I tapped the phone’s speaker button and waited. “Denise,” I called lightly and reluctantly, not wanting to hear what the woman had to say.
“We are aware that you have been through a horrific ordeal, but we’d like to meet with you and Mr. Tywin Vallin in about a month to give you time to get settled and to recover.”
“Why?”
“I can assure you, Ms. Davis, the meet is not intended to harm either of you, but we believe you need to be briefed further and we know you won’t come willingly or otherwise without Mr. Vallin.”
Click.
My eyes were on the phone, but I sensed the eyes of the men on me.
“Can someone please explain what that call was all about? She didn’t even stick around to give us a place to meet them, whoever they are. And how the hell did she know I wouldn’t come alone?”
“Would you?” Arjen asked.
“Hell no. I don’t know them.”
Arjen and Tywin smiled. Khane even released a smile, the first full one I’d seen grace his face. He had let the mask slip and showed that there was a human behind it. It also allowed me to see a part of why Desiree was so into him.
“Why the hell do these people want to see me? Who are they?” I asked.
Tywin’s hand brushed lightly over my shoulder. “Denise is the voice of the head of this organization. We know him as Bishop and no one, and I do mean no one, has seen his face or Denise’s for that matter.”
“They keep things on such a low profile, you have to travel to the lowest level of hell to find out their secrets,” Khane added. The comment had us all smiling despite the serious edge of our conversation.
“When Denise calls any of us, it’s usually to inform us that the organization has set up a “workshop.” Workshops are like in-depth corporate meetings of the criminal variety,” Arjen explained.
The Vallins weren’t strangers to keeping a low profile either. I knew of their reputation years before I had seen any of their faces, and that was only through my relationship with Desiree and Mecca.
“The meetings are so top secret Denise will only call on us the day we are scheduled to be there with a location. Then we hop on a plane and head to an unknown destination,” Tywin finished.
“So, they are not going to torture me and cut the rest of this tattoo from my skin? I’m sure Rhi has figured out by now what my mother has embedded in this mark,” I said. It had dawned on me that we had discussed a lot of things except why those people had held me captive in that building in the first place.
“If they wanted you dead, you would be,” Khane told me with undeniable certainty. I noticed that that statement got tossed around a lot in this circle.
“So, when she calls, I or we go without a clue as to where we’re going, who we’re going to meet, or why?”
“Yes.” They all replied and nodded.
The room grew eerily silent and my brain was set ablaze with concern and various scenarios. The silence became too much and I scrambled for another subject.
“Mecca. Is she okay? Is it safe to assume she hasn’t started a war with the Cardenas Cartel?” My gaze raked over all three men before stopping on Arjen.
“She was shot the same night you were taken. She’s in a coma,” he added before turning to walk away.
Khane took off behind him.
Tywin slid a caring hand over mine.
“Their father, my devilish uncle, who was supposed to be rotting away in prison, set up the ambushes on Arjen and Mecca and that Overtown situation with the Haitians. He was waiting at their house with another ambush after we brought Mecca back from the Cardenas compound.”
Tears I hadn’t been aware were there, sprang up and began to flow faster. Every prayer I knew how to pray would go up for Mecca’s recovery. Tywin leaned over and squeezed me to him. His tight embrace was putting pressure on the area I’d been cut on my back, but I needed the pain to numb the ache in my heart.
“Can I see her?”
“Yes, I’ll take you to see her first thing tomorrow. Desiree doesn’t leave her side and Arjen and Khane are always available. Later, I’d like to take you home and have our doctor check you out again. Is that okay?”
I nodded, sniffling. I placed my ear against his thundering heart to drown out all the chaos going on in my head.