“What is it?” I asked, dreading his response. I tensed up, knowing this was going to be bad.
“Mitchell’s threat wasn’t empty,” he said quietly. “We’ve been wanting to tell you, but didn’t want to ruin your day with Penny.”
“Tell me what?” I asked and tried to sit up, but his hand held me down and I was forced to relax again. I could see the meaning behind his hand, now. He was preparing me for this horrible news. I braced myself mentally and waited for him to continue.
“You were right. Your research was valid. Tributes never come back,” he said. “We’ve all been taught from day one that the Tribute is given a scholarship to the school of their choice, and that they always go overseas because they’re embarrassed of being used by the winning team.”
“This is why nobody thinks about it,” Valen said. “None of us question this because it makes sense.”
“And it’s something we’ve been told over and over from the first day of high school. The Tribute is given a scholarship and goes overseas. End of.”
“But that’s not what happens, is it? I thought it was weird that they completely disappeared, even online,” I said.
“No, I don’t think that’s what happens,” Archer said. The way he spoke made him sound pained, as if it physically hurt him to let me know.
Kingston sounded worse, and Valen just sat with a twisted look on his face. One of anguish that they were bearing this devastating news to me.
“They’ll want to take you away no matter what happens,” Kingston said. “They’ll fucking try, but we won’t let it happen.”
“We’ll protect you,” Valen said.
“Nothing will happen to you,” Archer added.
And for a moment I felt like I was on Lord of the Rings or something. They were all declaring their intention to protect me. To do whatever it took to save me from the Organization.
And for a moment, I actually felt like we could do it. Like we were going to stand a chance against an international organized crime syndicate.
“Do you have any idea what happens to them?” I asked. “I mean, I can imagine the horrible things they do, but I haven’t been able to find a single thing online about it. It’s like they’ve scrubbed the internet of all evidence of their very existence.”
“That’s what unlimited power and money will buy you,” Valen said.
At just that moment, Mark came bursting into the room, breathless. “Have any of you seen Penny?”
“I thought she was with you,” I replied.
“She was, but I left for just a minute to have a smoke outside. When I came back, she wasn’t there,” he said. “She wasn’t in the kitchen or anywhere else I looked.”
Mark was a pretty level-headed guy, so to see him panicking like this was unsettling.
“She has to be somewhere,” Archer said. “I sent the staff to their quarters already so we’d have full run of the place, but we can check with security.”
“We should spread out and look for her,” I said. “Penny gets turned around really easily, it’s one of the things that makes her so adorable and quirky.”
“I agree, she is adorable,” Mark said. “But this worries me.”
What I didn’t want to tell him was that I was also worried. Penny wasn’t one to wander off, and the last time I lost sight of her in another person’s house, she’d been led into a horrible situation.
The likelihood of her being gang raped here was nil, of course, but still. Bad things could happen to her when I lost sight of her, I was sure of it.
There was something dangerous about hanging out with me. Dangerous for those I cared for, especially those who weren’t able to defend themselves against the dark and twisted world I was now a part of.
We split up, Archer going to security, Valen staying with me, and Kingston heading to the other wing of the mansion with Mark to search for her there.
“We should check the front,” I said. “Maybe she went back to the car for something.”
“Good plan,” Valen said, and we walked hand in hand through the mansion to the door. We headed through, down to Mark’s car, but Penny was nowhere to be found.
As we headed towards the steps to the mansion, the doors burst open and Archer came running out with Kingston on his tail with Mark right behind.