Snorting, Lila picked up the tangle of sheets and shook it, finally rewarded with a soft patter as her palm hit the floor. She snatched it up and sat on the bed to answer it while Tristan yawned and stroked his cock in that absent way men rubbed themselves in the morning. She’d never been able to understand it. Women didn’t grab their crotches straight out of the gate. Why did men reach for theirs so often?
“Hello,” she muttered sleepily into her palm, turning off video.
“Your father has requested your services, Chief Randolph. Our plane leaves shortly.”
“Plane? What plane?”
“Are you drunk, chief?” he said, sounding both inconvenienced and amused at the same time.
“No, I’m just not awake yet.” She rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. “What time is it??
??
“Four thirty.”
Lila nearly retched. She’d barely had two hours of sleep.
So much for her promised four hours.
“Where are we going?”
“Sioux Falls, La Verde. Rebecca was taken from foster care this morning, only a few hours before she was scheduled to return home. Her mother asked for you specifically, said you were the only one she trusted to find her daughter. We’ll leave as soon as you can get out to NBI. Your father has lent us his plane.”
“Okay, give me an hour,” Lila said, desperate for a shower even though it was the least of her problems. She still had to get Tristan out of the great house.
“Chief Randolph, we need to—”
“I’ll be an hour. If you can’t handle that, then leave without me. I was in the middle of something, and I’m more than content to stay where I am.”
“Chief, I don’t think you…” The implication finally snuck in a little late. “Oh, yes, well, then. One hour,” Shaw muttered, and ended the call.
Tristan grinned. “Was that the middle? Because that definitely could have been the middle. Just give me five minutes and—”
“Cute.” Lila pulled a sheet over her breasts and typed in the ID of the New Bristol oracle, turning on video this time.
She wanted to look the oracle in the eyes.
“I convinced my father to let the girl go,” Lila said when the oracle answered. “You lied to me. What the—”
“It wasn’t us, Chief Randolph,” the oracle said. She’d evidently been awake for some time, as she’d brushed her hair and held a steaming mug. “We were afraid of this happening, which is why we asked you to free Rebecca. Many of the oracles have had the same vision over the last few days. I even had it again myself a few hours ago. It ends badly, chief, and it’s very blurry. Until we met on Monday, I assumed you were the reason for it, but perhaps I should have blamed your father.”
“No, we spoke yesterday. I assure you, he was going to release her.”
“Perhaps our vision is blurry for another reason, but I don’t know why. I don’t know what else to do, chief. We know that we can trust you and that you’re the one who will help us. Have you made any progress on finding our girls?”
Lila’s stomach twisted. She hadn’t even popped open the oracle’s files. She barely knew the girls’ names. “Not yet.”
“The oracles will cooperate with you. We’ll give you whatever you need, whatever you want. Just find our girls. Please. They’re running out of time.”
Lila pulled her sheet tighter. “You should tell my father everything. I could help you better if I was working with him and Chief Shaw. They have resources that I don’t always have on my own. They have hundreds of—”
“No. Rebecca would be at home right now if not for your father. We’ll not work with him or the government militia.”
“That’s not helping the situation.”
“As head of the Saxon oracles, I’ve made my decision, as has the La Verde contingent. You should understand that I won’t be able to keep my order from speaking out against him. Many of the oracles are furious, and it will only get worse when more of us wake.”
“That’s a condition of my help, then. You tell the others I won’t lift a finger unless you point your collective wrath at someone else.”