Gabe was with her. She hadn't wanted him to come along, but he'd insisted. It could be dangerous, he’d said. She guessed that was true. But she had no idea what form the danger would take. What was this meeting about?
They'd checked into a hotel in central Paris and left one of the stolen guns in the safe in their room. The other Cora had with her, concealed, carried down by her hip, and invisible under her jacket. Just in case.
She hadn’t wanted to give a stolen gun to Gabe. He hadn’t had the relentless amount of practice with handguns that she had, and it was a stolen item that could end up being a liability if things went wrong and the police arrested them.
"I don't know what this is about or why she said to meet here," Cora said.
Gabe shook his head. "Could it be a trap of some kind? Or does this woman want something else from us?”
Cora shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, but we have to take the risk. We have to see if it’s a lead to Rose. Maybe this woman knew her and wanted to tell us."
As she neared the bar, Cora had to admit it didn't seem like the classic location for a trap. It was a world away from the seedy backstreets where they'd raided the brothel. This bar looked upscale and expensive. The decor seemed sophisticated, and the clientele walking in were well dressed.
“Well, maybe I was wrong. This is no Paris dive. It seems like a place I’d like to take you on a date,” Gabe quipped, lightening the moment.
Feeling surprised by that humorous touch, Cora glanced gratefully at him, replying in kind. “Maybe, when we’re done with all of this, we can come back here and do just that.”
Smiling helped to ease the anxiety that knotted tighter inside her whenever she thought of Rose.
She headed in behind a woman who was dressed in a stunningly cut blue velvet jacket, trendily ripped jeans, and black ankle boots with stiletto heels. She was arm in arm with a man in chinos and a violet designer shirt. Clearly, the who’s who of the fashion world were gravitating here. Cora wondered if the meeting place had been chosen because it was so busy and glamorous.
They stepped into the bar, and the noise of talking and laughter hit Cora like a wave. Lamplight from a hundred ceiling lamps of different shapes and sizes cast a warm glow over the room. The air was fragrant with the whiff of fumes from vapes and the smell of wine. The barman was busy making a round of exotic-looking cocktails.
A while ago, that smell of alcohol would have made her monsters clamor, but she was with Gabe now, and being with Gabe seemed to create a wall that they couldn't break through. The thought of his presence gave her strength. With him, she felt safe. There was no need to drown herself in drugs and alcohol and go looking for the darkness that had gotten more intense every time she'd ventured there.
Cora knew if she went there again, down to those depths, she might not make it back again. Any time now could be the last time. She wasn’t scared of much, but she was scared of succumbing to them again.
Scanning the room, she looked out for any sign of who they were supposed to meet.She didn't know why the blond woman had told her to come to this bar. But, as she wove her way through the sophisticated throngs, Cora didn’t see her. She wasn’t here. It was the arranged time, and there was no sign of her.
Maybe this had just been a setup? The fear flashed through her, and she did her best to push it aside, thinking logically. This woman had just escaped from being trafficked, and that was a more likely reason for her not being here. But maybe there was still a message to be sent, and perhaps she had asked someone else to deliver it.
Had she told that person to look out for Cora and Gabe? People who were looking for someone were easy to spot, and she needed to open her eyes to that possibility.
“Let’s go through again,” she said to Gabe. They did another circuit of the bar, moving between the chic round tables, looking more closely at people this time, weaving her way through the throngs of people, and making sure to look at everyone she could to see if they were looking back.
Still no blond woman.
But right at the back, sitting together at a table and scanning the crowds in what she thought was a suspicious way, she saw two blond men.
They looked a lot like the woman who'd been fighting so hard in that upper bedroom just a couple of hours ago. Cora thought there was a resemblance there in the coloring and bone structure. And, as she thought that, she saw that both the men were now looking at her and Gabe with recognition. As if they'd been told to keep an eye out for a certain pair of people, and they thought they'd found them.
She touched Gabe's hand and pointed in that direction.
His eyebrows rose.
"Brothers of that woman?" he asked.
Cora shrugged. "Let's go find out," she said.
They approached the table, the two men standing up as they drew near. The one on the left was taller and leaner, with sharp features and icy blue eyes, probably thirty years old. The one on the right looked a few years younger.
She addressed both of them in polite tones.
"I was handed a note earlier this evening. It was given to me by a woman who looked a lot like you. Any relation? Have you got something to tell me?"
The two men exchanged glances. They looked wary. Suspicious, fearful, the way you might look if someone close to you had just been through a terrible experience.
"Please, sit down," the taller man said. He had a French accent but spoke English well.
