Scorch (Virtues & Lies 2)

“Her?” Glancing over at Arabella, his demeanour changes. Casper goes from impassive to ready to throttle, just like when I broached the subject of asking her out. He didn’t exactly make it easy for me. His death threats were serious.

“I love her—”

“You love her, but you don’t trust her?” The bite in his tone has me backing up as he turns to face me. “Like you love her, but you had Julian draw up divorce papers, huh?”

Jesus, talk about getting the wrong end of the stick.

“I burned those. They served their purpose. Arabella’s back, and that’s all that matters. Besides, I wasn’t talking about her. If you let me finish…fucking hell.”

“Who the fuck are you talking about, then?” The rasp in his voice is low.

“I love Fleur. She’s practically as much my sister as Cassie. But like her father, she’s never gotten caught up in any of the shit that’s happened. It’s like she has an invisible shield around her.”

He visibly stiffens, and I can see him go into protective mode. Casper has no tolerance for rats or traitors. He’s far too loyal to hold back in those circumstances.

“Her mother died, for fuck’s sake, and her father doesn’t give a fucking shit. She might as well be alone in this world, with the exception of us. Because she’s one of us, right?”

I nod, ignoring the prick of doubt needling my head.

“Fleur is as much of a Sinclair as you and Cassie, and I can tell you now that your mother would fucking make you eat your words if she heard this conversation. What the fuck has gotten into you?”

“What’s gotten into you?”

His features smooth over. “It’s not like you to go around making accusations like that without having proof. It makes things awkward and harder.”

A low, huffy growl vibrates out of him as he shakes his head, staring straight into the fire behind Leo and Freddie.

The two of them are going back and forth on a printed map in one of the corners. Pushing this conversation to the back of my mind, I focus on what they’re saying.

“It doesn’t make sense. All the missing people are connected to someone that has some kind of pull. The senator’s son was the bargaining chip for that port.” He points at the image of the large multimillion-pound yacht moored in a small southern American port. It has a direct route to the Colombian coast. “Perfect for smuggling whatever shit’s on the agenda. I’m guessing it’s not just narcotics. In fact, I’d be more inclined to go with weapons and people.”

“Well, duh…of course, if you have Northern Africa opened up to you for the drugs, why would you go the obvious route?” Freddie adds, dropping the pool balls on the table, over our spread of information, and arranging them for a game. “Quite frankly, if I was to smuggle anything, I would do narcotics from South America to Africa. Brazil on ship to Guinea, up through Mali, and tread the border of Niger and Algeria, up through Libya to Tunisia. You have access to all of Europe, urbanised and wealthy Middle East.”

“And the States? Canada? Asia?” I take the cue from his hand and break the game.

“Fucking hell, numb nuts!” Groaning, he follows me from across the table.

“Once you’re in the Middle East and Central Europe, you get into Asia easily,” Leo adds, tracing the journey on the printed map. “Which makes perfect sense, seeing as the Japanese girl that went missing in Berlin is the Prime Minister’s niece.”

“And the States?”

“Get them into Asia and you’re in,” Freddie adds. “The US imports so much from them that it’s child’s play. Besides, from all this—” He signs at the photocopies spread in front of us. “—they must have some bigwigs in their pockets.”

“But why would it work? They can’t possibly be holding all these people captive.” Smashing the white, I try to spread balls around the table. Freddie loves a tight game, and I’m not in a mood to lose.

“Desperate people do stupid things,” Leo mutters. Looking up, he marks Arabella with his stare. “Ignorant people make stupid decisions.”

“Wind it in.” Pressing the end of my cue to his shoulder, I move him along the edge of the table.

“Look at his grandfather.” Freddie circles behind me. Stepping between Leo and me, he nudges my cue out of the way.

“Once they’ve done one dodgy deed, they’re under the thumb. The fallout, if it became public, would be too fucking wide. You’re looking at career suicide, not to mention the fact that in some of these places it’s a treasonous act. They would be so fucked that the desperation alone would drive them to do whatever is asked.” Sitting back into the wingback love seat by the fire, Leo pours himself a glass of water.

“It doesn’t make sense though.” Casper joins him. “Why take Lucy? The others were nobodies. Lucy was fucking everywhere. People noticed.”

“We noticed.” The smack of the ball Freddie shoots reverberates around the room.

“That’s where it went wrong.” It finally occurs to me. Looking at everything. Putting all the facts together. “She was too high-profile to do anything with. And Stanton was bound by our rules.”