“I heard that,” Lucas said. “Tell Karl no. Once you’ve found William and turned him over to Griffin’s care, I won’t ask any more of either of you. If William isn’t at the office, though, I’d like Karl to try to ascertain, by scent, whether he was there recently. And, Hope, if you could check for any visions…”

In other words, he suspected William might have been kidnapped…or worse.

“If he is gone,” Lucas said. “Please ask Karl to track him as far as possible, then contact me.”

LUCAS 10

LUCAS

10

“SO HAVE I COMPLETELY LOST MY MIND?” I asked as I drove.

Paige gave a tiny smile. “Not yet.” She directed me around a corner, following the instructions the Cabal had given. “For your father’s sake, I hate to say it, but your reasoning is sound. I just hope you’re wrong.”

“As do I.”

I glanced in the rearview mirror as a dark car pulled in behind us. A flash of its headlights told me it was the guards I’d requested. “Am I wrong to keep my suspicions from Hope and Karl?”

A pause this time. Choosing her words with care, she finally said, “It’s…not ideal. But you already know that.”

I nodded.

“If you tell Karl the truth, he won’t help, but the only way to answer your questions about your brothers is with his tracking abilities and Hope’s visions.”

“So I’m employing questionable means to achieve a goal I believe is in the best interests of the majority. Sounds like my father.”

“It isn’t the same.”

Isn’t it?

AT HECTOR’S HOUSE, the Cabal guards pulled in behind us.

I was about to see family members I’d never met. Family who didn’t know I existed.

No matter how sound my justification, Hector would say I was just using a shrewd excuse to undermine his authority. Proof I was becoming a threat.

Paige took my elbow and rubbed her thumb across the back of it, pimpled with goose bumps despite the warm night air.

“Is there any other way we can do this?” she asked.

I shook my head.

Someone had walked into my father’s house, bypassing security without raising alarms, someone familiar enough that the door guard not only accepted poisoned take-out coffee from him, but didn’t feel it necessary to clear his admittance with my father. Someone Troy would chat with, unperturbed, in his bedroom.