Page 50 of Hold Me
“Yeah, how do you think people transfer unwilling slaves to where they want them?”
“Right.” The whole idea of buying and selling another human being like that turns my stomach upside down. “Just take care of him, okay?”
“I’ll do my best. I don’t have a dungeon, though, so I really hope he’ll be smart enough not to try to escape.”
“I promise I’ll call Caleb tomorrow and then he can talk to Isaac, and we can figure this out.”
“Sure,” she says, but doesn’t sound too happy.
The first thing I do when Caleb comes is hand him the phone. Even though Lloyd has found a safe line for me that the cops could monitor, I refused his offer and got a burner. I don’t want to give Caleb reasons not to trust me, and I don’t think he’d ever agree to talk to Isaac if the cops can listen.
“What...?” He just stares at me, his eyebrows squishing together.
“Answer it,” I say, giving him an encouraging smile.
He lifts the phone to his ear and tentatively says, “Hello?” His mouth goes slack. “Isaac?” he asks incredulously, then quickly says something I can’t understand.
I go farther down the hallway so he can have some privacy because I don’t want to intrude on his conversation.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Isaac says, and relief overcomes Caleb so strongly that he nearly stumbles.
“Are you okay? Where are you?” Caleb keeps his voice down as Lilith leaves toward the living room. He’s not exactly sure what is going on, but he desperately wants to believe that Lilith hasn’t lied to him and that this won’t turn out to be just a cruel trick.
“You won’t believe this, but yeah, I am. Lilith’s friend... Katherine... I’m at her place.”
“How did she get you out?” Caleb frowns.
“She bought me.”
“She what?”
“How else do you think she’d get me out of the auction room?” Isaac’s voice is tense.
“And you trust her?”
“Not yet, but I trust your Lilith. She’ll help you. I know it.”
Caleb clutches the phone. “Are you sure? Because if this is a game and we...”
“I put a camera right underneath that strange black statue Raphael has that looks like a humanoid octopus. If he hasn’t seen it, you can get it. If you give it to Lilith, that’s our best shot at taking Raphael down, even if it kills us all. If we don’t do anything, he’ll just kill off everyone eventually. We’re just prolonging our misery.”
“And if we get caught and get someone’s families and children killed? Or worse, if they’re taken to fill in our places?”
“We have to take that risk. If things stay as they are, it’ll only get worse for everyone.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Yeah, me too,” Isaac says. “I’ve got to go now. Don’t forget to take your good luck hat.”
“Okay. Take care of yourself.” Caleb’s lips tilt into a smile. Isaac has just assured him he hasn’t been forced to say what he doesn’t want to. Maybe things are finally looking up for all of them, or maybe not.
A couple of minutes later, Caleb comes into the living room and hands me back the phone.
“Thank you,” he says, and takes a seat next to me, his eyes sparkling. “I’ll get the footage, but I’ll need at least a week. Isaac told me where the camera is. It shouldn’t be that difficult to get it. I just can’t promise it’ll still be there. But there’s one thing I know I can do for you. I’ll destroy the video of you that I took.”
“No,” I say. “If Raphael finds out, he’ll be suspicious. Leave the video. I’ll deal with that later, okay?”
He frowns, but finally nods. His hand ends up on my leg, and his dark eyes bore into mine. “Maybe I can...”