Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33658 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33658 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Maddox glances back at me, and then, without a word, exits the room with Creed on his heels.
“He’s not lying,” Caleb says softly as the door shuts.
“The hell he’s not,” I say. “I saw him hand her over. I don’t care what your damn Spidey senses tell you.”
“I know you believe that,” he says. “I know you’re not lying, and I wouldn’t need my ‘Spidey’ senses to know that, because I know you. But I can tell you without any question, you both believe what you’re saying is the one hundred percent truth.”
I narrow my eyes in surprise. “He’s not lying?”
“You know I’d know.”
I do, I think. Caleb senses other people’s emotions—their truths and their lies. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. You could have been delirious.”
“No. No, I wasn’t.”
“Then you were tricked in some way, which we might as well call Zodius magic. They did something to fool you.” He pauses a beat. “He really thought you were dead, too. I really thought you were dead. I was not okay. None of us were.”
I run a hand through my hair and sit on the edge of the table. “Yeah, well, I should be, and she will be if I don’t find her and find her fast.”
“Tell me everything.”
I recount the past few days, including Layla’s ICE addiction, and end with the details of our escape. “I have no idea what happened in that section of Zodius City, but Layla and I were the only ones who were conscious.”
“Were they dead or knocked out?”
“No clue, and there wasn’t time to spare to find out. And it can’t be a toxin, or Layla and I would have been affected. But why were we immune?”
“It must have been poison or a drug that they were given and you were not, but to what end?”
“I don’t think so. The Zodius soldiers were afraid to come after us. We were able to walk right out of the facility. I need to find her, man. I’ve been looking for her for hours.”
He studies me a moment that becomes three. “She’s personal to you.” It’s not a question, but rather his senses at work, his head tilting slightly as he adds, “And not just because you have a history. This is not obligation to you or even duty.”
“It’s those things and more,” I say. “She’s personal.” I don’t offer more because I don’t even know what that more is. I’ve always been drawn to Layla. I was then. I am now. And at present, I could easily say Layla matters to me more than anything has in a very long time. Perhaps illogically, but I don’t seem to care. It is what it is. Nothing can change how much I need to find her and keep her alive.
“We’ll find her,” Caleb promises.
But will we find her before it’s too late to save her?
Chapter twenty-one
Jensen
If I find ICE, I find Layla. It’s a logical conclusion, and the one I’m going with. I leave Sunrise City near ten o’clock, early for Vegas, especially on Friday night, but I need every second possible to find Layla. With a few phone calls to both my street team and various outside contacts, I’ve determined the street pushers were spooked after I took down one of their kind, and ICE has gone underground, dealt through some sort of private club system.
When the words “private” and “money” are involved, I know exactly where to go. By ten-thirty, I’m exiting the elevator inside the Magnolia Casino, one of the biggest moneymakers on the strip, to travel a cushioned, red-carpeted path. I’m expected and welcomed, and end up in the security booth, where a front windowpane overlooks the casino. Computer monitors line walls and hang from the ceiling, providing views from every perspective, which is exactly what I need right now.
In the center of the room stands Alexander Lyons, the head of security for three of the largest casino resort operations on the strip. Tall and athletic with dark hair, he sports the same black suit as his staff, but with a blood-red tie that says, Look at me, I’m George-freaking-Clooney. The man is more full of himself than a water balloon, but he’s connected, and that’s what matters—who he knows, and that’s a whole lot of somebodies. The man is king, as far as I’m concerned, if he leads me to Layla. With a lift of his chin, Alexander motions to the office in the back of the booth, and we head that direction. Once inside the room filled with mahogany and leather, Alexander shuts the door.
“What is so urgent?” he asks, referencing my call and my request to see him.
I play a game of dodgeball with these people, none of them quite sure who and what I am, and I continue with that strategy tonight. I do what I have to do to keep the streets clean, but tonight it’s all about Layla. “I have a client who wants a large stock of ICE. He’s willing to pay premium plus. And don’t tell me you don’t know what it is. This is worth too much money to play games. He wants what he wants, and he wants it tonight.”