Sloane (7 page)

“Yeah.” I shut my eyes. “Um, the thing is, Silas and
Griffin sort of got… captured.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“We were following up on a lead about where Leigh
might be, and something happened. I couldn’t see, because they were
in a locked room with the blinds drawn. But I saw them taking their
bodies out of the room, but I couldn’t get there fast enough
and—”

“Bodies? They’re
dead
?”

“No, they’re not dead. I don’t think they are.” I
swallowed. Silas couldn’t be dead. If my twin brother was dead,
would I be able to feel it? They sometimes said twins could tell
stuff like that. But that was usually identical twins, who had the
same DNA, and Silas and I were fraternal. “We’re all really hard to
kill.”

Christa was starting to cry. “Oh my God. Oh my God.
Where are they, Sloane?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” I said. “I don’t really
know. But I’m going to find out. I just haven’t figured out how
yet. But I’m going to get them back. I’m going to get them all
back.”

“By yourself?”

“There isn’t anyone else,” I said.

“But Sloane, I mean, is that something you can
really… do?”

She didn’t believe in me either. I sat up. “Look,” I
snapped, “I got the same assassins training that Silas did, okay? I
can do this.”

Christa didn’t say anything.

Geez. I was snapping at her? I sighed. “I’m sorry. I
shouldn’t have…”

“It’s okay. You’re worried about them.”

“I’m going to get them back. After everything Silas
has done for me, I can do this for him.”

“Maybe I should come up and help out.”

“No,” I said. “No, Silas would want you to stay where
it’s safe. Griffin would too. Besides, there’s nothing you can
do.”

“There’s got to be something.”

“No.” I stood up. “I’ll call you as soon as I know
anything else.”

“Wait, Sloane, you can’t just hang up on me.”

“I’ll be in touch.” I hung up the phone, cutting off
her next protest. I definitely did not want her here. There was no
way that I could rescue everyone and babysit her at the same time.
It would be much easier if she stayed out of harm’s way.

A muffled moan came from the bathroom.

I stared at the bathroom door.

Damn it.

I needed to pee.

* * *

Jeff was out in the room now. He was sitting against
the wall, right next to the TV stand. The toilet was still
flushing.

“Do you have to go?” I asked him.

He made a noise through the gag. I went over and
pulled it out of his mouth. “Do you?”

He shook his head. “I already did when I was locked
in there. I could still get my zipper down, even though my hands
are tied, and I propped myself up—”

“Spare me the details.” I sat back down on the bed,
facing Jeff. “You are a colossal pain in my ass, you know
that?”

“Why don’t you let me go?”

“I can’t.”

“I wouldn’t tell anyone about you. I swear.”

Yeah, right. I massaged my temples. What was I going
to do? How was I going to get Silas, Griffin, and Leigh back?

“I’d just go home and go to bed, and I’d pretend like
it never happened. I promise you. Please let me go.”

“Jeff, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to gag you
again.”

He clamped his lips closed.

I sighed. I got up and walked over to the other side
of the room. There was a chair here with a plastic green cushion,
and a rickety little table covered in brochures for Boston
attractions. I began idly sorting through them, not really looking
at them, just happy to do something with my hands. “So, he’s got a
secret lab, and no one knows where it is. No one knows.” I paused,
my fingers still flipping through the brochures. “Except him, of
course. He knows where it is. So that’s who I need to talk to.
Armstrong. But how the hell am I going to talk to Armstrong? He
managed to take out Griffin and Silas. How’d he even do that?”

“He has really powerful sedation formulas,” said
Jeff.

I turned to look at him.

“He keeps them in his office. I know because he
showed them to me once. This whole drawer full of syringes. He said
he had enough stuff there to knock out an army of elephants.”

“Not in his office, then,” I said. “Maybe I could
talk to him at home.”

“I don’t know if he ever goes home. I think he sleeps
in the office a lot, or maybe at his lab. When I was in his office,
he had a whole closet full of clothes in there.”

I turned back to the brochures. “He’s got to go home
sometime.”

“Maybe,” said Jeff. “But maybe not for a long time.
If those guys he brought in were new subjects, then he’ll probably
be excited enough to spend a lot of time in the lab with them.”

I dropped the brochures and went back over to the
bed. “Well, he’s got to go someplace. He can’t live at work.”

Jeff shrugged. “He kind of does.”

I squared my shoulders. “Okay, well then I’ll just
get in there. I can do that. I’ll go at night. I can get around the
security.”

Jeff didn’t say anything.

“What?” I said. “You don’t think I can get around the
security?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe so. But it seems
like a lot of risk just to try to get Armstrong to tell you where
the lab is.”

“I’d make him take me to the lab,” I said. “I’d force
him at gunpoint.”

“He has all those syringes,” said Jeff.

I glared at him. “You want to try to talk me out of
it. You think if you can make me give up on it, I’ll let you go
home. But you don’t understand. One of those guys that got taken to
the lab today was my brother. And I won’t give up until I get him
back.”

Jeff bit his lip. “Your brother?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” He looked away.

I ran a hand through my hair. “Listen, Jeff, I’m
sorry about this. You deserve better.”

He turned back. “You’ll let me go eventually, won’t
you? You’re not going to… to…” He couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Of course.” But I didn’t know how I was going to
manage that. If I let Jeff go, and he turned me in, I could have
the police after me. I really didn’t want that.

“You’re trying to get your brother back, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, the Shepherd Foundation is having a benefit
this weekend,” said Jeff. “I know for a fact that Armstrong’s going
to be there. I overhead him talking about it in the elevator. Maybe
you could talk to him then.”

“A benefit?” I said. “I guess that would have low
security.”

“Maybe,” he said. “The only problem would be getting
in. It’s invite only, and the guest list is full. The guests are
all really rich, really snobby people there.”

Shepherd Foundation? Where had I heard that
before?

It was sometime recently, since we’d gotten to
Boston. Someone had said something about it to…

Oh yeah.

Axel Whitman.

* * *

Axel Whitman was sprawled out an a circular couch in
the middle of the floor at The Golden Key. There were two women
hanging on him—one on either side—and he had his arms around both
of them. He was gazing up at the stage, where two of the strippers
were helping each other remove their corsets. Music blared over the
speakers, something pulsing and repetitious.

I stalked over. “Axel.”

It seemed that he didn’t hear me. He was wearing
another suit. This one wasn’t pink. Instead, it was navy blue
pinstripe. He had a gray fedora on his head, slightly askew. He
looked like he was king of the world and enjoying it.

I moved in front of him, blocking his view of the
stage. “Axel, I need to talk to you.”

He gave me a perturbed look. “You again.”

“Look, I know you’re a jackass who doesn’t care about
anything except yourself, but I need your help.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re in my way.”

“I know that. That’s because I need your
attention.”

His gaze traveled from my toes up over my body. He
went very slowly, and I suddenly felt self-conscious. I was wearing
a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, with a windbreaker thrown over the
whole ensemble as a barrier against the night chill. I sure as heck
didn’t look very glamorous. His gaze was unnerving. And it was…
strange. I didn’t think anyone had ever looked at me so closely. I
was used to sticking to the periphery, barely being noticed. Under
Axel’s stare, I felt exposed.

“I’m paying attention to you,” he said. “Talk.”

I licked my lips. Suddenly, I couldn’t remember what
I wanted to tell him. “Can you—can you stop staring at me like
that?”

He chuckled. “I thought you wanted my attention.”

I was going to murder him. I could do it, too. I had
a gun on me. I could just slam the thing into his pretty little
face and—

Pretty?

I shook myself. “The music’s really loud.”

He eased his arms off the other two girls and got up.
“Fine. We can go somewhere more… private.”

A little shiver went up my spine. Jesus, why did he
have to have a voice like that? Like satin and sex and—

Axel was already walking through the club, not even
looking over his shoulder to see if I was catching up.

I hurried after him.

He started up a set of stairs in the back, and I
followed him. We went up to the top floor, which was empty and
quiet. The sound of the music was dampened by the distance. He
opened the first door we came to and made an elaborately polite
after-you gesture.

I went inside.

“This is my office,” he said, closing the door behind
us. It was carpeted with thick, crimson shag. There were two
leather couches against either wall, a glass table between them.
His oak, dark-stained desk was on the far end. There were framed
black-and-white nudes on the wall. I felt the hint of his breath at
the back of my neck, heard the purr of his voice. “Like it?”

I jumped, lurching away from him. “Yeah, it’s
great.”

He grinned. “You seem a little nervous.”

“I’m fine,” I said, smoothing the front of my
windbreaker.

Axel took off his fedora and tossed it on one of the
couches. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Uh…” Why couldn’t I think? Something about Axel made
me feel so flustered. I jutted my chin out. “What kind of name is
Axel anyway? Your parents big Guns N’ Roses fans?”

“No.” He drew down the corners of his mouth in
displeasure. “My mother happens to be Swedish. It’s a Scandinavian
form of the Hebrew name Absalom, if you must know.”

Oh, so I’d offended him? Good. He’d gotten me all
off-kilter. He deserved it.

He narrowed his eyes. “Your name is Sloane,
right?”

I nodded. He remembered my name. I was surprised, and
to my horror, a little bit pleased.

“Well, Sloane, certainly you didn’t make us come all
the way up here so that you could ridicule my name?”

Now I was flustered again. I searched my brain trying
to put together what I wanted to say. What came out was, “The
Shepherd Foundation benefit.”

“Yes?” He looked confused.

“You’re going.”

“Yes.”

“I need you to get me in.”

He drew back. “That’s why you’re here?” He laughed,
sitting down on one of the couches. “Well, I’m afraid that’s out of
the question. I’m only a guest at the benefit. I don’t have the
ability to invite people. The guest list is very competitive. Not
just anyone can go. Besides, I wouldn’t have pegged you for someone
who’d be interested in things like that.”

This was going all wrong. “I don’t want to go to the
benefit.”

“You just said you did.”

I twisted my fingers together. “I need to get in.
There’s someone there I need to talk to. Dr. James Armstrong. I
can’t get to him any other way, so I need to get into the
benefit.”

He stretched, cradling his head with his hands. “I
really fail to see how this is my problem.”

Oh. Oh, right. I’d buried the lead. “It’s for
Leigh.”

He furrowed his brow. “You know, Sloane, you may make
the least sense of any woman I’ve ever met.”

“Sorry, it’s only that it’s complicated.”

He smiled. “It’s not exactly a bad thing. You’re…” He
looked me up and down. “I mean, you’re obviously sort of pathetic,
but there’s also a kind of fierceness to you. You intrigue me.”

I blushed. I looked away. “That’s not… Stop doing
that.”

“Stop doing what?”

“Looking
at me.”

He burst out laughing.

I took a deep breath. “You remember how we were
looking for Leigh earlier?”

He made a face, as if he was thinking very hard. “Oh.
Oh, yes, I suppose that’s why you came by. I’d forgotten all about
that. Did you find her? If you found her, could you tell her to
call me? I really do worry about her.”

“No, we didn’t find her,” I said. “I mean, not
exactly.”

He reached over and opened a wooden box on the table.
He retrieved a bag of white powder and wiggled it at me. “You want
a bump?”

I gulped. “Is that cocaine?”

“Yes. Do you want some?”

“No.” I glared at him. “Not at all. I don’t. I’m
trying to explain something to you.”

“Yes, you seem to be having some difficulty.” He gave
the bag a shake. “Nothing like a little blow to loosen your tongue,
you know?”

“I don’t need drugs to talk.”

He set the bag down. “All right. All right. But can
you speed this up, Sloane? I admit I find you intriguing, but I
also get bored very easily, and I really can’t be sure how much
longer you’ll amuse me.”

My nostrils flared. “James Armstrong has kidnapped
Leigh and taken her to a secret lab so that he can do experiments
on her, and I need to talk to him, so that I can find out where the
lab is and get her back.”

Axel blinked.

I sighed. You know, when I said it out loud, it
sounded stupid.

“Kidnapped?”

“Yes.”

“By that asshole with the shaved head that you were
with earlier?”