day anymore. It felt like months since this started.
Christmas lights were on in neighborhoods as we passed them. The sight of them was odd to me. They were too cheerful, too distant. How could the people inside have no idea what was happening in their city? Kidnappings. People starving, on the brink of being killed. A secret war between groups of people they never heard of. We were no one to them. We were invisible.
We could disappear, and no one would miss us.
It was hard to tell where we were going after a while, but I suspected we were in Mt. Pleasant, or close to it. The van turned into an upscale neighborhood, no security. The home we arrived at was void
of holiday décor. The house was dark. It could have been empty. No curtains, nothing.
“It’s his address,” one of the men said. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.”
“He might not be here,” Axel said, “but there might be clues. Some things are easily missed.”
“Search the grounds,” Lupe said. He pointed to two of his men in the back. “You two, ask the neighbors. Try not to scare them.” He twisted more to look at Axel. “You’re with me.” He pointed to me next. “You stay here.” He turned his pointer finger to Blake. “You stay with her. No funny business.”
I didn’t understand Axel encouraging them to search an empty house. Was there something I was missing?
Everyone got out of the vehicle until it was just Blake and me inside. We weren’t totally alone. One of the men stayed just outside the front of the van, keeping guard.
Even if we wanted to run, we didn’t have the keys, and they still had Axel.
Blake scooted over on the bench, touching my arm and looking me over. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
I gave him a sideways look. “Starving.”