Bennett Mafia(43)

I felt unpinned, as if he’d been holding me up against the wall. I sat in a chair, but my legs jerked.

The sensation of falling was strong.

“I did. I didn’t agree with sending her away. I wanted my family all together. It was time to bring some good into this house.”

Those words resonated.

He killed to bring something good into Brooke’s life, for their whole family.

He wasn’t the ruthless killer I’d thought he’d been. He did care. He did love. He did feel pain.

“I’m sorry—”

“I don’t care. Honestly.” His shoulders lifted, and his eyes found me again. “I want to know where my sister is. I know she came to you the day after the news broke that she was missing. I know you drove her somewhere that next morning and you returned the same day. I know it was the third day you went to a tanning spa to hide the fact that you hadn’t gone to Florida for a vacation. And the next day I had you taken.” He stood there, his hands in his pockets, and his head fell forward, but he still stared me down. “I have proof of everything. I know you acted alone. I know you didn’t tell your roommates. We have security footage of you along the way. For the rest, we were able to hack your friend’s computer. The only thing I don’t have is where you stashed my sister.”

My hands started shaking.

My stomach turned over.

I felt like I was going to throw up.

My vision blurred, and spots floated around me.

He knew.

He knew almost everything.

He’d known this whole time.

“Tell me where my sister is.”

I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t betray her.

I couldn’t—

“Riley!”

I jumped in my chair, shoving it back at the same time. It almost tipped over, but I clung to it.

Or maybe that was me almost falling out of it?

It was all rolling over and over in my stomach. It was forcing its way up my throat. I felt the pressure of it coming up, and I swallowed it back down.

Agent lockdown.

I heard my trainer’s voice in my head, and as if she’d commanded me in present time, I felt the protocol happening.

My toes relaxed.

My legs stopped shaking. My knees calmed.

My thighs grew strong.

My hands rested on top of them, flat, fingers spread out. Ready.

I sat up straight.

My back was no longer against my chair.

My arms stopped trembling.

My stomach grew still.

My breathing evened out.

My shoulders squared back.

My chin rose.

My mind grew clear.

I was no longer Riley Bello.

I was 411 Operative Raven, and my mission was being threatened.

“Riley?”

My voice came out in a monotone as I recited the phrase they’d burned into our memories: “I will uphold my vow as an agent of honor. I will never break the promise a survivor has entrusted to me. I will never take away a person’s freedom, even if it means giving up mine in their place. I am an operative of the 411 Network, and I will not break my silence.”

I was gone.

“Shit,” Kai murmured.

The door opened and another voice demanded, “What the fuck is going on in here?”

A third voice, “What did you do to her?”

“I think I broke her,” Kai answered.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


Three weeks earlier



3:00 am



My roommates had gone to their bedrooms. I needed to go as well, but I couldn’t. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to move from the kitchen table. After they left, I got up to heat some decaf tea. It usually soothed me, but not that night. Or that morning. However you thought of it.

Knock, knock!

I jerked, instantly on alert.

Blade’s computer had a warning built in. When someone crossed the driveway, it sounded. It was harsh and loud, so it would’ve woken everyone up long ago, but looking, I saw why it hadn’t gone off.

Brooke Bennett stared back at me, and she hadn’t come down the driveway. She’d come through the woods.

Her eyes were wide and panicked. She shivered, branches in her hair, and she waved her hand frantically in a circle to me. It was covered in a shirt. She looked drenched.

Opening the door, I stepped back. “My God. Brooke?”

“Hi,” she breathed out, hurrying inside. A chunky sweater hung off of her frame. She was dressed in the same jeans from her Instagram image I’d seen on the news. She pressed her lips together, faint blue lines circling them. “Hiya, roomie.”

I didn’t think.

I grabbed her for a hug.



3:30 am



“Are you sure about this?”

She nodded. She had showered, changed clothes, and was watching through the window. “Yes. I have to disappear. There’s no other way. He’ll kill me if he finds me.” She swallowed, looking back. “He can’t find me.”

Something fell to the floor down the hall, either in Blade’s or Carol’s room.

Brooke gasped, whirling and freezing.

She’d just started to look normal, color moving to her cheeks, but it drained from her again, leaving her pale.