Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I never checked up on her despite the hundreds of times I checked that fucking email, only to find it empty. I never went back to Boston because I convinced myself I hated her. I know there are still parts of me, even with this new discovery, that may always hate her.
I snap my gaze toward the crunch of gravel, releasing a sigh of relief to see the SUV driven by Hemlock with Lark in the passenger seat pulling up instead of one of Damien's goons.
Lark dips his head in acknowledgment as he climbs out of the vehicle before walking toward the front door.
"Not the news we wanted to hear," Hemlock says as he approaches me.
It was he who called Jersey and that I spoke with before Aspen dropped a bomb right in the middle of my fucking life.
"Eli Gaines is my biological son," I say.
Hemlock freezes in his tracks. "You're sure?"
I nod. "She has no reason to lie, and a contact dug up some information that proves it."
He frowns. "We should keep all details and correspondence within Cerberus."
"Yes, sir," I say, knowing I can't go back and I won't apologize for using my own resources.
"What more do you know?" I ask, knowing they had a team move in on the school where we had discovered that Eli was being held.
"There were twelve beds at that place. Well, thirteen if you count the single we suspect was used by whatever teacher or guard that was there. It wasn't much of a school. There were no books or the Internet. They didn't even have a television. There were four bedrooms, one for the adult and another three with two sets of bunk beds each."
"The guard we have inside says they have his daughter and have kept her from him for a long time. Last he spoke to her was six months ago," I explain.
"Shit," Hemlock mutters, grabbing at the back of his neck. It's a sign that he's trying to think of the best course of action to take, but I know the man is new to being in a leadership role. "The team is still there trying to determine where they could've been moved, but from what they can tell, they weren't moved today. It's not like Damien got wind that someone had Aspen so he called and made them leave."
"Is it possible he knows something happened last week, and he moved them then?"
Hemlock latches his gaze on mine. "It's possible."
"Fuck!" I rage, kicking at a rock on the ground and being unconcerned when it flies through the air, smacking against the side of the sedan I drove Aspen here in.
"From what they've gathered, the personal belongings are non-descript. There was nothing there with a name on it of any kind. No toys for small children. No board games for older kids. We can't even guarantee that Eli was ever in that house to begin with, but that won't stop us from working to locate all the children. It'll be hard as fuck to do because we don't have a line of people knocking down our doors and begging for help. They're pulling DNA samples, but you know how long that shit takes. When was the last time she had contact with the boy?"
I shake my head. "She never said."
"We need to find that out. I don't want to think the worst, but Damien Gaines isn't known for being tolerant or compassionate when he's pissed. Hell, I hear he's just as sick and sadistic when he's in a good mood as he is when he's angry."
"Tell me what else they found in the house," I demand, as if I would be any better at figuring out where Eli is than the men who have trained to research shit like this.
"The milk in the fridge wasn't out of date," he says. "There were a few dirty dishes in the sink, but not enough to indicate twelve kids were fed. The house was less than two hours away in Hartford. We don't know much, man. They didn't notice any blood stains. Nyx ripped up the carpet to check. I think that man's head goes straight to the most morbid things, but I can see it being helpful at times."
"We need someone to go through properties connected to Gaines."
"Already on it. We have Casper working with St. Louis to follow all digital leads."
I breathe a minor sigh of relief.
St. Louis is Wren Nelson, the IT specialist for Blackbridge Security. The man is a genius when it comes to finding shit out online. The guy can figure shit out in seconds, where other teams have been working on it unsuccessfully for years. I'm honestly surprised the government hasn't abducted him, locked him away in a basement somewhere, and demanded that he work solely for them. But knowing Wren, he has a failsafe up in case they ever think to try.