Once Sebastian had put several miles between him and the house, he finally turned to Piper. “What's going on?” he demanded.

Piper sighed, resting her chin in her hands. “I don't know much more than you,” she claimed. “I missed my bus in Providence, so I called Molly and asked her to go to the Prados' house until I could get there – which she did. I arrived at just the time I had promised Molly and took over the babysitting, and everything else went normally until Ben called.”

“Ben?” Sebastian prompted.

“Ben is a friend of Molly's and mine. He wants to date me, so I just ignored the call at first because I thought he had called to complain that I had canceled.”

Sebastian laughed, but he bristled at the thought. He already did not like this “Ben.”

“What?” Piper demanded.

“Doesn't seem a very good way to make you change your mind, is all,” he scoffed, but then brought back his serious expression. “Complaining? But please, continue.”

“Well, that's about it regarding Molly. Ben said he had gotten a weird call from her, then you called and asked if I had seen her. As soon as I hung up from you, I started texting all of her other friends and asking around for her. I found nothing.”

“And the money?” Sebastian demanded. “The guys in the car?”

“Guys in the car?” Piper questioned.

Sebastian glanced over at her. “You didn't notice the guys in the black car? Tinted windows and lights off?”

When she registered his disbelief, her pique rose. “Probably situated so that people wouldn't notice them, yes? Plus, I have a lot of other things on my mind.”

“Okay,” he allowed, “but do you have an explanation for the money? And maybe for why those guys tried to break in on you?”

Thinking about her answer brought tears to Piper's eyes. “That's the worst part,” she lamented, wiping moisture from her cheeks. “I got a very strange email just before you came in, and I'm pretty sure it explains the men.”

Piper pulled out her phone, opening the email and reading it to Bash through barely restrained emotion.

“They left their baby with you?” he wondered incredulously.

“And apparently in grave danger, if the men in the car meant anything. I found the money under the stove, just like they said, and I had just pulled it out to count it when you showed up?”

“How much is there?” Sebastian asked, curious.

For the first time since she had entered the car, Piper stared at Sebastian with skepticism. “It's to buy a plane ticket to take Lily to her family,” Piper insisted.

“I don't want the money,” Sebastian insisted. “If I had intended to steal it, I could have done so a lot easier when I had you pinned in the kitchen.”

Glancing out the window, Piper bit her lip. She saw no reason he needed to know how much money she had, and she wouldn't tell him just because he asked.

“It's fine,” he allowed. “It's smart of you not to tell me, even though I don't mean you any trouble. You can't know that for sure just because I say so, and I'd rather have you not trust anyone than trust the wrong person. I've seen you use some poor judgment before.”

The insult tore Piper from her reverie. “Poor judgment?” she demanded, incensed. “When have I shown poor judgment?”

“Going out onto the balcony with that guy. Wandering down to a dark, deserted beach alone. Both of those show poor judgment, I would say.”

“Getting into a car with someone I hardly know when my life is in danger...” Piper sassed.

“There is that,” Sebastian grinned, and Piper remembered not so long ago when she had actually liked him - such a smile, rare though it be.

She took a deep breath. “I'm sorry,” she offered. “I really appreciate what you did back there. I had no idea there were people literally coming to the house.”

“No need to apologize. Your skepticism shows some sense, and I have the feeling you're going to need it. I can't say I'm glad you so readily put yourself into my power, but fortunately, you chose well this time.”

“Maybe I chose well because I can tell the good guys from the bad guys,” Piper retorted.

Instead of taking a compliment, Sebastian glared sideways at Piper. “Not likely,” he countered. “Don't go around expecting to get it right every time.”

“Yes, sir,” Piper murmured before turning back to the window. The tension of the evening had left her exhausted, and as she watched the monotony of the darkness outside, she found herself fading off into sleep.

“Are you cold?” Sebastian wondered, and when Piper nodded sleepily, she found a gentle flow of warm air suddenly fill the space around her feet and breathe across her face.

“Thanks,” she sighed, leaning her head against Lily's diaper bag for a pillow. A moment later, she had fallen asleep.

Bash shot off a text to his cousin. Need your help. Just pulled a girl out of a dangerous situation, and I need somewhere safe to sleep.

Irritated at the reply, Bash stared at the phone. Not happening, Luke had answered.

Bash glanced at the sleeping girl next to him, listening carefully for her steady breath. Maybe if he turned on the radio, a phone conversation would not disturb her. Pressing through the buttons, he landed on a soothing classical piece, and he studied her between glances at the road to make sure she still slept. When she didn’t stir, he texted his cousin again.

Can I please call you? I really need your help.

Instead of an answer, Bash felt the phone’s vibration as Isaac called.

“I’m not a hotel,” Luciano began.

“Look,” Bash cut him off. “This is a seriously weird situation that I have no idea how to handle. It’s international intrigue stuff, and you’re the only resource I have that could give me any direction.”

“Seriously? International intrigue?” Luke laughed at his cousin.

“If murder in Peru sounds like international intrigue…I just picked this girl up from the house of a couple of scientists whose colleagues were all murdered in Peru, and now the scientists are missing.”

After several second of silence, Luke finally exhaled. “Well, not that I know what to do about that, but bring her over. At least you’ll be safe to take a nap here.” Whatever the situation, Luke didn’t need to pass the information on to someone. Maybe it would be an FBI operation, but Isaac would know – Luke couldn’t just ignore a possible kidnapping. Surely Isaac would want to know.

“And, um, Luke?” Bash hesitated, knowing his cousin would not like his next words. “We have a baby.”

“What? How long have you known this girl?”

Sebastian couldn’t hold in his laughter, and he glanced at Piper to see if she had awakened. She hadn’t. “It’s not our baby, stupid. She was babysitting. The child belongs to the scientists.”

A low chuckle rolled through the phone. “You scared me there for a minute, cuz. But I’ll make preparations. Don’t worry.”

As soon as he hung up from Bash, Luke dialed Isaac.

“Isaac, I have a situation. Remember the girl you and I were surveilling to get to Sebastian?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I may have been wrong about her. Bash just called me to tell me that he was bringing a girl over because she was in danger from Peruvian cartels. Something about murdered scientists in the Amazon. I didn’t even realize that Bash stayed in contact with those kinds of people. I don’t know whether to be disillusioned or relieved.”

“You said Peruvian cartels? How do you know it’s not the girl from the party? I saw her with Bash a couple of days ago.”

“You’re spying on my cousin?”

“I’m a spy, Luke. So are you. So, yeah. But I was actually spying on Piper, not Bash. How do you know it’s not her?” I didn’t get to finish up with her today. If she was off on some chase, his connection at the student event would prove pointless. Although, I can track her through her phone now. Except, if he couldn’t manage the Peruvian connection through the girl’s contact with the scientists, Isaac would need to find the scientists another way.

“Piper…” Luciano screwed up his face in thought – he hadn’t known her name. “I guess I don’t. But a suburban coed gringa, wrapped up in cartel business? I just figured he had kept up a gang connection with a girl, or something. Wouldn’t that be the likeliest person to be mixed up with cartels?”

“Cartels pay well. Coeds need help with college costs. If she doesn’t want to hook or dance, it’s not unheard of for a girl to be a runner.”

“No way,” Luke insisted. Even if what Isaac said about coeds were true, Sebastian would never go for that kind of girl – at least, Luke didn’t think he would.

“Look,” Isaac leveled, “let me do a little research on this murder thing you mentioned. Whether it’s the girl I met or not, this situation could be your ‘in’ with your cousin. He’s literally coming to you for help, making himself vulnerable. More ready to accept your conditions.” Isaac had already scoped out the Piper’s class schedule and club activity, and he had plenty of leads to figure out if she was the one mixed up with the cartels. Not quite as fun to seduce her if she was already mixed up with criminals, but maybe she was savvier than he had guessed. That could prove entertaining, too.

Luke blew out a breath. “I’m not comfortable with this.”

“Just get them in your house, and I’m going to check out these murders. Just in case, try to soften the girl up to you. I may need her.” Without waiting for a response, Isaac disconnected the phone, immediately dialing his superior. His pulse thrummed with exhilaration – he had known the Peru angle would come to one of the local agents. If he read the situation right, it had just come to him. Now he just needed to follow the trail.

+++++++++++

“Where are we?” Piper demanded.

Sebastian peered up at the dim lights in the second story window. “We're at my cousin's apartment.” He tapped a message into his phone, and a minute later, light yawned across a sidewalk as a door opened from the Stygian shadows of the walls.

“Here, Sebastian,” a voice whispered, and bending gently to retrieve Lily, Sebastian eased toward the light, taking Piper by the elbow and leading her into the row house.

To Piper’s surprise, the unknown voice’s owner did a double-take as they passed through the gentle light of the entry and he took in her appearance. His expression flattered her vanity, to say the least.

The stranger looked enough like Bash that she could infer the men’s biological relationship. Brothers? Cousins? She thought he had said cousin, but her mind was a little addled. Certainly they interacted with the familiarity of brothers. Unlike Bash, though, the stranger did not stand erect like a monument against the sky. No, the stranger leaned casually against the air behind him, easy and serene in his demeanor. Unlike Bash, the stranger’s eyes were not open books; they were deep pools. In Piper’s current situation, the sentiment seemed…risky.

He offered Piper a subtle smile, and as Bash headed toward the doorway to a darkened room, the stranger took Bash’s place at Piper’s side. “I’m Luke,” he informed her, “Bash’s cousin.” The air tingled between her shoulder and his, and the sensation worked as both ends of a magnet, attracting and repelling her at the same time. When he led her into the house, her mind quickly suppressed her instincts as it forced her to rationally assess her surroundings.

Beyond the living room’s darkness, Piper could see a small pallet situated on the floor of a bedroom, with pillows all around. Bash laid his little bundle into the middle of the blankets, covering her with a fleece brought from the Prado home. Though Piper noted a comfortable-looking bed by the door, she had slept enough on the car ride that she did not feel sleepy anymore, and though Luke offered her the room, she declined. Instead, she bent down by Lily and arranged the pillows for maximum comfort before standing and following the men out.

“I agree,” Luke turned to his cousin as they exited the room, “that this is the safest place you could bring them, but I’m not sure what I can do. My job has restrictions. I can't get involved here.”

“I'm not asking you to get involved,” Bash answered. “I'm asking for a safe place to catch some sleep.”

With a frustrated sigh, Luke nodded. “Okay. You have it. Fortunately for you, I went to bed early. I would be very upset if I had to stay up and babysit you two when I had only had two hours of sleep.”

“Thank you, Luciano.”

Luke did not look back at the woman – Piper, Isaac had said. From their visual exchange at the door, he knew that she had received his message of interest. Anything more overt for the time being would step past her comfort level and may tip off Sebastian. Intentionally not looking for her, he sat down with his cousin to discuss the situation.

Piper peeked around the corner at the two men where they sat at a small kitchen table. In her entire life, Piper had not dealt with three men interested in her at the same time – that was a Molly dilemma. Ben didn’t count for Piper, because Ben would chase anything that ran away. But the idea that Rory and Luke – two total strangers - would both send out signals of interest in just a couple of days? She had just attended the Sci-fry with Rory earlier in the day, and he would have kissed her on the beach if she had accepted his hints. Now this Luke was putting out feelers? Had someone gotten mad at her and posted that she won the lottery? Because people were coming out of the woodwork to pursue her, and she didn’t trust it.

What did she know about her current situation? She had met Bash at a party. Molly had planned to go on a date with him. Did Piper have any independent confirmation of anything Bash had said? None. In fact, she hadn’t seen the supposed men in the black car; Molly had been supposed to meet Bash when she disappeared. Who was to say that he hadn’t made her disappear?

Still, staring from the dark of the living room into the bright kitchen where the two men sat, Piper’s reason interrupted her panic. Bash stared at his cousin, frustration apparent on his features. He looked truly concerned about something, and Piper had trouble believing he held criminal intent. Even though she had no independent verification of his benevolence, did that mean he was bad? He couldn’t have manufactured the events with the Prados, the emails they had sent. He hadn’t been the one who left her thousands of dollars. Instead of hurting her when he had wrenched a knife out of her hand, he had laid it carefully on a countertop, soothing her fears when she panicked. At the party, he had obviously known Declan Garrett and Mitch Parkington, as well as the valets, and he had even had a key that opened the door from the beach – he hadn’t lied that he ran in the Gansett circle. Bash seemed largely what he claimed, even if she held no certainty that Luke was safe. Luke, at least, gave off a definite furtive vibe. The base insecurity of Piper’s lack of knowledge sucked the fortitude from her lungs as she listened to the pair in the kitchen.

“Why are you doing this?” Luciano was prompting Bash.

Instead of answering right away, Bash glanced heavenward, breathing deeply as he thought. “It's complicated,” he finally explained. “See, I met the girl at a party a few weeks ago – the one where you tried to introduce me to Isaac. I just liked her from the first moment I saw her. She was real, you know? Not those plastic mannequins who masquerade as humanity at the Gansett parties, and not full of desperation like so many we knew growing up. Real, and solid. And comfortable. And…enough of that. Of course, I couldn't think of a good excuse to call her after the party, so when her friend called and asked me out, I said yes. Her friend was sweet.”

Despite a small blush of pleasure at Bash’s apparent admission of interest in her, his final words seemed to crack the fragile shell of wishful thinking that Piper had used to hold herself together.

A quiet sob from the hallway drew Bash from his seat, and Luciano stood to his feet where he had sat. “Piper?” Sebastian begged.

“She was sweet?” Piper asked, and her face crumpled in pain. She knew she had taken the words at their worst meaning, but she couldn’t help it. Her anxiety had returned once she had Lily in relative safety.

“No, Piper. You know that's not what I meant,” Sebastian insisted. He slid his arm around her waist and led her to the table, seating her in his chair. He seated himself next to her and leaned in so he could read her face.

“Maybe not,” Piper peered into Sebastian's near-black eyes, “but it’s possible, right? She could be-” Piper cut herself off. She would not say “dead,” not for the liveliest girl Piper had ever known.

“Piper, you know you can’t ask that question,” Bash insisted. “Anyone can meet a bad fate at any time, but I don’t see any reason to assume – with all this stuff going on around you – that these people would take her just to hurt her. They want her for information or extortion or something. She’s going to be okay, and we’re going to find her.” Sebastian reached for her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. In an apparent show of consideration, Luciano strode over to the kitchen and heated some water for tea. Damn, he’s hooked. Luke complained internally. Most likely, he would have to resort to something besides seduction to persuade this girl, as long as she was with Sebastian.

“But this is because of me,” she was lamenting. “Molly disappeared because of me.”

“Not because of you,” Sebastian insisted. “Because of the Prados, and whoever is after them.”

Luke wrench his mind to attention – even more than his instruction to seduce her, Luke needed to capture anything she said about the Prados and relay it back to Isaac.

“Well, maybe,” Piper agreed, “though I can't imagine what these people would gain by grabbing Molly.”

“She was at the Prados’. Maybe that was enough. Or maybe they expected her to have the child, or at least some information,” Sebastian offered.

“But from what you described to me – the car and the men,” Luciano countered, “this could be gang-related. This isn’t the usual setting where they would want a child.”

Sebastian glared at his cousin.

“A gang?” Piper demanded, her instincts badgering her to run pick up Lily to protect her. “You think those men were from a gang? Does that make sense?”

“No, it doesn't,” Sebastian comforted. “So maybe we should come up with another theory, Luciano.”

“A gang kidnapping two researchers and their child seems far-fetched at best, at least in America. But who would be after people like the Prados?”

Managing a smile, Piper accepted the tea that Luciano set in front of her.

“They were researchers, but didn’t you say they were pharmaceutical researchers?” Luciano prompted. “Depending on the street value of what they manufactured, there is at least a small crossover there. What did the Prados research?”

“I don’t know the type of drug specifically,” Piper shrugged. “Subtropical plants in the Amazon rainforest.”

Luciano whistled. “South America. South America could definitely mean cartels, which in America would involve gangs. I have some friends who might be able to find a connection. I mean, even if the Prados weren’t involved in production of a narcotic, maybe they accidentally uncovered a drug manufacturer – or were about to.”

“Would drug dealers follow the Prados all the way up to Rhode Island?” Piper challenged. “Besides, there could be other people opposed to the research. Mitch told me that there were always a lot of protesters at the lab. Maybe there are militants who would resort to violence.”

“Who is Mitch?” Luke queried. He had thought that he would have to sneak around Sebastian to flirt with her and soften her up, but attracting her when her boyfriend was some unknown entity? Much easier…Luke could hope.

“Mitch,” smirked Bash, “is a classmate of mine who was soundly reprimanded – by Piper – for his inappropriate behavior toward her.”

Piper blushed, avoiding Bash’s eyes. “Mitch is a pharmaceutical sales rep I met at a party, and I mentioned to him that I had seen a news story about activists who had protested at his lab, and he said that the activists sometimes showed up at the pharma company and caused trouble.”

“Such a friendly conversation, right? Until he cornered her on the balcony like a predator, tried to slobber all over her. She grabbed him by the hair and shoved him off of her – almost sent him tumbling to his ass!” Bash wore a huge grin as he remembered the story, and Piper punched him lightly in the arm.

“You said you didn’t see!” she gaped.

“I said no such thing. You asked – I didn’t answer.”

“So, you’re one of those,” she glared. Did this mean that she would have to mistrust everything he said.

He grabbed her hand, hoping to soothe her frustration by the touch. “No, Piper. I’m sorry. I’m not. I just…didn’t want to step on your toes.”

Well, he certainly seemed solicitous in his concern, so for the moment, she would leave the possibility of trusting him open. Still, she pulled her hand away, forcing herself to breathe evenly. “The point was,” Piper turned to Luke, “that he was too drunk to understand that I was saying ‘no’ to him, and he reached a point where I had to make myself clear with more than words. I didn’t hurt him!”

“No, just humiliated him,” Bash agreed. “Which he thoroughly deserved.”

Finally, Piper huffed a laugh. “He did,” she smiled. “But I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I think he was drunk.”

“People can train themselves to be reasonable when they are drunk,” Luke asserted, meeting her eyes with earnest concern. He had months of training in controlling himself under the influence of alcohol and other substances. “If he treated you inappropriately, it’s because he didn’t care enough about women to train himself not to.”

Piper found her suspicions melting as she sat in the comfort of the cozy kitchen, and she turned Luke a grateful smile, one Bash did not miss. To break the contact between Piper and his cousin, Bash lifted the tea kettle and offered her some more tea, which she accepted by sliding her cup toward him. Bash hadn’t made himself clear to Luke about how he felt about Piper, but he intended to soon.

“But back to the Prados,” Bash prompted, regaining attention. “Maybe some militant activist group would target them, but I don’t find that any more likely than gang activity. I mean, since we’re speculating, some of the gangs have very intricate systems that reach all the way into Canada from South America. Maybe an activist group would have a local controller who could order something like this, but they have much more limited resources and range than a cartel. Most of them are grassroots.”

As she stared from one man to another, Piper grew irritated. “So, my best friend has been kidnapped by a couple of drug-running goons? How is that possible? How could something like this happen to the Prados? They’re just scientists.”

Luciano shrugged. “Piper-”

“Don’t coddle me,” she demanded, taking in his demeanor.

“Fine,” he nodded respectfully. “then it might help you believe me if I tell you that Bash and I are pretty well versed on these people...”

Piper caught a glance of Bash's stricken face out of the corner of her eye, and her curiosity piqued.

“...and even if the cause of the kidnapping isn’t gangs – which I think it is – might have helped execute the plan. They hire out their services in a lot of ways.”

With her renewed interest, Piper peered covertly at the suave and beautiful Bash Rivera. How could a Brown student, so fully integrated in the Ivy League set, have any familiarity with gangs other than academic? When she next spoke, the confidence had left her tone. “I don't think I can really worry about Molly until I hand off Lily. But if I’m going to find Molly, I have to figure out who came after the Prados – either by finding the Prados or finding out who is after them. I – I need help. I need to call the police or the FBI or something.”

Bash shook his head. “It probably hasn’t been long enough for them to get involved, or they will spend the next twelve or so hours just interviewing her friends and family when we already know so much more than they could find in that time. If we wait until they are satisfied that Molly’s missing, all signs of her will have disappeared.”

“Not likely we will find a trace of her anyway,” Luciano shrugged, and Bash glared at his cousin.

“He doesn't know what he's talking about,” Bash comforted Piper. “If we start looking in the first twenty-four hours, there's a good chance we'll find her.” Bash kicked his cousin under the table, and Piper lay her head down on her hands, forcing calming breaths into her lungs.

She felt exhausted, as if she had run a triathlon. Still, how could she let herself fall asleep under such circumstances? She needed to move! She needed to contact law enforcement! A glaze of fatigue sheened over her, though, and the men’s murmured conversation faded into silence.

Sebastian recognized the sudden steady breath of the girl beside him. “I'm going to move her to the couch,” he insisted.

“How many bedrooms do you think I have? Where are you going to sleep?”

“I slept on your floor most of my life,” Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Get me a sheet, and I'll grab a throw pillow from the couch. If I try to move her to the bedroom, it will wake up the baby. Just get me the sheet. And shut all the doors in the house.”

“Shut all the doors?”

“I don't want that little child wandering into some place where you have a gun. I doubt you have a childproof safe lying around.”

A moment later, Sebastian had lead Piper, barely able to walk, to the couch, pulling a throw off the back to cover her legs. He tried not to stare at her, but he found himself very aware of her beneath the blanket. If he let himself consider her for a moment, she was even prettier than he had recognized when she had shattered the boredom of the Jamestown fete. She wasn’t a sculpted statue of Brown and Gansett, but she wore a slender softness that appealed on a much more instinctive and artless level. He perused her face. Gentle waves of brown curls cascaded down her cheek, framing her eyes where long lashes rimmed her closed lids. He had remembered her as pleasant to look at, but she looked more than pleasant lying peacefully in slumber. She looked beautiful, delicate. Like she was made of porcelain. No doubt her peace would shatter when she finally awoke, but Bash prayed she wouldn’t shatter with it.

Bash had never let himself care about something fragile, not since watching his little cousin being battered by the cruel forces of his neighborhood. He had watch, powerless, while the kind, gentle soul inside his younger cousin had died, to be replaced by an animal poised to spring in attack. Luciano had tried to protect her, but it was so much harder protecting girls, and she had hardened despite all their efforts to shield her. It was why Bash had predicted she would join the gangs, though she had not.

Well, even if it cost him his friendship with Piper, he would protect her – even stop her from looking for Molly, if that put her in danger. He had failed Mariana, but she had lived in the thick of it. Bash would never let Piper enter the fray.