Ella's P.O.V.

"Here's where you'll be staying."

Jai opened the bedroom door and pulled my suitcase inside the room for me.

I followed him inside and cringed.

The room was huge, just like the rest of the place.

The ceiling was at least fifty feet tall. The dark paneling on the walls made the olive-colored curtains stand out, which hung beside a ginormous bay window that was in the center of the far wall.

One of the biggest beds I'd ever laid eyes on sat against the wall to my left. It had a four post bed frame that was a dark oak just like the paneling on the walls and the flooring.

The black duvet matched the pillows on the bed and the two black couches that were on the other side of the room.

The Victorian-style couches sat across from each other in front of a fireplace that was big enough for three grown men to stand beside each other inside it.

"Over there is your bathroom," Jai said, pointing to a door that was on the same wall as the fireplace.

We heard someone walk into the room and I turned around to see Daniel standing in the doorway.

"Like it?" He asked.

I looked awkwardly between Daniel and Jai.

"Guys, this room is huge. Beautiful, but huge. Do you not have anything smaller?"

Jai shook his head.

"None that aren't already being used," he said.

I caught a fleeting glimpse of confusion on Daniel's face as he looked at Jai, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come.

"You can settle in a little later," Daniel said. "I want you to come with me."

Daniel led the way out of the room and Jai followed us closely, closing the bedroom door behind us as we left.

"Okay, so you're going to meet the girl that Cain told you had a paper trail together for the other men this had happened to," Daniel said. "Thing is, she doesn't really know what she's doing, so we're replacing her with you."

"What makes you think I know what I'm doing?" I asked.

Daniel laughed.

"Trust me," he said. "This girl has a total of four brain cells. Dogs could do a better job."

"Then why did she get the job in the first place?" I asked

"Question of the century," Jai chimed in.

Daniel rolled his eyes.

"Look, she's hot," he said to me. "I didn't know when I met her that she could barely spell her name or else I wouldn't have given her that job."

We walked along the long hallway and I looked at the paintings and tapestries that were hung on the wall as we passed them.

We finally arrived at the threshold of an open doorway and walked in to see a platinum-haired girl standing beside a table that had five file boxes sitting on it.

"You haven't even opened them?!" Daniel yelled.

The girl turned to look at us, her phone in hand.

"No," she said, as if it didn't matter.

Daniel groaned and slapped his forehead with his palm.

"Cain is going to kill me," he said under his breath.

"Arra, this is Ella. Ella, this is Arra," Jai said, introducing us while Daniel fought a migraine.

"Hi," she said, waving. I waved back.

"She's taking your job," Daniel told her.

"Oh, thank God!" She said, throwing her hands up in the air.

Her reaction surprised me, seeing as people don't normally celebrate once they've fired.

"Word of advice," she said, her face getting serious as she warned me, "I'm convinced these men you're looking for turned into zombies. Your only job should be to warn these guys so we can get prepared for the apocalypse."

She was dead serious.

"Zombies eat brains, Arra. You're safe," Daniel said, moving her out of the room.

I had to stop myself from laughing.

She waved goodbye, either ignoring or not noticing Daniel's comment.

"My I.Q. just dropped four points," he said sighing as we watched her walk away.

Jai pushed past us and walked over to the files.

He handed Daniel and I each a box.

"Let's start unpacking these," he said.

"Don't bother."

The voice came from behind us and we turned to see Cain in the doorway.

"We're moving this stuff to my office," he said, walking into the room.

Cain turned his attention to me.

"You'll be able to concentrate more in there. It's quiet."

I don't know about that, buddy.

Just looking at the guy made me lose my train of thought. I doubted being in the same room as him would equal higher productivity for me.

"O...kay," Daniel said awkwardly, placing the lid back on the box.

We each grabbed a box and Cain walked over and grabbed two. I thought I heard Daniel mumble something about him showing off as he did so.

We carried the boxes down a few hallways and came to a large wooden door.

Cain pushed it open with his shoulder and it revealed a spiraling staircase that went up.

We all filed in behind Cain as he led the way up the broad staircase.

At the top, the staircase opened up to a large room with bookshelves lining the walls. There were at least three large desks in this room, one of which I assumed was Cain's as it was covered in papers, pens, and file folders.

"You can use this desk," Cain said, placing his two boxes down on it.

I placed my box beside his.

My breath caught in my throat as his hand touched mine to help lift the lid on the box. I certainly didn't need the help, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

I reached across the desk and turned on a lamp that sat on the corner.

This room was dark, just like the train. There were no windows, just lamps that sat around the room strategically to provide light.

Cain walked over to his desk and grabbed the box that I had brought which contained my grandfather's information.

He brought the box back over to my desk. As he sat the box down, he looked at me and we shared a prolonged moment of eye contact that left me struggling to remember my name.

"Let's see what we have here," Daniel said, pulling a piece of paper from his box and simultaneously pulling me out of my trance.

I listened as Daniel read off the name of the man whose information was on the sheet of paper in his hands but I was more focused on the fact that Cain had walked around the desk and had come to stand right next to me.

We were so close I couldn't have moved an inch to my left before I was leaning on him.

Cain reached around me and grabbed something from one of the boxes on the desk.

His arm brushed mine as he did so and I felt shivers erupt down my arms and my spine.

"Ella, does that description match your grandfather?"

What?

"I'm a visual person," I said quickly. "Can I just read it?"

Why didn't you just scream: "I wasn't listening!"?

Daniel handed me the paper and I read over everything that I had missed.

It was a copy of a medical form that I assumed was filled out by another man that went missing.

Reading his age, height, weight, and preexisting heart condition made me feel like I was reading my own grandfather's information.

They were nearly identical in every aspect.

"What do you think this means?" I asked Cain.

"It's odd for sure, but I don't know," he said, taking the paper from me to read it.

I opened the box in front of me, curious to see what else there was to find.

I pulled out a few sheets of paper from my box and examined them closely.

Immediately I noticed something strange.

"Wait..." I said slowly.

I looked at the familiar hospital logo in the corner of one of the papers.

"This guy went to the same place for a blood transfusion as my grandfather," I said.

Cain and Jai both leaned over and looked at the logo that I was pointing at.

"Look and see if the other men did," I instructed. "Maybe that's an important connection."

We each began to look though the other boxes and files of all the men who had disappeared.

"This guy went there," Daniel said.

"This one too," Jai added.

All the ones I had looked at had at least one paper in their file that revealed they had been to the same hospital.

A thought that I hadn't considered before struck me suddenly.

"Wait, if they were all from the same area, why would it matter that they went to the same hospital? It's a small town, I would wager that most people in that town went to that hospital."

"I would agree with you," Jai said, "But considering that they could all be doppelgängers for one another based on their CBC reports, I think it's more than a coincidence."

Cain nodded in agreement.

"They all lived alone. None of them held a consistent job; some were retired others had been fired or quit. Also important to note that none of them were married or had live-in partners. There was no one to immediately notice they had gone missing."

It was true.

"Didn't you say you found the last man that this happened to?" I asked. "Did you talk to him about what happened?"

"We did talk to him," Cain said. "He didn't remember a thing. He said he fell asleep in his bed and woke up in the woods four days later."

"Have you kept track of him? Maybe he remembers something now..." I said.

"He died yesterday," Cain informed me.

My eyes widened.

"How?"

"He had an aggressive form of leukemia. He was diagnosed two days before he was kidnapped and died shortly after he was found."

I thought for a moment.

"Leukemia is a blood-based cancer," I pointed out. "They were all given blood transfusions and all suffered from either a heart condition or anemia. Do you think this could all be connected? Maybe the clinic they were seen at for the transfusions is where they are being targeted."

Cain nodded thoughtfully.

"It's a good start," Cain said. "I think we should keep looking and see if we find anything else."

So keep looking we did.

Hours went by and both Jai and Daniel left to tend to other things they had to deal with, leaving Cain and I alone.

By the time I was preparing to leave, there were countless papers strategically placed on the table in a spiderweb pattern with sticky notes attached to them.

I looked at my watch and noticed it was almost ten o'clock at night.

"I think I'll turn in," I said to Cain.

He looked at the clock in the corner of the room and nodded. He'd clearly lost track of time too.

I left the room wordlessly and walked down the stairs in silence.

I had so many questions that I wanted to ask and so many things to say. I just couldn't figure out how to ask or say them.

Trying to remember how to get back to my room proved to be a trying task and it took me a few minutes to find the right path in the maze of hallways that was Cain's home.

After I finally found my bedroom, I unpacked my suitcase, sent Zak a text to tell him I had arrived and was safe, and then took a shower.

In a fresh set of pajamas, I sat down in front of the fire I had started in the fireplace and took my grandfather's books out of my bag.

After Jai had made a comment about them that morning on the train, I had stowed them away in the bottom of my bag.

Opening the book on Lycanthropy, I tried to read it but I couldn't concentrate.

I was starving.

It had been almost twenty four hours since I had last eaten. I had been running on fumes and adrenaline since then.

Suddenly, A knock sounded at the door.

I closed the book and placed it on the couch as I stood up to go see who it was.

I was surprised to see Cain standing outside my door holding a large plate of steaming food, a fork and a bottle of water tucked under his arm.

"I figured you hadn't eaten," he said. "Mind if I come in?"

I smiled and stepped out of the way as I opened the door wider so he could come in.

He handed me the plate and the fork as he did so before also handing me the water bottle.

We both walked over to the couches where the fire was still burning in the fireplace.

"Settled in nicely?" He asked.

I nodded, not even waiting until I had sat down to get a forkful of potatoes in my mouth.

I sat down on the couch across from him and crossed my legs.

"Your house is gorgeous," I said, opening the bottle of water.

"It was my parents before it was mine," he said, looking around the room as if he was recalling some memory.

"You grew up here?" I asked.

Cain nodded.

I felt a bit uncomfortable as he watched me eat, but I was too hungry to eat like a bird.

A few minutes passed as I finished the food on the plate and set the bare plate beside me on the couch and placed the fork on top of it.

"That was the best roast I think I've ever had," I said, finishing off the water bottle.

"Sure it wasn't just because you were hungry?" Cain asked.

I laughed.

"Could've been."

"I apologize," he said. "I forget sometimes that food is a necessity."

"No worries," I said, laughing. "We might just need to remind each other from now on."

He nodded. "I'd be okay with that."

We looked at each other for a few seconds before I looked away.

"You can ask me," he said after a few silent moments.

I tore my eyes from the fire burning in the fireplace and looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

"All the questions you're bottling up," he said, leaning back and placing both his arms on the back of the couch.

I gulped watching the muscle in his chest and arms flex beneath his gray t-shirt as he did so.

"What is this?" I asked finally, gesturing to the room around me. "What do you do?"

"International and domestic affairs," he answered.

"So you do work for the German government?"

"I don't work for anyone's government."

"You work for the UN then...?"

Cain shook his head.

"No, this is a privately owned and operated organization," he said.

"So... it's a gang?" I asked slowly.

Cain laughed.

I was in awe for a moment as I watched him smile.

"It's not a gang, it's completely legal," he said.

"So what kind of affairs do you manage?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"All sorts. We mainly deal in domestic affairs with the people in our community, but sometimes there are international problems that we have to deal with too."

"People in your community?" I asked. "What kind of community?"

"Just people that are associated with our organization. These people have husbands, wives, and children. It makes up a community."

"How many are there?" I asked.

"A few million," he answered.

My eyes widened.

"How have I never heard of this before?" I asked.

"We work with governments sometimes. They have problems that they can't fix so we step in and help. In exchange, we have diplomatic immunity and they stay out of our business, which includes allowing us to continue to operate with discretion," he explained.

"And how does my grandfather fit into all of this?" I asked.

"A few of the men that went missing were some of ours," he said. "I'm just trying to get to the bottom of it so we can figure out who took those men."

"Oh."

We were quiet for a few seconds while I processed all of this.

Despite his willingness to answer my questions, Cain was still being vague about what exactly his "organization" did and who they were. It made me wonder what he had to hide and it made me wary to become involved.

"Any more questions?" He asked.

"What was it like growing up in this house as a kid?" I asked, looking around the huge room. "It had to be hard to be a normal person."

He hummed in response as he looked around the room.

"There certainly was never a shortage of places to hide in hide-n-go-seek," he said.

I laughed.

"Sounds like a perfect childhood."

"Well, I wouldn't go as far to say perfect. I certainly had my fair share of issues. Unfortunately, money and status doesn't rid you of those."

The sorrow that filled his eyes when he said that made my heart hurt.

"Sorry," I said. "I didn't mean it like that..."

"No, it's okay," he assured me.

We sat in silence for a few moments before he stood up.

"I'll let you get to bed," he said.

I stood up as well and I felt my heart skip a beat as he began to walk towards me. Cain walked closer until he leaned down and picked up the plate and fork.

"Thank you for dinner," I said.

"You're welcome."

I walked with him over to the bedroom door and opened it before he walked out into the hallway.

"Well... goodnight," I said awkwardly.

His eyes caught mine as he turned around.

"Goodnight, Ella."

He said it so gently that I thought I would melt.

I smiled slightly as I closed the door and pressed my back against it. I placed my hand over my chest and felt my heart beating wildly.

Why does he do this to me?

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