So I did. “Jesse?” I said. “Roux’s on with us.”
“Great.” He didn’t sound thrilled.
“So, here’s my thought,” Roux said, and suddenly she sounded wide awake, like she was heading a corporate board meeting. “Oscar Young was working for someone, and when he botched the whole kidnapping thing, they killed him and decided to take over.”
“She’s right,” Jesse said.
“I am?”
“You are.”
“She is?”
“Yes. Listen. There’s probably a mole in the Collective.”
“What? Are you—?”
“Think about it, Maggie! It’s the perfect cover! They can still monitor what everyone’s doing, including you; they have all this training and these resources; and then when they blow the whistle, they make a shitload of money.”
My brain was racing to catch up. “But then why would they even bother trying to sell the story to your dad?”
Roux’s voice came down the line. “To make more money.”
Thoughts were crashing together like train cars, each one causing a small explosion behind my eyes. I remembered Angelo’s words back at the museum. There is always danger. And there is always money to be made.
“And then they could just kidnap you afterward,” Roux theorized. “Win-win. I mean, um. Win-win for them, not win-win for you. Never mind.”
“They could have gotten me anywhere, though,” I said. “Why didn’t they—?”
And then I sat up in bed, a cold sweat starting to form along my spine. Buenos Aires and Luxembourg. Two major cases that had gone completely wrong: empty safes, missing blueprints, my parents and I literally running for our lives and barely making it to the airport.
What if those weren’t accidents? What if those were attempts to kidnap me again?
A tiny thought crept into my brain: Colton Hooper was responsible for our safety and new identities on our missions. All of them. He had effectively assigned himself to my family.
“Maggie?” Jesse’s voice was cautious. “You still there?”
“Yes. Give me a minute.” I put my hand over my mouth, Angelo’s words racing through my brain. It couldn’t be right, but everything was starting to collide in my brain, a perfect storm of corruption.
Colton was absolutely gutted when he found out about the kidnapping attempt.
He was the one who had brought Oscar Young into the Collective, had sworn that Oscar was one of the best in the business.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of devastation on his face.
He said, ‘I suppose Oscar Young was no knight in shining armor.’
And then Colton’s smooth, icy voice rose above everything else.
It’s the infamous Maggie.
“Colton,” I said, my voice bigger than a ragged whisper. “He’s doing this. He set up the kidnapping attempt, and he’s been watching my family ever since. That’s how he has all this information about me. And he’s been sabotaging this case so that I wouldn’t be able to stop the article from running.”
“Wait, who?” Roux asked. “Colton?”
“I can’t explain right now,” I said, suddenly realizing that the entire loft could be bugged. The Collective probably still owned Oscar Young’s old apartment. No one would think twice if Colton Hooper came and went from it.
“You can’t go to that apartment tomorrow, Mags,” Jesse said.
“Are you kidding me?” I said. “He tries to kidnap me when I’m a kid, endangers me and my family in Luxembourg and Buenos Aires….”
“Luxembourg?” Jesse said.
“Buenos Aires?” Roux added.
“… and now he’s trying to ruin the lives of my family and everyone I love?” I was starting to get upset and had to lower my voice again. “You are out of your damn mind if you think that I’m not going to that apartment tomorrow.”
“Hell yeah!” Roux cried. “No one fu—oops, swear jar—messes with my best friend!”
I tried to tell both Roux and Jesse that they weren’t allowed to come with me, that it was too dangerous, but they wouldn’t have it. And I couldn’t argue with them because suddenly my dad was knocking at the door.
“Mags?” he said. “Are you still up?”
“Gotta go. Tomorrow morning, same plan. Love you.” Then I slapped the phone shut. “Yeah, come in, Dad.”
He opened the door, letting a sliver of light spill onto the floor. “You okay, honey? I thought I heard you yelling.”
“I’m fine. Sorry, Roux just called. She had a nightmare about … squid.” It wasn’t true, but definitely sounded like something that could happen. “Big squid.”
“Oookay,” he said. “You sure you’re all right?”
I hesitated for a flickering second. I wanted to tell my dad about Colton, but I knew neither he nor my mom would believe me. Their faith in my abilities had already been rocked, set off course by my relationship with Jesse, and if I tried to explain my theories, I knew they would reassure me that I was wrong, that it wasn’t possible, that I was just trying to save Jesse’s family again.
But the only family I wanted to save now was mine.
“Good. Just tired. I didn’t get much sleep at Roux’s last night.” Again, not technically a lie.
“You’re sure?”