“I added a secondary passcode when I gave it to her,” Rafe said. “Just in case.”
There were a whole lot of violations of privacy going on here — and I was as guilty as Nolan and Rafe — but now wasn’t the time to hash them out.
As soon as Rafe got past the log-in screen my heart dropped out of my fucking chest. Because it wasn’t the familiar pink door. Instead it was an all-pink screen, and if there had been instructions on it before, instructions for Lilah, they were gone now.
“Fuck,” Rafe said.
Lilah had been on the Imperium Fratrum site.
And from the looks of it, they’d let her in.
58
LILAH
We sped across the water,the woman at the helm of the speedboat, toward one of the gleaming yachts I’d seen from shore. I wanted to ask her questions. Who was she? Where were we going? Who was I meeting?
But the hum of the boat’s engine and the roar of the wind made talking impossible, so I watched with a mixture of fear and excitement as we approached the yacht. I didn’t know much about boats, but as we got closer, I could tell it wasn’t one of the superyachts. Those were as big as an airplane, nearly as big as some of the cruise ships I’d seen gliding past the island.
This one was large, but not as large as a cruise ship.
The woman tied the speedboat to the yacht and grabbed on to a ladder descending from the yacht’s deck into the water.
“Follow me,” she said without looking back.
It was more than a little terrifying. The speedboat bobbed in the water, making it a challenge to grab on to the ladder. The yacht shifted more slowly, its size making it less sensitive to the currents, but the whole exercise felt a little like trying to play double Dutch, two jump ropes swinging in different directions atthe same time while I tried to find the right spot to jump in, the spot that wouldn’t send me flying into the water.
I climbed carefully, half expecting to be greeted by Mr. Suit and one of his thugs when I reached the top, but when I stepped off the ladder it was on to a polished deck that was completely empty except for my driver, who looked bored, like she’d been waiting forever for me to reach the deck.
“You may come,” she said, turning.
I didn’t know if she was unfriendly or if her German accent just made her sound curt, but clearly I was just another chore on her to-do list and she was more than ready to move on to the next one.
I followed her across the deck and down two steps into a luxurious seating area. Walls of glass offered a 360-degree view of the Aegean, and I felt the knot of anxiety in my stomach twist a little more when I saw how far away Folegandros was.
Without realizing it, the Bastards had become my security blanket and I felt naked and alone without them.
“You may wait,” the woman said, before turning to leave.
She passed through a kitchen and down a hall before disappearing down another staircase.
I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it hadn’t been this. The boat was eerily silent, as if my driver and I were the only ones present when that couldn’t be the case since I was clearly waiting for someone.
Or they’d been waiting for me.
I looked around, took in the view, the luxurious full-size sofas, the intricate carpets on the teak floor. The boat definitely belonged to someone with money. Was it Mr. Suit? Or someone else?
My heart rate ticked up when I noticed a man ascending the stairs from below deck and I was glad I’d taken my medication before I left the house. I wouldn’t need it for another twelvehours. I’d definitely be done here by then, even if I had to jump ship and swim back to Folegandros.
“Good morning,” the man said with a British accent.
I knew he wasn’t Mr. Suit even though this guy also wore a suit. Mr. Suit was taller, with wider shoulders. He carried himself like someone in charge, like someone with power.
This guy was slender, his authority less obvious, like a maître d’ or my manager at Burger Haven. He was in charge of something, but there were people in charge of him too.
“Good morning,” I said, thrown a little by the politeness.
“We have your room prepared,” he said. “You may accompany me.”