“So your kidnappers managed to leave us and get back to the house before your people could get there?” she asked with a frown.
Dante shook his head. “No. What with the investigation and everything, most of the team is in the area. Lucian says there was someone at the spot on the road within ten minutes of my giving him your directions, and it only took them moments to find the house. There must have been more kidnappers at the house. They must have moved him while the others came after me. Probably to make sure that nothing would be found there if I got to authorities before they could catch up to me.”
“I see,” Mary said quietly, then sat down on the couch-bed beside him and rubbed his shoulder gently. “I’m sorry.” It was all she could say. She wasn’t stupid enough to think there was anything that was going to make him feel better just now. Tomasso was his twin . . . and he’d left him behind and escaped alone. He had been right to do so, but it wasn’t likely to make him feel better or lessen his guilt at getting away while his brother didn’t.
“Lucian is collecting a group to fly down to Venezuela to see what they can find,” he muttered unhappily.
“Venezuela?” Mary asked with surprise and he glanced at her with surprise of his own.
“Did I not tell you that Tomasso had been awake longer than me and had overheard them talking above stairs about our being transported to Venezuela?” he asked, and then muttered, “I thought I had.”
“You might have,” Mary allowed quietly. “My memory isn’t as good as it used to be.” Smiling wryly, she added, “And, I was a bit stressed out when we were first talking. I maybe didn’t take in everything.”
“Oh.” Dante nodded and bowed his head again, muttering, “My apologies. I did not mean to distress you.”
Mary frowned. The last thing he should be worrying about right now was any stress all of this had caused her. Besides, he sounded so defeated. Taking a deep breath, she stood abruptly and clapped her hands together. “All right then. I guess we’d best get moving.”
“What?” he asked, lifting bewildered eyes to her.
“Well, if your boss, this Lucian fellow, is arranging a rescue party to go down to Venezuela and hunt up your brother, you’ll want to go too. So . . .” She paused and frowned uncertainly. They’d hardly wait for her to drive Dante back north before launching their rescue attempt. At least she hoped they wouldn’t. They probably expected him to fly, she thought and said, “I’ll take you to the airport, then you can fly to Canada to meet up with your group. Or, are you supposed to fly straight to Venezuela and meet them there?”
“No.” He caught her hand and drew her back onto the bed beside him. “I am not going.”
“You aren’t?” she asked with surprise.
Dante shook his head and stared down at her hand, trapped in his own. “Lucian said I was too close to the situation and might jeopardize Tomasso’s life by doing something stupid,” he said grimly, and then cleared his throat and added, “He also agreed I must stay and look after you in case the kidnappers who followed us are still in the area looking for your RV.”
“Oh, that’s just silly,” Mary muttered impatiently. “They dropped back and then drove right past us when we were getting gas. Obviously they decided you weren’t worth the effort.”
“I’m not sure that is true,” Dante said quietly. “They were talking when Tomasso and I heard them approaching the room where our cages were. One of them was saying that someone they called ‘the Doc’ would be extremely pleased with them for catching twins for his experiments, and would no doubt give them a bonus for it,” he explained quietly and then added, “That is why I suspected they had driven ahead to try to ambush us. None of the others taken were twins. They would want me back.”
Mary frowned at this news. She knew that twins were considered useful when it came to experiments. Certainly Josef Mengele had preferred them and she’d recently read that NASA was performing some sort of experiment involving twins. And this certainly did explain why he’d kept harping on the possibility of the van waiting ahead to ambush them.
“We are to wait here. Lucian is sending hun—” He paused abruptly, and then said, “He’s sending officers to trail us in the hopes of capturing the kidnappers when they do make their attempt. That is the other reason he does not wish me to go to Venezuela.”
“Because he wants you to be bait,” she said solemnly.
He nodded, and pointed out, “Catching them is the fastest way to learn where Tomasso is, as well as find the rest of the kidnap victims.”
“Yes, I suppose it would be,” she agreed quietly.