Huh. That was weird. For a second, I hesitated, wondering if I shouldn’t go after him. They way he’d looked at me…it was like he knew what I was.

“Did you know that man?” Garret asked at my shoulder, making me jump. Of course, his suspicious hawk eyes had caught everything. I shook my head as we entered the elevator, Faith close at our backs.

“No, I’ve never seen him before,” I said, relieved as the doors closed and the elevator began to move. Had anyone else gotten on, I would have half expected them to pull a gun or a knife as soon as the doors shut. The soldier had made me completely paranoid. “Should we follow him?” I asked, as the numbers climbed steadily toward our floor. “Do you think he’s with Talon or the Order?”

“If he is, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Garret answered, far too calmly. “We have to get to Wes, see if he’s heard anything from Riley or Ava. Maybe they’re already here.”

I clung to that small flicker of hope as the elevator doors finally opened and we stepped onto our floor. I made myself walk, not run, to Wes’s door and rap on the wood.

It swung back almost instantly, and Wes peered out with wild hazel eyes, making my heart sink. “About bloody time you got here!” he hissed, stepping back to let us in. His room was disheveled, torn apart…and empty, as I’d feared. “Where the hell is Riley?”

“Not here,” I answered, as the hollow feeling in my stomach opened into a dark, yawning pit, swallowing me whole. Garret locked the door and stood against it, gazing through the peephole, and Faith hovered anxiously, looking confused and lost.

Wes shot me a glare full of venom. “I bloody well see that! That’s not what I asked,” he snarled. “Where is Riley? I’ve been trying to contact him for hours. Is he all right? Is he dead? Where is he?”

“I don’t know!”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“We were separated.” Garret eased back from the door, apparently satisfied that we weren’t followed and that no one lurked in the halls. “The Order swarmed the building. We had to take different routes back to the hotel.”

“Well, that’s bloody fantastic,” Wes snapped, throwing up his arms. “So the Order is out there, hunting him down, and you two blighters went and left him to die.”

At that, Faith burst into tears. Wes jumped and looked at her strangely, as if just realizing she was there. Covering her face with her hands, the girl turned into the corner and shook violently with sobs.