I was working through the implications with Paige when a commotion sounded in the hall. I opened the door to see Karl striding down the corridor, smacking an open palm into the chest of a guard who stepped into his path. Griffin tried to elbow past, but I blocked him.

“Why the hell aren’t you answering your cell phone?” Karl snarled, advancing on me.

“My cell—?” I pulled it out and saw the ringer was still turned off from earlier.

“Where’s Hope?” Paige asked.

“That’s what I was calling about.” He planted himself in front of me, lips parted, teeth showing. “They took her.”

JASPER AND JASON had kidnapped Hope. It was easier to think of them that way, to divorce them from the image I’d already formed of “Jaz and Sonny”—harmless young men who’d been unwitting pawns in a battle between the gang and the Cabal.

Karl had been tracking Jason. As for how or why, he wasn’t about to waste time on explanations. He’d left Hope behind, and when Jason got into a car in a crowded lot, he’d noted the license and make, then hurried back for her. She was gone, and the spot where he’d left her had been rife with Jasper’s scent.

Karl’s black mood only darkened when he realized this revelation—that Jasper and Jason were alive, and coconspirators—did not surprise us.

Griffin said, “So Hope left with this guy and you know she was kidnapped because…”

“Because I know Hope.”

“Are you sure?”

Karl swung on Griffin. Griffin’s cheek twitched—the “tell” that he was activating his armor.

“There are other reasons Hope might go with Jasper,” Paige said.

Karl stiffened, and I knew Paige had been right about the nature of Hope’s developing relationship with Jasper Haig.

“She wouldn’t,” Karl said.

“What I meant is that she might have seen him and followed for a better look. Or maybe he approached her claiming he needed help and, still believing he’d been kidnapped, she went with him. Or maybe she realized he was behind this, and thought playing along was the best way to stop him.”

“She wouldn’t be that stupid.”

Paige flushed and I knew she was thinking of the times she’d done something “that stupid” trying to stop a crime.

She hurried on. “Whatever the reason, she’s with him and we need to find them.”

“No one’s even going to bring it up, are they?” Griffin said. “Maybe he—” a thumb jab at Karl, “—doesn’t see it, but we can’t go rushing in to rescue the girl without considering that she might not want to be rescued. Or that it’s a trap.”

“Hope isn’t involved,” I said. “Now, we need to make a list—”

Griffin strode in front of me. “Did you ever hear what happened with Dean Princeton, Lucas?”

“Yes, I did.”