Page 31 of Marks of Rebellion

"What would be a reason for it not to be?"

He furrows his brows and stares at me.

"What?"

He lowers his voice. "If someone is deceased, they wouldn't list it."

My hand flies to my mouth, and goose bumps pop out on my skin. "No."

"There could be an error. Or possibly another reason we aren't aware of. We need to talk to Interpol before we jump to the worst conclusion possible," Ryker says.

"Was her daughter in Panama with her?" Hunter asks.

"We don't know. She wouldn't give us details. She was with Santiago the longest, and they did a lot of things to her, according to Zoe."

"What kinds of things?" he growls.

I jump.

"Sorry, Flower. What kinds of things?" he repeats, softer.

"Zoe never said. There were a lot of things we talked about but didn't go into detail. There was kind of an unspoken rule that if someone didn't want to talk about anything, we didn't press the issue."

"Because of the secrets you all have?"

"Yes."

Hunter sighs. "Let's eat breakfast. We can't do anything until we talk to Interpol. Penelope is going to have to give us more information as well."

"She won't," Julieta says.

"She has to, or we can't help her," Hunter sternly replies.

"Are you able to guarantee her that her child won't get harmed?"

"We would never hurt a child," Hunter barks.

I jump again.

"Calm down, Hunter," Ryker orders.

"What if she tells you and it makes things worse?"

Hunter scowls. "What are you insinuating, Julieta?"

She glares at him. "I'm not accusing you of anything. But you don't know what any of us are dealing with, so you can't just issue commands and expect us to comply."

"Issue commands? What the hell are you talking about?" he angrily asks.

"Hunter!" Ryker barks.

She steps toward him. "Talking gets people killed."

He throws his hands in the air and growls, "We can't help you if you don't tell us."

I'm standing on the side of Hunter. The way his hands fly in the air triggers a flashback of Carlos's hand before he hit me after I told him I didn't want to marry him.

I crouch and cover my head, with my heart beating in my throat.