“Wake up. You have ten minutes to shower and get ready. We don’t want to be late again.”
“I, uh, sure. I won’t shower.” I jumped out of bed. “Do you know what time I got back to the room last night?” I asked casually.
“No.” Nancy shook her head. “I didn’t hear you come in at all.”
“Oh.”
“But I fell asleep early.”
“Did you talk to anyone last night?” I bent down and scratched my foot.
“No. After you left, I just went to sleep.”
“Oh, okay. No one came looking for me or anything?”
“No.”
“Okay.” I stood up again and looked at her face. She looked tired and I wondered what secrets she was hiding. “It’s crazy that, David is an undercover cop though, right?”
“I guess so.” She looked away from me.
“He can really help you.” I continued, pushing the topic.
“I guess so.”
“He said that he thinks there might be some sort of trafficking going on. Though, I’m not sure if this is what it’s called.” I sighed. “But he said women are being sent to be some sort of prostitutes to rich men.” I continued, trying to push it to see what she would say. “Do you think that’s what happened to, Maria? Maybe she’s somewhere in another country?”
“No,” Nancy shook her head. “She’s not in another country.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know.” She walked over to me and looked around. “Be careful, Meg. People aren’t who they seem to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just be careful who you’re falling for.” She bit her lip. “I don’t want to see something bad happen to you.”
“Why would something bad happen to me?”
“You’re getting too close, Meg.” Her eyes were wide. “He’s not going to fall in love with you. He’s not who he seems to be. He still loves her.”
A loud noise made us both jump and, Nancy backed away from me quickly.
“Are you okay, Nancy? What more do you know?” I pressed on, hoping she would just tell me everything she knew.
“I’ll see you outside.” Her face was white. “This was a mistake to come here. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You wanted to find out what happened to, Maria, didn’t you?”
She looked at me and shrugged.
“Nancy, look, I trust you. I know you’re not telling me everything, but I trust you. I found out something yesterday. There’s a Maria that died. I don’t know if she’s your Maria though.”
Nancy’s eyes widened and she froze. “You know too much.”
“Nancy, we need to find out.”
“Please, Meg. Just forget about it. Let’s leave it.”
“We can’t just forget it, Nancy.”
“I’ll see you outside.” Nancy gave me one last glance and ran out of the room. I stood there looking at the door and my heart wouldn’t stop racing. I was worried about, Nancy, she seemed like she was going to crack any second now. And I was still confused as to how I had gotten to the room. Had Greyson drugged me? I closed my eyes and tried to remember the previous night. I remembered us kissing and him spooning me on the couch. I remember closing my eyes to enjoy the sensations a little bit more intensely, and then the next thing I remember was waking up in this room.
I looked at the clock on the wall and realized I had two minutes to get outside. I ran out of the room quickly and towards the courtyard. I was going to have another talk with Nancy as soon as Patsy was done with us. I needed her to trust me and I needed her to tell me what was going on. I hurried into the courtyard and saw, Elizabeth and her minions laughing at me again. I ignored them and looked around for, Nancy, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. I stood to the side and waited for her to come out. Maybe she had to go to the bathroom first?
The panic started when Patsy walked out with, David, Frank and Bruno. Nancy still wasn’t out in the courtyard as yet and I knew that she wouldn’t have been late. There was no way she would have been late, she had wanted us both to be on time this morning.
“Good Morning, everyone.” Patsy looked at us all with a grim face. “There have been some changes to the program today.”
“Oh, no more tests?” Elizabeth spoke up and her friends giggled.
“Today some of the girls will be leaving us.” Patsy continued and my heart stopped. Already?
“Excuse me, my roommate isn’t here.” It was my turn to interrupt. “I’m not sure where she is.”
“Who’s your roommate?” David looked at me blankly, but I could see worry in his eyes.
“Her name is Nancy.”
“Nancy is gone.” Patsy gave me a quick glance and turned to David. “You can mark her off of your list.”
“But I just saw her.” I spoke up again.
“She’s gone.”
What could have happened to her? Did Greyson do something? I knew I was feeling paranoid, but I couldn’t stop myself from worrying. Where was, Nancy? I looked around and I could see that, Elizabeth was staring at me. We made eye contact and she looked like she was worried as well. I frowned at her and she shook her head slightly. I didn’t understand what she was trying to communicate to me, and I turned away from her.
“Excuse me, I have to go to the restroom.” I called out again, before leaving the courtyard. I saw Patsy give me an angry glance, but I didn’t let that stop me from running back into the building. Enough was enough, I needed to start getting some answers.
I ran through the hallways until I came to Greyson’s living room. I pushed open the door to confront him, but the room was empty. I looked around the room and thought about the night before and how wonderful it had been. He’d really opened up to me. I felt like I was getting to know two different, Greyson’s. One was gentle, kind, sweet, slightly broken and the other one was slightly nefarious and exuded an evil danger that I couldn’t even comprehend. The problem was my whole body was telling me that he wasn’t that evil man. Though, Nancy had just warned me about him before she’d disappeared. She’d seemed so worried and scared for me.
I walked out of the room slowly and thought. If, Greyson wasn’t in here, where else would he be? That’s when it hit me. He would be in his office. He had to be in the office. I ran back to my room to make sure Nancy wasn’t there again and was about to run back out, when I saw a piece of paper on my bed. I picked it up and read it quickly.