CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"Was it her? His sister?" Mario asks.
"Yeah. She wants me to meet her at the library at one."
"Let's go! It's almost noon now."
"Relax. You're not going anywhere, "I say. "She's not exactly, uh—well, she'll kick your ass, really."
"Huh?"
"She's been through a lot. I don't think she'd appreciate me bringing a stranger."
"Come on! Are you serious?"
"Can you just trust me for once? Just for right now? Let me go at her alone, and then I'll introduce her to our safe circle. She needs to learn to trust me first."
He flops back down on his computer chair and throws his hands up in the air. "Whatever, man. Fine. I'll just play puppy and wait around until I'm needed."
"Perfect." I grin. "Can you call me as soon as Ralph finds out about the passport and the tyrant lawyer? We need to get a move on this. I need to get over there already."
"Yeah, no problem. I'll just add that to my secretarial duties."
"That's more like it. You see? Great sidekick."
Mario drops me off at the Metro stop and I head over toward the library. I'm nervous about the entire situation. I don't know what to expect. Should I be nervous? I am, I'll say that much.
I'm torn about whether to tell Perry about Dakota right away or not. I know he's in class and that if I decide not to wait until he's finished, his whole day will be thrown off. Then again, if I found out that my sister, whom I hadn't seen for years, had suddenly shown up, I think I'd want to know. I decide that I'll try and talk to her first and get some more information, and then give him the heads up right after.
What I do decide to do right away is to text with "Call me after class." He responds back within five minutes saying, "U got it. Everything OK?" and I reply, "Yeah. Have some news for U, but can wait."
When I reach the library, I remember that the last time I was here I'd been steaming with the need to find the book that I thought would hold all the answers about my parents. Here I am, again, searching for even more answers. What happened to Dakota? I know what happened to me, but what did she go through during all that time? I can tell from the damaged look in her eyes that she's had it pretty rough. I know that look far too well.
I push through the doors and head directly to the checkout desk where she and I had our initial encounter, but instead there's a frazzled lady with curly hair and straight bangs wearing a baggy denim dress and a nametag that reads "Gertrude." Of course her name's Gertrude. Definitely not a hot librarian. I glance down at my watch and note that it's a few minutes past one.
I take a seat in one of the padded chairs nearby and wait. My legs shake incessantly for the next fifteen minutes. I finally get up and approach Gertrude at the counter.
"Can I help you?" she asks.
"Yeah, I'm supposed to meet Dakota. Is she in?"
She glances up at the clock. "No. We've been calling her since twelve-thirty. She was supposed to be in nearly an hour ago. Which is very odd for her, you know? That girl's got quite the mouth on her, but even then, she's never missed a day of work."
She's stood me up. But why? I'm her only link to her brother. Something's not right. What if Naima and Axel were watching us? Did they see her as a threat and hurt her?
"She hasn't called in or anything?" I ask.
"I'm afraid not. I'm sorry. But if she does, I can tell her to call you? Would that help?"
