Ava kissed Sebastian. Not a “Nice to see you” peck but a kiss full of emotion—conflicting emotions, Ellie thought. Clearly, the woman had some sort of romantic feelings for him. Clearly, Ava—

“I didn’t know spying was in your job description.”

Ellie started, then turned, saw one of the security guards or computer geeks or whatever their title was standing at the island, grabbing a handful of grapes. There were two at the house. She didn’t know their names because they hadn’t introduced themselves. She knew they were watching everything she did.

“I work for you?” she asked politely.

He shook his head and popped a grape in his mouth.

“What I thought,” Ellie said. “So how about you go outside and play hide-and-go-fuck-yourself?”

He chuckled and winked at her as she turned back to the windows.

Ava was gone. Same with the federal agent. Why would the agent leave without speaking to Sebastian? Her gaze cut to him, pacing the backyard, his phone mashed against his ear, listening. She fetched the car keys, and when she was sure he wasn’t looking, she shut the windows and moved out of the kitchen, rubbing her shoulder. Pandora had healed the gunshot wound quite nicely—the scar was growing fainter by the day, and she no longer had to wear the arm sling—but she still had some muscle tightness there. Sebastian assured her it would disappear.

One thing she noticed about being on Pandora: all her senses were alive, as if they were on steroids. Her sense of smell was strong, intense, as was her sense of taste. No matter what she tasted, even something as ordinary as Starbucks coffee, something she had tasted hundreds if not thousands of times, it was as if she was experiencing it for the first time.

She could see why people wanted Pandora so badly. To feel this way day after day—it was easy to understand how people would turn a blind eye to the ethics. Still, she couldn’t help but remember that someone else’s blood was in her system—the blood of some young man or woman who had been kidnapped, forced to give up their blood.

Knowing this made her want to work even harder to find her brother.

Her phone rang. She fished it from her pocket. Max was calling her again. Max could wait. She opened the sliding glass door and entered the backyard. The cool morning breeze ruffled her hair and blew past her ears, but she heard Sebastian say, “Call me as soon as you get this.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear, read something on the screen, then made another call. He turned and saw Ellie standing on the other side of the pool.

Glared at her.

Ellie held up his car keys as if to explain her sudden presence. He pointed at the driveway. Ellie got moving, heard him say into the phone, “I got your message.” When she reached the gate, she heard him say, “I’m on my way.”