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"Inevitable," he nods thoughtfully, " I like that."

"I love you," I say, leaning toward him, my tongue sneaking out to lick the shallow knife wound I'd given him.

"Fuck, Sisi," he hisses in pleasure. "I love you too, hell girl." He breathes hard, his eyes closed. "So damn much."

It's a little trickier to get cleaned up after our little adventure, but we manage to slip unnoticed out of Sacre Coeur when everyone is freaking out over the fire at the church. Police and firefighters are both at the scene, and the sheer incompetence is astounding as Vlad gets away with killing the security guards too.

"They offended you." He shrugs as we make it back to the car.

I shake my head at him, although his regard never fails to warm me up.

Once we get back to the compound, we start planning.

38

VLAD

"I've got eyes on it," I call out.

Since Ellis Island isn't exactly the most welcoming place for outsiders, and the security cameras that are around have a restricted area of coverage, I'd had to switch to a Plan B. I'd sent drones to get some footage.

I know it's a risky avenue, but I'm also not about to barge inside unprepared. I need to at least have an idea of the layout of the hospital, and the surrounding terrain.

"Already?" Sisi gets out from her chair, coming to my side to look at the screen.

"Three of the drones made it inside. Two were shot down," I explain, "we have to hope these are going to get enough footage before they're found too."

It's very likely that they are already looking for them, since the previous ones should have alerted them to the potential presence of others. Still, I'm hoping we can getsomething.

"Won't this put them on their guard?"

"It's a risk I have to take," I reply grimly. "It's not ideal, but I would never go in blindly."

She nods, continuing to watch the screen.

The remaining drones provide us with an additional hour of footage before they are also shot down. But that hour is our only insight into what goes on inside the hospital, so Sisi and I start carefully analyzing each frame, making a scheme of the building and what to expect inside.

From what we can see, though, the hospital is anything butabandoned, with shiny new equipment on all levels. Since we'd sent the drones at night, there hadn't been many people wandering the halls, but the few we'd caught on camera we'd been able to identify.

"These are all immigrants," I note as I compile a list of the faces we'd spotted. "Immigrant doctors and nurses," I continue as I sift through the data. "It makes sense, since some wouldn't be able to get their qualifications recognized to work in an official hospital. Although it's a little ironic, since the hospital itself used to be an immigrant building," I chuckle.

"Do you think they know what's happening?"

I purse my lips, nodding.

"Yes. But this is likely the only type of work they could find that doesn't ask them for their certifications," I say as I show her where some of these people are coming from. "It's smart. Get personnel from war-torn countries so they havenoway to provide documentation."

"Isn't this another form of trafficking?" she asks thoughtfully, and a smile pulls at my lips.

"Only if they are taken from their countries. If they were hired when they've already settled here, then no."

"Interesting," she notes, biting the end of her pen. "What do you think, then? Are they sourcing them fromhere,or are they trafficking them?"

Pushing the files we'd printed on the personnel we'd identified toward her, I point to some of the dates.

"These people have been missing foryearsin their respective countries. And there's no record of themeverbeing in the US. My guess is that they were brought over with the incentive of starting a new life, but then they were roped into the business."

"I don't feel sorry for them." She shrugs. "They've known about the stuff Miles' been doing on children and they've never thought to speak out?"