Until You (The Redemption, #1)(51)

“Blood is on your hands.” The voice is deep and baritone, and his words have the hair standing up on the back of my neck.

“Who is this?” I whisper-yell as I look over my shoulder toward the hallway. No one is there.

He chuckles, and I focus on its sound as I try to steady my heartbeat. “All three of them dead, and you did nothing to stop them?” He tsks. “Did you help hide the bodies? Weigh them down so they became fish food? What about the drugs? Did you know you just transported five million in cocaine via that fancy yacht of yours?”

“Who. Is. This?” The words burn in my throat, and my mind races.

“You’re in a world of trouble, Mrs. Makani.”

Tears spill as my world turns over again for the second time in a few days. This cell phone. How did it get in my bedroom? Who put it here? Who am I talking to?

“Your silence tells me you already know that.” A pregnant pause where my pulse is pounding in my ears is the only thing I hear. “There is a way to save yourself. To get out of the shitstorm you just landed in . . . or have you always known? Are you an accomplice to so much more?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I eek out in an unsteady voice and wipe the tears off my cheeks.

“Yes, you do. The question you need to ask yourself is: who is more important? You? Kaleo? The men who died?”

“Everything okay?” I whip my gaze toward where Rangi is standing at the top of the landing, his eyes loaded with curiosity. Does he see my cell on the nightstand? Does he suspect something?

“Yes. Fine. It’s . . . it’s just one of my students.” Don’t over-explain. “She needs some personal advice on how to deal with another instructor.”

He holds my gaze for a beat longer before nodding subtly and walking away.

“You there?” I ask when I’m met with silence.

“Interesting. You lied for me. That means you’re scared. That means you want to do the right thing.”

“What do you want?”

“You have what I need, and I have what you need.”

“And what’s that?”

“A way out. Immunity. Protection.” I can practically feel this mystery man’s smirk when he pauses. “I’ll be in touch.”

The call ends, and I sit down on my bed and wonder what in the fuck is going on.

“The question you need to ask yourself is who is more important? You? Kaleo? The men who died?”

How the hell did he know how to reach me?

Is there really a way to be free?





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


Tennyson




“So you two moved in together?” Bobbi Jo smiles like the cat that ate the canary. “Well, that was quick. And to think you two were hiding this right under our noses all this time.”

First. Wow. I’ve been there for a whole four days and the town already knows? The girls must have told someone who told someone who told someone.

Second, the Maddens have been in Redemption Falls for a few weeks. She acts like we’ve been having a fling for months.

“Good to see the rumor mill is still alive and strong and wrong,” I say with a placating smile on my face but don’t care to elaborate. The last thing I owe anyone, let alone Bobbi Jo, is answers to the question she’s asking without putting words to—is it true? Are you and Crew an item?

Let her stew on it.

Let her guess.

Next, the town will say I’m knocked up with twins or something like that.

“Don’t be so shy about it. We’re all just a little jealous is all. It’s not often we get new, handsome bachelors around here to gawk at.” She taps my arm. “Now, where were you on securing sponsorships for the banners?”

I fill her in on the phone calls I’ve made and the vendors who have agreed to buy a banner to help sponsor and pay for some of the Founder’s Day expenses. It’s a cake job, really. Most vendors do it every year, and so it’s merely a matter of doing the paperwork and collecting payments.

“Good. That’s fabulous. I knew you’d be a great addition to the team.”

“Thank you. Now where are the old banners again? I’d like to go through them and see if we have any we can reuse. We’re getting short on time to get them made, so I need to take inventory.”

“They’re upstairs in the storage area. It’s a total disaster up there.” She mock shivers. “Stuff everywhere. It makes my OCD go absolutely haywire. Hives. And. All. I can always send one of the guys up there for you if you want.”

“I’ll figure it out. I’m resourceful.”

“Of course, you are. I’ll leave you to it then,” she says, the clickety-clack of her heels following her as she goes.

I glance across the community center to where I’ve convinced Crew to come help build booths for the day. He’s standing outside through the open doors, and I’m a tad distracted watching him work the hammer. With every swing, those muscles I know all too well contract and flex. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t caught almost every other woman in here noticing it either.

Crew glances up, and his eyes meet mine. The look he gives me and the flash of his lightning-quick grin has that slow fire we’ve had on simmer start to burn.