Chapter 166

YENA

I woke to the smells of breakfast and the distinct sound of TV news reporters talking.

Nolan wasn’t in bed. I rubbed my eyes, sat up and looked around. He was over by the TV, standing right in front of it, his body tense and still.

“What is it?” I asked, my voice raspy with sleep. “What happened?”

He wheeled around and immediately headed over to the bed, meeting me at my side. He sat on the edge and gave me a quick, soft kiss.

“I’m sorry to wake you up like this. But some humans went missing overnight. I’ve got to get dressed, meet my team and start dealing with this.”

My brain was still waking up. “Missing? How many of them?”

Nolan glanced back at the TV. “At least a dozen have been reported so far. I’d bet even more were taken, their absence just hasn’t been noticed yet.”

“Taken? By whom? Adan?” I’d answered my own question while stuttering through it.

Nolan nodded. “I know it’s him. I just hope they’re still alive.”

I almost asked, what would Adan want with a bunch of captive humans? But the answer was obvious: nothing good.

“I got you something.” Nolan pointed to my nightstand. There were a couple bottles of vitamins beside a glass of water. “And there’s breakfast on the table. Please take these after you eat, and try to get some more sleep if you can, too.”

I took a sip of water. My body was still tired, but once my brain was awake and back to thinking about everything going on, I was also wired. Sleep seemed unlikely.

“Thanks,” I said. “Keep me updated, okay? And let me know if there’s any way I can help.”

“You’ve done quite enough, Yena. I’m the one that needs to thank you.”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t—”

Nolan interrupted me, taking hold of one of my hands with both of his and saying, “I owe you my life twice over. I hope you know I don’t take that for granted. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.”

I was not yet used to this side of Nolan. He was being more open, more loving with me than ever. I blinked away a flush of tears, feeling lots of feelings.

Nolan spared me the expectation of a response. He just gave me another kiss and told me he’d be in his office, and had his phone on if I needed anything.

It wasn’t till I was listening to his hurried footsteps disappearing down the hall that I realized I didn’t have my phone. I’d left it at the airport.

The night before had passed in a haze of sex, sleep, and talking with Nolan. I hadn’t thought once of needing to speak to anyone else. But it was morning now, Nolan was working, and without my phone, I was an island.

Tina was probably anxious to hear from me. Lucy too. But it was still early, at least an hour before sunrise. I’d eat and watch the news first, then get dressed and go find someone to help me get a hold of my family.

I got up, wrapped myself in a sheet, found the TV remote and sat at the dining table.

Everything the reporters had to say was awful. Nolan had only given me the headline about the disappearances. The details were very disturbing.

Pictures filled the screen, the faces of all the human immigrants reported missing this morning. The reporters said their names, told their stories. Why they’d come to our country. Where they lived, what they did. Who loved them and was looking for them.

One of the missing humans was a professor. She taught World Literature at the Noble Academy. When her husband, a factory worker, didn’t show up for his overnight shift, a colleague went to check on him. He found the home ransacked, the front door broken down, with evidence of a terrible fight inside. The entire family was gone, including the couple’s sixteen year old son.

I couldn’t watch the whole report. I forced down as much food as I could, then started getting ready. I brushed my teeth, tied my hair up, rinsed my body in the shower, and went into my dressing room to pick out something to wear.

Going in there was like traveling back in time. Nolan was right, everything was exactly as I’d left it. It surprised me that he’d kept everything. Apparently he’d been waiting, hoping I would come back.

A knock on the bedroom door startled me. I called out to whomever, “Just a minute!” and hurried into some black tights and a comfortable dress, taking a sweater with me and starting to pull it on as I hurried to the door.

I opened it and my jaw hit the floor.

“Lucy! What are you doing here? How did you even—”

Then I saw who was standing behind her. “Evan! You guys, what’s going on? Why are you here?”

I hugged Lucy. She embraced me for only a moment before pulling back, looking at me with huge, serious eyes, and saying, “We need to talk.”

I wasn’t about to invite Lucy and Evan into our room. The bed was a mess, and the whole room smelled like sex. I walked them down the hall instead, toward my studio.

Evan hugged me while we walked, telling me how glad he was that I was okay. He also produced my cell phone from his pocket, apologizing for forgetting to charge it. It was dead.

When my hand was on the doorknob to my studio, I realized I wasn’t sure what I’d find behind the door. But when I opened it and flipped the lights on, I found that, just like our bedroom, my workroom had been kept just the same as I’d left it. It looked empty without my clutter strewn all over, but was sparklingly clean.

“What’s going on?” I asked Lucy once I got her seated. She was shaking.

“I need to talk to Nolan. I have to tell him something. Or… show him something.”

Evan, perched on the arm of the couch, put a hand on Lucy’s shoulder. It seemed to steady her nerves.

“I know where Adan is,” she said.

“What? How?”

Lucy looked down at her hands. She was cradling her phone in them, looking at it like it was precious and fragile. The screen was shattered, but that wasn’t new – her screen had been busted ever since I’d known her.

“His phone is sharing its location with mine,” she said. “I’ll explain later. Where’s Nolan?”

Nolan’s secretary was wide-eyed but amenable when I told him I needed to see my husband. I think he’d been planning to go fetch Nolan for me, but once the office door was open, I just shoved my way inside. I had Lucy by the hand and dragged her along behind me. I think Evan lingered in the hall for a few seconds, but eventually followed us.

All the politicians swarming around the office stopped in their tracks and stared at us.

Nolan shoved his way over to me. “Yena, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, my phone’s dead so I couldn’t call you. And this couldn’t wait.”

He looked at Lucy and Evan, puzzled.

“Oh, you haven’t met. Nolan, this is my friend Lucy. Lucy, Nolan. And you know Evan.”

“Hi, Lucy. Evan.” Nolan was still stunned. “What’s going on?” he asked again.

“Lucy.” I looked at her and nodded.

“I know where Adan is.” She unlocked her phone, opened the screen she wanted to show Nolan, and passed it to him. “If he is with his cell phone, this is where he is.”

Nolan’s eyebrows furrowed into a hard line as he looked down at Lucy’s phone.

“How do you know Adan?” he asked her, his eyes darting back and forth between me and Lucy.

Lucy pressed her lips together and glanced at me nervously. “We, uh… used to go out.”

I had never seen Nolan’s eyes go so wide. But any questions he had about this, he saved for later. “And you’re sure this is him?”

Lucy nodded. “He doesn’t know he’s sharing his location with me. I… kinda did something sneaky. He left his phone unlocked one night, and I went into his contacts and changed the setting. He was getting, um, kinda scary with me and the idea just came to mind. I thought it might be helpful to know where he was, in case he ever did something…”

Nolan stared at Lucy in amazement. When she finished rambling, he asked, his tone very polite, “Lucy, may I borrow your phone?”

“Of course!” she cried. “Please, take it! I’ll write down my passcode for you.”

“Thank you. Thank you for bringing this to me.” Nolan gave Lucy a small but sincere smile of gratitude.

She blushed and looked down at her feet.

Back in our room, Nolan was changing his clothes hurriedly. He ditched the nice suit he’d been wearing, swapping it for black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt.

“I’m coming with you,” I told him.

Nolan looked at me like I’d gone insane. “No. I don’t want you anywhere near Adan. He would love nothing more than to hurt you, Yena.”

“I should be close, Nolan. What if you’re injured again?”

He looked at me with a pained expression, weighing this possibility.

“Remember the deal we made yesterday?” I asked, pressing my palms to his chest.

He stared deep into my eyes. Then nodded once and said, “Yes.”