“Where is she?” she asked the man.
“Bathroom,” he said.
She stepped over him and toward the bathroom on the far side. The door was closed, but Allie could hear movement behind it and there was light visible under the slot.
Allie leaned toward the door and knocked softly on it. “Faith?”
There was no response, and the only sound was Apollo letting out a low growl behind her. She looked back and saw the big man attempting to rise from the floor, only to sit gingerly back down at the sight of Apollo’s exposed fangs.
She turned back to the bathroom. “Faith, my name’s Allie. Your mother sent me to find you. She told me to tell you that she saved Angles for you, that she’ll be waiting in your old room when you come home.”
She waited five seconds, then ten…
An almost hesitant click as the door opened, and a pair of blue eyes looked out at Allie. “Angles?” the owner of the eyes asked.
Allie smiled and nodded. “Your mother told me you’d know what it meant.”
“Angles,” the girl with the blonde hair said. It wasn’t a question this time. “I called her Angles because I couldn’t pronounce angels when I was younger.”
The door opened wider, and Allie took a step back as Faith stood in the doorway. She was tall for a nineteen-year-old and might have been taller than Allie if she wasn’t standing in her bare feet. She was a beautiful girl, and there was still unbreakable spirit in the eyes that looked back at Allie, a fire that hadn’t turned to embers yet despite everything she had been through.
“How did you find me?” Faith asked.
“Iris,” Allie said.
“Iris?” Her eyes widened. “Is she okay?”
“She’s safe and home right now. She asked me to tell you—”
Allie didn’t get to finish because Faith threw herself at her, and it was all Allie could do to grab the girl to keep from being knocked to the floor. The tears came, the heavy sobbing against her jacket, but Allie didn’t tell Faith to stop or pry her away and instead held the girl in a tight embrace and let her do what she needed to.
“You’re safe now,” she whispered, stroking the girl’s hair. “You’re safe now…”
She looked back at Apollo, and the dog gave her a curious tilt of his head. She smiled back at him then looked at the man on the floor.
“Hey,” she said. And when the man glanced over his shoulder at her, “You have two choices. You’re going to tell me everything you know about the organization, or you’re going to find out just how sharp his teeth really are.”
Apollo growled for effect, and the man swallowed hard.
“I can’t,” he said.
“We’ll see about that.”
“You don’t understand, lady. I can’t, because I won’t. What you’re going to do to me, what your dog can do to me, it’s nothing compared to what they can do.”
Allie stared at him, trying to decide how far to push. She had a lot of choices, but there was something on the man’s face — a resolute hardness — that told Allie it wasn’t going to matter how hard or far she pushed, because he wasn’t scared of her. Oh, he didn’t want to die, and he didn’t want to end up at the wrong end of Apollo’s teeth again, but as much as he was afraid of her, he was terrified of them.
Who the hell are these people?
But she’d deal with that question later. Right now, she turned back to Faith and continued holding the girl as tightly as possible.
“Let’s go home,” Allie whispered.
“What about him?” Faith asked, turning her head just enough to look over at the man on the floor. “What about the ones who took me?”
Allie narrowed her eyes at the man, cradling his bleeding arm while at the same time trying to avoid Apollo’s hard glare.
“Forget about them,” Allie said. “I’ll deal with them later.” She turned back to Faith and smiled. “Right now, let’s just get you back home where you belong…”
Also by Sam Sisavath
The Purge of Babylon Series
The Purge of Babylon: A Novel of Survival (Book 1)
The Gates of Byzantium (Book 2)
The Stones of Angkor (Book 3)
The Walls of Lemuria: The Keo Storyline (Book 3.5)
The Fires of Atlantis (Book 4)
The Ashes of Pompeii (Book 5)
The Isles of Elysium (Book 6)
The Spears of Laconia (Book 7)
The Horns of Avalon (Book 8)
The Bones of Valhalla (Book 9)
The Allie Krycek Series
Hunter/Prey (Book 1)
Saint/Sinner (Book 2)
Finders/Keepers (Book 3)