Gabriel ignored the question and went on. “The night you were kidnapped, Gallaston claimed you’d gone out for a jog and he didn’t realize you were missing until the next morning.”
“What?” Were they lying to me? Why would Arthur have said that? He knew it wasn’t true. I rarely went running and if I did go, it was with a friend early in the morning.#p#分页标题#e#
“That’s what he told the police.”
I looked from one to the other, trying to understand. Was everything I knew a lie? “Please don’t lie to me about this. I’m here. You have me here.” Confusion boiled up inside me, building like a volcano, that layer of dread at the thought of Arthur churning hot within it. “I don’t understand. Please don’t lie to me.” I felt desperate.
“That’s one thing we won’t do, Eva. We will always tell you the truth.”
I looked into Syn’s eyes, his black, black eyes, and I knew what he said was true. I believed him.
“Arthur knew I wasn’t going for a jog. I wouldn’t have, it was so late. He had told me to go to our room saying he’d be up soon.” I looked up at Gabriel. “But I didn’t go. I followed him instead. I remember that, I followed him.”
“What else, Evangeline? Think.”
I was thinking. I was thinking so hard it hurt. I looked down at my left hand, at the thin white line where my engagement ring should have been. But I didn’t want to think about that now. I couldn’t think about that.
“What’s going to happen to me?” I knew my memory of that night was critical, but I also knew it would answer more questions than I wanted answered. Than I could handle having answered.
Syn looked to Gabriel and nodded, and Gabriel turned back to me.
“I know you don’t want to believe this, Evangeline, but your fiancé has been trafficking women for years and is heavily involved in moving drugs throughout the United States.”
I shook my head. This was… unreal.
“Your father is offering to pay a hefty amount of money to anyone with information about you.”
“You can tip him off anonymously. Drop me somewhere. Tell him where to find me. Make some arrangement to get paid.”
Syn frowned. “Look around you, Eva. Does it look like this is about money to us?”
I shook my head. “What is it about then?”
Syn got up, opened a desk drawer and brought back a photograph. “This was Laney. She was barely twenty-one when she overdosed on drugs.”
I looked at the girl in the picture standing between Gabriel and Syn. The resemblance between them was uncanny.
“I… I’m sorry, that’s terrible.” It was terrible, but why were they telling me this? “Did she…”
“No, she didn’t die, but she was pronounced brain-dead. She’s in a vegetative state, has been for six years.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what this has to do with me.”
“She got involved with a man like your fiancé,” Gabriel said. “She’d never even smoked a cigarette before him. Laney didn’t do drugs.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“She was pregnant. We found that out later, once she’d miscarried.”
I just sat watching, horrified, not knowing what to say, how to even react.
“The night before they’d found her lying on the street, like some animal — she’d left a phone message,” Gabriel said, continuing to talk. “I didn’t get to hear it until it was too late.” He stood and went to his desk, taking out a cell phone and pushing a button. I didn’t want to hear it but I had no choice. Turning to him, I watched his face as I listened, watched him try to contain the hurt, saw his hand clench to a fist as the message played. She spoke in a near whisper, her voice sounding anxious and afraid.
“I want to come home, Gabe, but I’m not sure he’ll let me leave.” A nervous giggle then she began to whisper. “I sound stupid, don’t I? I mean he’s my boyfriend.”#p#分页标题#e#
Laney gasped, a door slammed shut and someone called out her name.
“I have to go. I’ll…”
The call ended there, just like that.
“Those were her last words to us,” Syn said, but my eyes remained on Gabriel who looked at the phone for a moment before putting it away, averting his gaze from mine.
Gabriel leaned against his desk and folded his arms across his chest, watching me. “You want to know what’s going to happen to you? I’m not convinced putting you within Gallaston’s reach is the safest thing for you.”