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My heart broke out into a happy dance. Then I remembered. After what he’d done, we weren’t possible. I needed to nip the connection between us right away.
“My sisters.” I forced myself to keep my shit together and queried Dash with my eyebrows. “Do you have any information about them?”
“Not yet.” Dash’s voice sounded heavy with regret. “Before you passed out, you said finding them would be hard. You weren’t wrong. I’ve tried to contact them every which way. They didn’t answer my calls. Their numbers are disconnected.”
I closed my eyes fighting to keep myself together. My sisters’ beloved faces paraded behind my closed lids. Around and around, we went.
Cece. Affie. Missy.Come back.Where are you?
“I get they’re mad at me because of Nix’s death,” Dash continued. “I get they don’t wanna talk to me, but this is an emergency. I sent people to their addresses. It’s odd. They’ve moved on without leaving forwarding information. We haven’t found any traces of them on the net, or through banking and credit card records. I’ve mobilized my team to locate them, but all three of your sisters seem to have dropped off the face of the earth.” He paused before he asked. “Is there anything at all youcan tell us to help find them?”
“No.” I clasped my hands together and chewed on my lip until it felt raw.
The lines of his frown deepened. “What’s going on?”
“I tried to tell you before.” My eyes burned with tears. “You’re not going to find them.”
“Why do you say that?” His eyebrows drew closer together. “We’re Tracker Team. Of course we’re gonna find them.”
“You don’t understand.” Guilt, fear, and sorrow squeezed my chest, adding to the physical and emotional exhaustion weighing me down.
“Then make me understand.” Dash met my gaze and waited for my explanation.
“Father looked for my sisters for a long time.” I fought the tears. “He hired some of the best detective agencies in the world and spent millions in the search. No one could find them.”
“What are you saying?” Dash asked, not masking the puzzlement in his voice.
I closed my eyes, swallowed my tears, and said the words that pained me so deeply. “My sisters have been gone since shortly after Nix died and you left.”
“Gone?” Dash sounded almost as shocked as I’d been when I’d found out they’d left. “What do you mean ‘gone?’”
“I mean gone, hidden where they can’t be found.”
“I don’t understand.” Dash scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Why did they leave?”
“They got fed up with my father.” I rubbed my tired eyes. “They didn’t want to be Astors anymore. They asked me to come with them, but…”
“But what?”
“I had to stay,” I muttered lamely. “So, they left. They disappeared.”
“Thena, you need to trust me.” Dash settled his hand over mine. “You were all so close. The four of you were a team. Surely, they told you where they were going?”
“That’s the problem, Dash. They didn’t tell me.” Tears ran down my face and a broken sob ripped through my throat. “Now they’re in mortal danger and I don’t know where they are, how to reach them, or how to protect them from my father’s assassin.”
Chapter Seven
Dash
“That’s not an acceptable report,” I barked into my cell while I stomped up and down the long hallway of Thena’s penthouse, pummeling the white marble floor with angry thumps of my cane. “How is it possible that three women can disappear without a trace?”
“Slow it down, boss.” Mina frowned at me from my screen before her face broke out into a wide grin. “Can I call you boss? It’s what all the cool techies call their bosses on TV. Or would God Emperor serve you better? It goes with your tone.”
“Dash is fine. So is Omega.” I raked a hand through my hair and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
“Awesome. I don’t do well when growling bears attack.” Her gray eyes glinted. “I’ve never had a boss before and, as you well know, I’m terrible with social cues. So, you need to instruct me in the art of being a good, legit, respectful employee. Okay, respectful is a reach, but you can try. There simply aren’t any references to acceptable name calling in the employee manual. For all I know, I could call you Grumpy Jerk or Big Ego Omega.”
I sighed and, even though I was still mad at my lack of progress, my lips twitched. Mina’s quirky sense of humor was her way of defusing me and, as usual, it worked.
