“You were angry.”

“No, not angry. Just . . .”

Hurt. I took you for granted and I manipulated you, and that’s not how a friend should act. I hurt you and I’m so sorry. I squeezed my eyes shut. “I should go.”

“Right. Okay. So later?”

“Later.”

I hung up. Then I took a deep breath, staring down at my phone.

“You did fine,” Cassandra murmured.

I looked over at her and nodded.

I phoned Rhys and told him what was going on. As Larsen’s grandfather, he had a right to know. He agreed with my plan to give Gabrielle to Sean, and trust him not to turn her over to the Cabal. Rhys would fly in to confront the Nasts about Larsen.

When I got off that call, my phone rang again. Sean had gotten my message and stepped out of the meeting. I told him everything. If it had been someone else, I’d have waited to see his reaction when he was accused. I trusted Sean too much for that.

He didn’t claim Gabrielle must be mistaken. He presumed she was telling the truth.

“Is it possible the Cabal did take him?” I said. “Using the same rationale Thomas is using to blame Benicio? Use the alleged threat to break their agreement with the parents?”

“If only Larsen had been kidnapped, I could see it. They wouldn’t take the Dahls, though. And they wouldn’t leave Gabrielle behind either. Saying she’s at a friend’s house is a flimsy excuse. They’d have picked the girl up. Otherwise, she’d come home to an empty house and raise the alarm.”

“So whoever did this has high enough access to get that code, but isn’t experienced enough to carry out the plan properly. Any ideas?”

“Two second cousins. Barely out of college. I’ve had a feeling their dad has been giving them access to secured files, hoping they can use it to get ahead. He’s the guy who lives behind the Dahls. Granddad’s nephew. VP of finance.”

“Sounds promising. Do you want me to investigate?”

“If it’s family, you’ll only hit brick walls. Work on Cassandra’s lead for now and leave this to me.”

Now we had to wait for Sean to finish his meeting. So we took Gabrielle to a store where kids can build their own stuffed animal. I thought of it because I remembered taking Elena’s twins to a mall a few months ago. I’d seen the kids streaming into one of these toy-building places, so I’d thought they might like that. Logan took one look inside and disappeared into the hobby shop beside it, where he’d picked out a mechanical model of the solar system. It was recommended for kids twice Logan’s age, but that didn’t matter—he’d do it easily.

Kate had hung out in front of the toy-building shop for a while, and I’d actually thought she might be interested, until Elena came by and explained she was just studying the other kids, trying to figure out the allure of putting baseball hats on stuffed bears. Finally she’d given up and gone elsewhere to pick out her gifts—a children’s encyclopedia of mythology and some sheet music for her new keyboard. The lesson I learned from this? If it’s something most kids love, don’t bother taking the twins. If they aren’t interested, it’s a sure bet other kids will be.

Gabrielle loved the place, and it kept her distracted until Sean was there. Earlier, we’d had to explain to Gabrielle why we were handing her over to the guy she thought took her mom, dad, and little brother. Cassandra’s charm came in handy then. Gabrielle obviously liked Sean so it was easy to convince her he wasn’t involved. But we still weren’t sure how she’d react when he showed up. We needn’t have worried. By the time Sean arrived with Lucas, she was ready to go with him.

Before we separated again, I talked to Lucas and Sean. They were going to jointly investigate security staff who might have been able to pull this off.

“I’m going to be busy for a few hours,” Lucas said. “Paige is anxiously awaiting an update. Could I impose on you to provide that, Savannah?”

Now this was bullshit. First, Paige never “anxiously awaited” updates. Second, Lucas always found time to call or text her, no matter how busy he was.

“Sure,” I said. “So how much should I tell her? She’ll be at headquarters, with the Cabal listening in.”

As Lucas launched into a detailed explanation of exactly what I should say, Sean wandered back to the others.

“Is that what you wanted?” I said when Sean was out of earshot.

“Precisely. Thank you.”

He checked over his shoulder, then pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and slipped it to me. I put it in my pocket.

“Sean submitted all the criteria for the security checks to the system, and it provided printouts for each staff member that fit. He removed that one.”

“What? No, he—”

“He didn’t try to hide it. He simply said there was no reason to investigate that person. He hadn’t been employed by the cousins in question for months.”

“So how does that remove him from the pool?”

“It doesn’t. The problem, I suspect, is the guard’s current assignment. Frankie Salas is the personal bodyguard to another young Nast executive.”

“Who?”

“Bryce.”

“You think—?”

“I think all employees fitting the criteria must be checked. That particular inquiry, though, appears to be one Sean would like to conduct without our assistance.”

“I don’t think Bryce—”

“Check out Salas, Savannah. At least for the purpose of saying we were meticulous in our investigation.”

Lucas sometimes gets so wrapped up in the logical side of things that he overlooks any other aspect. Paige wouldn’t have set me on this task because she’d have realized what she was really asking me to do: investigate the possibility that the perpetrator was the half brother who hated my guts.

Maybe that last part should have made it easier. It didn’t. Sean had taken Bryce out of the suspect pool. How would it look if I put him back in? If Bryce found out? If Sean found out?

I could only hope my gut was right and Bryce had nothing to do with this.

As it turned out, I could safely postpone the bodyguard check. Aaron phoned as we climbed into the car. He’d arranged a meeting with the supernatural who’d claimed to have seen Anita Barrington.