He wasn’t lying, there had to be at least close to a hundred and fifty people on this island right now, and that’s not counting the security detail. Anyone watching wouldn’t think anything was going on since there were pregnant women and children here, but you only needed to step foot on the place to feel the underlying current.
I don’t know what I expected when we accepted the invitation to come here. I half expected it to have something to do with the fact that they’d figured out that I was the one who’d killed that guy they were after back on the mainland. Nothing could’ve prepared me to hear what I’d heard here last night.
It was early morning now, and the whole island seemed to be asleep, but I couldn’t get my mind to rest. “Do you realize that this is the stuff that Lily and her little friends have been meddling with? This organization that Mancini talked about?” How strange is it that my daughter and her friends had stumbled upon the group responsible for her grandma’s murder?
To hear Mancini tell it, everyone here right now was connected in some way or the other going back generations. I’m not sure I believe in this shit, but there’s way too much coincidence for my liking. “Did you notice that your daughter was missing for hours?”
“Yeah, but you knew where she was all along.”
“Yeah, she and Lyon’s kid were in the basement. Not sure what they were doing down there, but that’s where she disappeared to almost as soon as we landed, and she stayed there for hours. They were dragged away when we headed to the beach, but they didn’t stay very long before they went back. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
“What the heck do you think they could be getting up to down there, Shane? They’re what, seven, eight?” He gave me a look like I was stupid. “Didn’t you just get through reminding me that those same little girls uncovered this group on their own? I never heard of these fucks in my life, and I thought I knew all the fucknuts roaming around out there.”
“You’ve got a point, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. We’re on an island, what can they do?” Even as I said the words, I was sitting up straighter in bed. If my kid is anything like me, they can do plenty. “Shit!”
“Where are you going?” I climbed over him to get out of bed.
“I’m going in that lab to see what the hell those two are up to.”
I padded down the hallway on my bare feet, stopping first at the door to the room where my youngest was already fast asleep before moving onto the room next door. I opened the door slightly and peered in at the two little girls who were fast asleep on the little twin beds across from each other.
My heart clutched in my chest at the sight of my daughter and her little friend, who had fought to stay in the same room together. Only heaven knows what the hell the two of them were plotting. I closed the door and headed down the hallway to the very end with Shane hot on my heels.
The state of the art lab was huge and seemed to have every amenity known to man, but I was more interested in the computers kept there. There was only one that seemed to be on and working, so we made our way there. I hit a few buttons, and the screen filled with words.
I had to scroll back to the beginning, which seemed to go on forever. With my brow creased, I read what was written there, but nothing seemed to make sense. Until I scrolled down to what looked like the conversation I’d had with Mancini a few hours ago. “Oh fuck, is that what I think it is?” Shane sounded shell shocked.
“Yeah, uh, do you think Mancini knows they bugged him?”
Mancini
The jet should be landing any minute now, and I find myself on tenterhooks. I’d listened in on Jason and Roxana’s conversation when they were back at the house. Not because I’m a nosy fuck, but because my wife asked me to save this girl in a roundabout way, and I feel a sense of responsibility to her. I’ve listened in on others' conversations before, of course, the house is built and fitted out for that, all of the safe houses are.
There are eyes and ears everywhere in each of them since we usually deal with rescuing children. It’s just another layer of protection that was put in place by the organization to ensure that everyone working with or for us was on the up and up. I don’t plan on listening in on those two in the future since it was blatantly obvious that the boy had already staked his claim.