by Lila Dubois
Luca put his hand on Oscar’s shoulder, touched by the personal story his lover was sharing. “And you think that there may be something on here, perhaps a programming signature, that you can use to find her?”
“Exactly…but I think we might have something even better than a signature I’d have to go and find.” Oscar had half a dozen windows open, but he pulled one to the front. “See this? It’s a private FTP site—and according to the log, it was last accessed two days ago.”
“She’s still using it,” Luca breathed. “Can you tell where she was?”
“No. Not without the risk of crashing it since it’s custom. If she created this, and has been using it since she was young, I might destroy it if I mess around too much.” Oscar turned to him. “But we can leave her a message.”
“What?” Luca’s breath caught. “How?”
“A text file. We write a brief text file and upload it. It will get through since this computer is a terminal for the site. It can’t be a picture or a video. That would be too big.” Oscar shifted his chair, turning to look at Luca. “If you had twenty words. A sentence or two, to talk to your sister, what would you say?”
“Um, should we clear this with the MPF first? Call Owen?”
Oscar rolled his eyes. “And if they say no?”
Luca frowned. “I would still send it. I need to contact her. I need to know…”
“This falls under the category of it’s easier to apologize after than ask permission before. So what are we sending?”
Luca sat back. It would have to be something that only she would understand. He had so many things he needed to explain to her—mainly that he had stopped believing a long time ago, but had stayed in the hopes he could protect her. That he’d learned so much about the world, the real world, and knew far more than the Bellator Dei would have ever let her learn.
“I…I don’t know…”
“I know this is hard, but there has to be something just the two of you know, or would say?”
Luca thought for a few minutes, then he sat up straighter. “Egle, the Queen of the Serpents.”
“What?” Oscar asked.
“It was a story I used to tell Joli when she was little, whenever she was scared. My mom used to tell it to me before she died. Joli was a baby and didn’t have any memory of our real parents. I started telling her the story when we were at the orphanage and continued after we were adopted and moved to Italy. Signore and Signora Campisi…they weren’t overly affectionate people.”
Oscar leaned over and kissed Luca on his forehead, the impromptu, sweet gesture catching him off guard.
Luca smiled.
“Your childhood fucking sucked, man. I wish…I wish I could erase all that bullshit from your memory.”
Luca nodded, too touched to reply.
“So what’s the story? What should we say?” Oscar asked after a moment.
Luca considered the old folk tale. Since they didn’t know who or if anyone was watching Joli’s computer, he wanted to be careful not to say anything that might put her in more danger.
Oscar passed him the computer.
Luca stared at the keyboard but didn’t type yet, considering his words carefully. “My dearest Egle. If you’re alive, may the sea foam milk. If you’re dead, may the sea foam blood.”
“Jesus Christ, dude. That’s from the story you told your sister when she was scared? What the fuck does that even mean?”
“If she’s safe, she’ll say milk. If she’s in danger, she’ll say blood.”
“Ooookay. But is there something you can add to figure out where she is? Where the Bellator Dei is?”
“Oh. Of course.” Luca considered the story once more. “Where are your serpents?”
Oscar gave him a funny look until Luca explained that the serpents were Egle’s family. “She’ll understand,” Luca reassured him. He turned to the computer and typed out the message, then passed it back to Oscar.
Oscar saved the file, then glanced over at him. “Here goes.”
Oscar dragged the file to the FTP upload. They watched in silence as the progress bar crept toward completion.
The computer dinged and it was done.
Oscar sat back. “Now we wait and see if anything pops up.”
“A reply file?” Luca asked.
“Possibly that or some other kind of message. She’ll have more options on her end than we do on ours.”
There was a brisk knock at the door, and then a man’s voice announcing he was with the hotel.
Oscar and Luca looked at each other, then around the room, which looked like it had been prepped to dismember a body.
“Fuck,” Oscar breathed. “We can’t let them in here.”
“Just a moment, please,” Luca called out in Italian.
“We have your lunch service,” the polite voice called out.
Oscar glanced at his phone and realized they’d missed a text from Owen, telling them that lunch would be delivered to the room for them.
“We, uh, will be ready in a moment.”
Oscar was throwing laptops back into the box. Luca started to strip off his protective gear.
“I’ll just grab it from them,” Luca told Oscar. “So we don’t have to hide everything.”
Oscar paused and glanced around. “Maybe if I just get rid of the plastic drop cloth…”
Luca stepped out of the coveralls, then opened the door just wide enough for him to see the man on the other side. Wearing a hotel uniform, he was pushing a large catering cart covered by a white tablecloth. There were three platters covered by silver dish domes on it.
“I’ll take those.” Luca held out a hand.
“I need to set them up.” The man had an Eastern European accent and the politely distant look of an experienced hospitality worker. Immigrants from Eastern Europe worked in many of the hotels and service industries in central and western Europe.
“We’re in the middle of something,” Luca said apologetically.
Behind the waiter, a member of the housekeeping staff appeared, slowly pushing a massive laundry cart down the hall. Another witness to their rather illegal-looking activities firmed Luca’s resolve. He reached for one of the plates. “I’ll take that and—”
The man grabbed his arm and yanked.
Luca’s head cracked against the doorframe and pain blinded him. He was vaguely aware of stumbling back and falling to the ground as something hot and sticky flowed over his lips.
“What the fuck?” Oscar snarled.
Luca looked up in time to see the waiter and housekeeper rushing into the room. Oscar fought, but they pinned him against the wall in seconds. Then a syringe appeared from one man’s pocket and plunged down into Oscar’s arm.
“Get the other one,” the waiter murmured in Serbian.
Luca’s head was ringing, his nose—probably the source of the blood coating his lips—was throbbing, but he forced himself to his feet even as Oscar sank to the floor, his eyes closed. He lunged for the phone on the wall, only to be knocked to the side. He’d seen the blow coming enough that he’d been able to turn, minimizing the impact so instead of knocking him out, it merely threw him off-balance. He used that, stumbling toward the table and Oscar’s cell phone. His fingers closed over it. A roomful of dangerous people were just down the hall. All he had to do was call them.
There was a sharp pinch at the top of his shoulder. In his peripheral vision, he saw a thumb depress a plunger. The drugs burned his trapezius muscle, and though he was still conscious, he collapsed, landing hard on his knees, then falling to the side.
He watched with ever-fading awareness as the waiter and housekeeper calmly wheeled their carts into the room. Then Luca’s eyes closed, and by the time they stuffed him into the catering cart, he was unconscious.
Chapter Twenty-One
Selene knocked on the door to Langston’s room. With each passing minute, she was becoming more and more worried about Luca and Oscar. No one had seen them since they’d left the
“war council” room this morning, and the room they were supposed to be in was empty, as was their hotel room. Now, it was nearly dinnertime and she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad had happened.
“Hey, Selene. What’s shaking?” Langston asked as he opened the door. Even though she knew it was Langston, not Oscar, she felt a split second of relief when she saw his face. It was truly uncanny how much the Hayden brothers looked alike.
She glanced over his shoulder hopefully, sorry to see Langston was alone. “Have you seen Oscar?”
Langston shook his head. “Not since he and Luca went to work on the laptops. They’re probably still there. Once Oscar gets started on a project like that, he’s like a dog with a bone.”
She shook her head. “No. I went to check on them an hour or so ago and the room’s been cleaned up, everything gone.”
Langston shrugged. “Does Luca know where he went?”
“I can’t find Luca, either.”
Langston frowned. “Did you try his cell?”
She nodded. “No answer.” To any of the seventy-two times she’d called.
“Weird. Come in and we’ll call Owen.”
Selene nodded, grateful for the invitation. She’d done so much pacing in her room the past hour, she was going to wear a hole in the carpet. “Thanks.”
Langston stepped back so she could walk in, then closed the door. She sat down on the desk chair, while Langston perched on the end of the bed.
“I can’t shake this feeling that something is wrong,” she said.
“Did you call down to the front desk? Maybe…” Langston paused, then gave her a sad smile. “I know Oscar was going to break things off last night. Maybe he and Luca decided to get their own rooms.”
She shook her head. “Their luggage is still in our suite.” She didn’t bother to add that she didn’t believe they would switch rooms, no matter what they’d decided last night. At least, she hoped they wouldn’t. While the wisest course was pulling back, Selene wasn’t sure she was going to be able to follow through with that agreement.
Langston studied her face. “You doing okay with…everything?”
She sighed sadly. “I’m in love with your brother. And Luca.”
Langston’s wide smile filled his face. “I think that’s awesome.”
“Even though we’re barreling straight toward certain heartbreak?”
“Yeah. I know it’s not ideal, but…well…I want to thank you.”
“For what?” Selene asked.
“The past few years have been pretty rough on Oscar. Faith kind of made drop-kicking his heart a habit. And when she broke things off just before he proposed, it changed him.”
“Changed him how?” she asked.
“He was angry all the time, bitter.”
“Faith hurt him badly. I think he just needed time to—”
“No,” Langston interjected. “Time wasn’t going to heal him. But you…and Luca…you brought my brother back. Even with all the shit going on right now, he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him. And more at ease. I mean, that guy’s a powder keg on a good day, but I don’t see any of that white-hot rage anymore. You’re good for him.”
“He’s a good man,” Selene said. “And very easy to love. They both are.”
Langston’s grin faded. “I just wish that the three of you…”
Selene nodded, perfectly aware of what Langston was wishing for. “So do I.”
They sat in silence for a few moments as Selene considered Langston’s words and the subtle changes she had seen in Oscar since the day she’d met him at Trinity Masters headquarters. He’d been led into the conference room with a bag over his head because he hadn’t been a member at the time, and he wasn’t allowed to see where headquarters was located. Langston pulled the bag off, Selene took one look in his eyes, and felt as if her heart recognized him.
She stood up and walked to the window, glancing down at the street below. “Something is wrong,” she said. “I can feel it.”
Langston rose and stepped next to her. “Let’s make that call to Owen. Maybe Oscar and Luca found something and they went to tell the MPF.”
She’d grown so accustomed to the three of them being on their own the past week that she hadn’t even considered Luca and Oscar would go to Owen first if they’d found something. “I bet that’s it. Please call.”
Langston grabbed his cell from the nightstand and found Owen’s number. He put it on speakerphone.
“Fraser,” Owen answered.
“Hey, Owen. It’s Langston. I’ve got Dr. Tanaka here with me. We’re worried about Oscar and Luca.”
“Why?” Owen asked.
“I can’t find them,” Selene answered. “The conference room they were using has been cleared out and they never came back to the suite. Have you talked to them?”
“Not since our meeting this morning. How long has it been since you’ve seen them?”
“Since they left to work on the laptops this morning.”
“Damn. We had some internal conflict going on about the possibility of a traitor in our midst and it pulled my attention away from the case. I meant to check on them earlier.” Owen sounded alarmed. “I’ll call you back momentarily.”
Owen disconnected the call. Selene was grateful he was willing to help because she’d already decided that if he’d brushed off her concerns, she was going to start walking the damn streets to look for them on her own.
Langston scanned the street below, and she could see he was worried as well. “Not like Oscar not to answer his phone.”
Ten minutes later, Owen called back. “No one’s seen them since this morning. Jennika is checking with hotel security. We’ve been monitoring all hotel entrances and exits since we got here last night. There are surveillance cameras in the hallway with the meeting rooms. Ridley confirmed they not only went to the smaller meeting room, but were planning to work there. He also brought them protective gear. In the meantime, Vadisk and Claudette are going to take the vans and start canvassing the surrounding area. Your boyfriends picked a bad time to go MIA without checking in with someone.”
“You don’t think the Bellator Dei got to them, do you?” Selene asked, finally voicing the fear that had taken root when she’d discovered the conference room they’d been using empty.
“Unlikely. As I said, we’re monitoring the hotel security system. If they stayed in the hotel, they’re safe.”
“And if they didn’t?” Langston asked.
“If the Bellator Dei was waiting for one of us to walk out of the hotel, we have bigger issues.”
“Bigger issues than them missing?”
“Yes. Because if the Bellator Dei are outside, it means they know who we are, where we are, and had the capacity to kidnap two fully grown men from a public street without raising any kind of alarm or creating a disturbance we would have heard about.”
They ended the call, and Langston looked at Selene. “That actually makes me feel better. The Bellator Dei aren’t direct-confrontation people. That’s why they like bombs.”
Selene nodded, trying to feel the same, but the knot in her stomach tightened with each moment that passed.
Half an hour later, Selene’s nerves were shot, and the normally smiling Langston looked grim when there was a knock on the door. Langston leapt across the room and yanked it open.
A grave-looking Owen, with Jennika at his side, was standing in the hallway.
Selene’s legs trembled as she sank onto the edge of the bed.
Owen and Jennika walked in, the latter walking to the dresser and setting a computer on top. She opened the lid.
“Everything we have on video confirmed what we already knew.” Owen nodded to Jennika.
Selene and Langston crowded around the computer. The low-resolution video showed Ridley, Oscar, and Luca walking down the hall. Jennika fast-forwarded to show Ridley leaving and then coming back with an armful of stuff, then leaving again.
“You two might want to sit d
own,” Jennika said gently.
“No,” Langston snarled, sounding so much like Oscar. “Just show me what happened to my brother.”
Selene put her hand on his shoulder, both as a sign of support and to restrain him.
Jennika looked at Owen, then fast-forwarded again before hitting play.
They watched as a room service waiter knocked on the door. The angle of the security camera meant that they couldn’t see who opened the door, especially since it wasn’t opened all the way. There was a flash of a pale hand—Luca’s—reaching toward the food on the catering cart, but the waiter grabbed his arm.
A second later, the waiter shoved the door open and walked into the room, leaving the cart in the hall. A member of the housekeeping staff, who’d been pushing a laundry cart, followed him in.
Two minutes of nothing, only eerie silence as they watched the video. Then, the staff members appeared again and calmly pushed their carts into the room. Several minutes later, they wheeled both carts out of the room and closed the door behind them.
“Oscar, Luca…they were in those carts, weren’t they?” Selene asked woodenly.
“Dead?” Langston’s question was flat.
Jennika closed the laptop and glanced at Owen.
“No.” Owen was calm and composed. “We lose sight of them briefly, but then we have video of a linen company truck pulling up at the service entrance of the hotel. Two carts are rolled into the back, the staff jump in the back with the carts, and the truck drives off. We’ve confirmed that today is not the regular pickup day for the hotel linens, and that the men on the videos aren’t hotel staff.”
“Not dead?” Selene asked, needing to hear it again.
“We don’t believe so. This reads like a kidnapping.”
“Kidnapped. The fucking Bellator Dei kidnapped them. Do you know where they are? Where they went?” Langston demanded.
Selene backed up until she was sitting on the end of the bed, mind racing. They—she, Luca and Oscar—been so consumed with the Bellator Dei, they hadn’t thought about or discussed what had happened in Pennsylvania.