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We stare each other down for a few seconds. It’s a risk. One I will gladly take for her.
“I work for the Sinful. Directly.”
Tell nods slowly, answers to clues and mysteries falling into place behind his eyes. “Funny. I do, too.”
“How does it work?” Gavin looks to both of us in turn.
“Phone call, usually. Vocoded.” I nod as Tell explains.
“My own contact works the same way.”
“Alright. So you’re both lackeys. And you both got orders having to do with Hellena?” Gavin is sharp, picking up on details I missed. No sleep is wreaking havoc on my brain.
“My orders were to keep her oblivious to the Sinful, to misguide her and throw her off the trail. Follow only. That, in the midst of all my other spying.”
“Great job you did there, just following.” Gavin snickers. Tell glances at me, and we all laugh suddenly, the tension breaking.
“Fuck. We’re all hopeless.”
“For her? Yeah,” Tell huffs.
My thoughts drift back on track. “I was told to prepare her. Train her. For what, I had no idea. Until last night. I was ordered to put her up for auction. Someone was apparently supposed to buy her on behalf of the Sinful. I was planning to make the buy myself, get her out. Someone else beat me to it. Someone the Sinful didn’t plan on making a bid.”
“For what?”
“To get her ready to take her place as a new member of the Sinful.” I open my hands as I say it, conveying that I have no clue past that.
Tell gapes, speechless.
Gavin scowls, taking in every detail.
I nod toward him, deferring to his tactical prowess. “Assessment?” I find I enjoy having him around, aside from our competitive flirting. He’s sharp. No-nonsense. I see why Hellena likes him. Loves him, even.
“Classic soldiering. Use her problems to drive her into a corner. Recruit her. Give her a mission, but keep her ignorant to what you don’t want her to know. Throw her off the deep end. Take away everything. Again. Now they’re yours to mold. Shape.”
“Brainwash, you mean. You think someone wanted to manipulate her into a figurehead. A tool.”
“Bingo.”
Tyler runs fingers through his hair. “Fuck. Fuck. I need to make some calls. We need to find Hellena. Now.”
“No Shit?” We’re already piling in the van. “We just have no clue how to find her.”
“You don’t know where she is? I was just heading over to Ora Clive’s to ask if she’d seen or heard from her. No dice.” Tyler is fidgeting, flinching repeatedly.
“She left town this morning.”
“Shit!” Tell exclaims.
“It gets worse.”
“How?”
“Aside from the fact that our bosses are playing us against each other, her aunt is another player, a member of the Sinful. So far, she seems as misguided as Tell and me. So we need to catch Hellena before she does. Just in case.”
Gavin blanches, going white. “What? I told… FUCK.”
“Talk, giant man!” Tell shouts, bouncing in the back of the van as we zip across town.
