Chapter 5 - The Homeless Camp
We drove for hours through the darkest, most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.
I finally asked the driver to pull over near a sprawling homeless encampment beneath an overpass.
I stepped out of the cab, my white dress standing out like a beacon in the dirt and despair.
People stared at me with suspicious, weary eyes as I walked through the maze of tents.
“Excuse me,” I said to an older woman warming her hands over a burning trash can.
“I am looking for a man with a gray beard and a torn brown coat.”
The woman looked at my expensive dress and spat on the ground near my shoes.
“We don’t talk to outsiders, princess,” she growled.
I pulled my diamond engagement ring off my finger and tossed it directly into her lap.
“Now talk,” I demanded, refusing to back down.
The woman bit the diamond to test it, then pointed a dirty finger toward the river.
“They took him,” she whispered, her eyes darting around nervously.
“Who took him?” I pressed, my stomach dropping into my shoes.
“The men in the black SUVs.”
“The Syndicate finally caught up with the ghost.”
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My blood ran completely cold.
My father had risked his life to warn me, and they had captured him because I forced him out into the open.
