4
Olivia
My eyes snap wide and I shake my head because I can’t believe it.
My gaze snaps to Mom, who looks so shocked her skin is paler than its usual alabaster.
“No, he would never. Eric wouldn’t get mixed up with anyone like that.”
Eric was the wild child, the rebel in every sense but we’re talking about terrorists here. He wouldn’t be part of something like that.
Would he?
The discomfort in her eyes deepens.“The evidence suggests he was.”
“How do you know he was associated with these people?”
“This.” She opens the folder, pulls out a picture of Eric and points to a tattoo on his forearm.
It’s an inky black dagger with a snake going around the handle.“This tattoo marks him as a member.”
“His tattoo?” Mom narrows her eyes.
“Yes. Did you ever see it?”
“I did, but I thought it was like his others.”
“I didn't notice it,” I cut in.I think if I had, I wouldn’t have noticed because Eric was always getting tattoos.That was probably how he was able to make that one blend in.
“We were able to hack one of Eric’s virtual files.I don’t even know how my contact was able to do it, but he did.That’s where we found that picture.”
I get that light-headed sensation again because I’m having trouble believing we’re talking about the same man, and nothing is really making sense.
“Why would he get involved with people like that?” Mom asks in a weak voice.
“The Order recruits people from significant wealth, or people with above board skills. Eric has the type of skills that would attract a group like that.”
“What does this mean Amy? I don’t understand,” I say.
“I think what’s happened is as we suspected, and he’s being held captive.”
I swallow hard at the thought of Eric in captivity for five years.What torture must he have endured?
“Why would they take Eric if he’s a member?” Mom says.
“I think Eric did something to piss them off and that opened the door for whatever Jude is scheming.” She nods. “We found an email to Robert in Eric’s files. It said ‘they’re coming for me. Please take care of my mother and sister.’ The email was sent two days before he disappeared.”
I slip my hand over my mouth. That was when I last saw him, and he asked me to do something important for him.
I was to deliver a letter to L.A. A very strange letter I made a copy of. It was when I got back I was told he was missing and so was Robert.
“Robert died in that crash with someone. Maybe that’s how they got to him. From that message.”
Amy nods and a tear runs down Mom’s cheek. The last thing we would have wanted was for Robert to die the way he did. He wasn’t from our world. He worked at the company with Eric and always took care of me.
“I was also able to get a name from Jude’s personal files. A name from L.A.” Amy states interrupting my thoughts.
“L.A.?” Mom breathes.