That would explain the blood.
The door slams open on the other side of the car park, I hear hurried footsteps coming toward me.
“What the hell happened?” Alex asks, eyes frantically looking around at the glass.
“I’m going to fuckingkillCitadel,” Otto growls, loosening his tie.
“Ot, call Alaric. Alex, look foranythingthat can be used for evidence–tire tracks, a button, whatever. I don’t believe for a second that Lottie didn’t leave us a clue. I’ll call Theo to see what we can learn about Citadel’s whereabouts.”
I walk away and attempt to calm myself down.
Do I want to go on a murderous rage? Sure. But that’ll help no one, and we need to figure out what Citadel wants from us. Still, I can’t help the adrenaline that courses through me at the idea of either of them hurt.
Theo picks up on the first ring. “They have Lottie and Lachlan,” I tell him, my voice cracking on the last syllable as I crouch down onto the ground several feet away.
“Fuck,” Theo hisses. “What happened?”
“Someone shot out the front window. There’s blood, but I don’t think anything was fatal. There are two bullet holes on the side of the van. Can you track them?” I ask, thinking of the thin trackers we all had placed inside our forearms a couple of months ago.
“It’s showing the car park. Citadel must’ve cut them out.”
“Shit,” I hiss, rubbing my mouth.
“And the security cameras were down because of Lachlan’s system. We didn’t want them to hack in and watchus.”
“Yeah, we really shot ourselves in the foot with that,” I grumble.
“I’m going to check CCTV around the parking garage. They didn’t leave by foot. Someone had to have driven them away.”
“Sure, okay.”
“Max?”
“Yeah?”
“They’re going to be okay.”
My chest burns, and I rub at the back of my neck as I stare down at the ground. “Yeah. They better be.”
We hang up, and my eye catches on something on the ground.
Reaching down, I pick up the syringe and needle–both of which are hiding in the crevice of the curb, like someone discarded them from the window of a car.
It’s not just any syringe, either–it’s the poison that Otto had created with Harlow.
Picking it up, I stand and walk over to where Otto is talking to Harlow.
“I found this,” I tell him, holding up the small, plastic tube. “It’s Lottie’s. She left it.”
“Or she dropped it accidentally,” Alex says slowly, shrugging. I glare at him. “What? Unless she left us an actual scrawledword or something, it could’ve easily detached if they ripped her holster off.”
I ignore him and look back at Otto. “Tell me everything about this poison.”
Otto’s brows furrow. “Like what? It’s a mixture of thallium and a few other opioids–” He presses a button on the phone, and suddenly I’m talking to Harlow on video.
“Max? Can you show me the syringe?”
I hold it up with shaking hands, trying to keep it steady in the frame.
