Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (15 page)

“
Targeted by who? The
Poachers?” I asked quickly, hoping to fend off any idle
chit-chat.

“
Well yes, but their lot
was just one of our concerns. Not everyone in these parts thinks
kindly of us Chromes. And that’s just for us standard sort. The
Created?” Riley shook his head. “People hate them.”

“
Well you didn’t do such a
great job protecting her now did you?” Erik muttered.

A slight blush crept up Riley’s pale
cheeks.

“
No, mate, afraid we
didn’t.”

“
How do you know she was
taken by the Poachers? Were you there?” I asked.

Thus far, Riley had been extremely
forthcoming and prying into his mind hadn’t been necessary. But now
that I’d asked the million dollar question, the boy seemed
hesitant. I was on the verge of forcing him to answer when he began
speaking again. His words came out in a rush, as if he was just as
desperate to expel them as I was to hear them.

“
James found out the
Poachers were hunting for a big auction. He sent word through my
girlfriend, Willa, for the rest of us to go back to the flat and
stay there. He and Kenly were headed there straightaways, taking a
roundabout way so as not to be followed. Only, they never
arrived.”

I waited for him to continue, to say
something else that might give us a real clue as to Kenly’s
whereabouts. But he didn’t. Riley stared at me expectantly, like he
thought that those slim shreds of evidence were sufficient to find
her.

“
Let me get this straight,”
Erik began, looking as dumbfounded as I felt. “Kenly and James
didn’t show up, and you just assumed they’d been kidnapped by the
Poachers?”

“
Well, when you put it like
that, mate, sounds rather shoddy, doesn’t it? But I’m not dim, I
know they have been. James isn’t the sort to just disappear without
sending word that they’re alright. And we had a run-in with Jaylen
Monroe a couple days back. The Poachers knew about Kenly being
Created.”

Exasperated with the slow progression
of the conversation, I gave up on chatting and dove into Riley’s
mind. His was an easy one to navigate, with few barriers to keep
out prying individuals. Like me. Peeling back the layers of his
most recent memories, I didn’t have far to travel before I came
across the encounter with Jaylen Monroe—whoever that
was.

Unfortunately, I quickly learned
exactly who Jaylen Monroe was. Not just any Poacher lackey. He was
the son of man that Riley thought of only as the Duke. The Duke was
the head of the entire organization. Everything that happened with
the Poachers was on his orders—from the selection of targets, to
the kidnapping plans, to authorizing permissible buyers.

Unaware of my new tactics, my friends
were still questioning Riley. As they asked him for specifics about
Jaylen and the rest of the Poachers, it made sifting for answers
even easier. Though Riley was only divulging a small percentage of
his actual knowledge about the organization, he had no intention to
deceive us. It seemed that he honestly didn’t know what was
important and what was not. He also didn’t seem to realize how
ill-informed my group was when it came to the Poachers. Angus
aside, the rest of us were clueless. So even the seemingly inane
details were important in my eyes.

“
Wait,” I interjected,
cutting off Brand midsentence. Unaware of my mental British
invasion, Brand shot daggers my way for interrupting him. I
considered tipping his chair completely over this time, but a stiff
mental rebuke from Erik stopped me.

“
Come on, Tals. Not
now,”
Erik sent.
“Stay focused.”

Slightly taken aback, I met my
boyfriend’s churning eyes across the table. He’d either been in my
head while I’d been in Riley’s, or he was also exploring the boy’s
mind, wading through the thoughts and memories. Regardless of which
one, Erik knew what I was about to say. Levelling my gaze at Riley,
I readied to gauge his reaction.

“
James Wellington is from
one of the Poaching families?” I demanded.

Riley’s eyes went wide, the flames
morphing into a raging inferno that seemed to leap from his irises
and across the table to burn my skin.

Damn, the kid really was
powerful.

“
James isn’t one of them.”
Riley’s tone was hard as granite. “I know what you’re thinking.
He’s not a bloody traitor. He would never,
never
, turn another Chrome over to
those bastards.”

Even if I hadn’t been inside Riley’s
head, there was no doubt he was telling the truth. Flashes of
disjointed memories danced through his mind. James telling Riley
about his messed-up childhood. How his family disowned him for
being Talented. How he’d lived on the streets, barely surviving.
How he’d been caught by the Poachers not long after, only released
after a girl named Bryn intervened on his behalf.

“
Who’s Bryn?” Erik and I
asked in unison, leaving little doubt that we were both taking
liberties with Riley’s private thoughts.

The poor kid put on a brave face,
pretended as though having the two of us rifling through his
memories wasn’t giving him a heart attack. But I knew better. We’d
terrified him. Riley had never encountered the likes of Erik and me
before. And he was positive he didn’t care for our
Talents.

“
She’s James’s sister,”
Riley said with impressive calm.

“
Can you get in touch with
her?” I demanded. “Can she help us find out where this auction is
being held?”

Brand, Frederick, Henri, Angus, and
Janelle were clearly lost by this point. Penny was the only other
one who understood what was going on. But only because she was also
eavesdropping on Riley’s thoughts.

“
No, love, afraid not,”
Riley answered, feeling genuinely sorry. “I haven’t a mind as to
where she is, it would take some sorting. And we don’t have time
for that. The auction is tomorrow, according to my
sources.”

With his discouraging
words, I deflated. For a minute there, I’d been hopeful that Bryn
would be the key to find Kenly. From Riley’s mind, I knew he was
telling the truth. He had ideas about how to find Bryn Wellington,
but tracking her down might take days. And we didn’t have
days.
Kenly
didn’t have days. Since I was still tuned in to Riley’s
thoughts, I learned who his “sources” were. There was a network of
freedom fighters in London who worked behind the scenes to keep
Chromes from being nabbed by the Poachers, since law enforcement
was perfectly happy to pocket some extra cash for looking the other
way.

Another name floated across Riley’s
mind: Willa.

“
Your girlfriend?” I asked.
“How can she help?”

Just then, my communicator beeped.
Annoyed with the interruption, I swore and checked the display. No
surprise, it was Victoria.

In her classic style, the message was
brief and to the point.

Status update?

I pressed ignore, cringing at the firm
lecture I’d surely endure for not responding immediately. But
seriously, the woman had the worst timing.

Evidently Riley was growing accustomed
to having someone voice his thoughts, because he didn’t bristle at
my question.

“
She’s a Viewer. She’s been
tracking Kenly and James ever since they didn’t come home last
night.”

Unable to help myself, I stared at
Riley for a stunned second with my mouth agape, speechless. This
kid had to be joking. He couldn’t have led off with that
fact?

Erik felt the need to state my
opinion, one he shared, for the group.

“
That might have been a
good piece of information to share when we first asked how you knew
Kenly and your friend were missing,” he grumbled.

Riley stared down at his hands
guiltily.

“
You’re right to be cross,
I should have told you. It’s just…I was hoping to keep her out of
this mess.”

He hesitated, but then wisely
continued before we went diving back into his brain
ourselves.

“
You see, Willa’s gifts
don’t work quite like most Viewers, probably not like those you are
all accustomed to. She more
feels
people more than sees them. At first, she felt
nothing. Which probably means Kenly and James were drugged. But
then….” He shuddered involuntarily. “Well, let’s just say Kenly’s
scared. Terrified even.”

“
But
alive
?” I pressed. “Kenly is
alive?”

“
Definitely,” Riley
agreed.

“
What about this James guy?
How is he?” Henri asked. He’d been quiet to this point, though not
disengaged. Knowing Henri as I did, he was probably cataloguing
each word Riley said and determining the best way to use the
information.

“
James is bloody pissed
off. And gutted, over not protecting Kenly. Maybe a bit scared, as
well,” Riley said, a pained grimace accompanying the admission as
if he was somehow betraying James by telling us the guy was smart
enough to understand the fate he was facing. “But mostly angry,”
Riley loyally added.

Feeling stupid for having not
considered the possibility before, I looked first to Erik, then
Penny, and then Frederick. All three were capable of Viewing.
Frederick, the only natural-born Viewer of the three, was the best
bet. Then I remembered that Frederick had never met Kenly. Strong
as he was, he might not be able to track her without a reference of
some sort. In the past he’d found people with as little to go on as
a photograph, but it wasn’t like we had one on hand. Frustrated, I
wracked my brain for other ideas.

“
Do you want me to
try?”
Erik sent.

Hesitantly, I debated his offer. Erik
really didn’t need the added stress it would cause. Viewing was
pretty foreign to him, and he’d been unable to get a good handle on
it. Which, of course, further aggravated my already tense
boyfriend.

“
Really, Tals, it’s fine. I
can give it a try.”
Erik added.
“
I just need to be somewhere I can
concentrate.”

“
Are you sure?”
I asked, torn between my worry for Erik and my
fear for Kenly.

“
Of course,”
he replied, giving me a small, reassuring
smile.

“
Yeah, okay. Let’s finish
up with Riley, have him go get Willa, and then you can try,”
I sent back.

While Erik and I were carrying on our
private conversation, the real one had ceased to exist. Silence had
fallen over the table, and everyone was watching us, waiting for me
to decide the next move. Even Brand had finally acquiesced to my
leadership role, aware that I held a lot more information than he
did.

“
Where is Willa? We’ll need
her. You say the auction is likely to take place tomorrow? That’s a
tight deadline, but we should be able to make something happen,” I
said, already mentally tabulating all of the red tape that needed
to be cut to pull off this mission in such a short
timeframe.

“
She’s here,” Riley
announced.

Stupidly, my eyes darted around the
pub, searching for a girl I’d somehow missed when we walked
in.

“
In the back,” Riley added.
“I’ll get her.”

With that, Riley slid off of his chair
and headed towards a door that lead to the kitchen.

“
What are we missing?”
Henri asked, as soon as he was gone.

I gave them a quick rundown on what
I’d found in Riley’s head. Most of it they’d already surmised from
our conversation. Suddenly, everyone was talking at
once.

“
It’s not a lot to go on,”
Janelle hedged.

“
We don’t have enough
intel,” Penny added.

“
Do you think Victoria will
sanction a rescue?” Henri asked doubtfully.

“
Do you have a picture of
Kenly? I’ll try to view her,” Frederick offered.

“
I should check in with the
council, I reckon,” Angus pronounced, already pulling out his
communicator.

“
Hold on guys,” I said,
raising my voice to be heard over the din. I held up my hands, in a
signal to quiet the barrage of questions, suggestions, and comments
flying at me from every mouth in the vicinity. Taking a deep
breath, I tried to calm the swirling tide in my stomach.

“
Angus,” I began, once I
could hear myself think. “You call Victoria and let her know that
we are positive Kenly was abducted.” I met Erik’s turquoise eyes
across the table. He nodded in response to my unasked question.
“Tell her we can locate Kenly. Ask her to authorize a rescue
attempt.”

“
Tell her we’ll need
sufficient backup,” Brand added. “We,” he gestured around the
table, “won’t be enough.”

Angus looked to me for confirmation,
which sent Brand’s blood pressure soaring. Nodding to Angus, I
stifled an inappropriate smile. Yes, pissing off Brand Meadows was
always a bonus, even in the direst of circumstances.

“
I agree the intel is
lacking,” I said, facing Penny now. “But I can’t just….”