Page 309 of Allegiance

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Chartres Street

Waiting Time

Earlier, Tommy had been tasked with watching Violet, and before the team headed out, the girl said she needed a nap, and went to one of the rooms.

Well, it had been three hours, and he was starting to get worried.

When he went to find her, Tommy realized something.

They had a problem.

He couldn’t find Violet.

Pulling out his phone, he called his husband. When he answered on the third ring, Tommy was borderline frantic.

“I lost Violet!” he said.

Gene was caught off guard.

“What do you mean you lost Violet?” he asked, pretty sure he’d heard that wrong.

“I think you heard me, Gene. She said she was going to take a nap hours ago, and I went to check on her. She’s not here. She’s gone.”

“Oh, Jesus. We can’t call Eve. She’s on duty with getting the men out. I can’t leave here. We have to blow this building.”

“Oh, God. I lost a kid. How did I lose a kid? I was a cop! I should be finding kids, not losing them.”

He tried to calm him down.

“She’s sixteen. Maybe she went back to her house. Go there and look. See if you can find her.”

Only, that fear had him by the throat.

“What if I don’t find her?”

Well, that was a bad question to have to answer, and Gene knew it. Adder wouldn’t take kindly to one of them misplacing her child.

That didn’t bode well.

For any of them.

“You’ll find her. Just keep looking.”

When he hung up, Merry was staring at him and the look on her face mirrored his.

“Eve is going to go on a murder spree,” Merry said.

Yeah, and Gene’s fiancé was going to be first on her list.

Jesus.

What else could go wrong?

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Somewhere