insult me, Riley Bello. You don’t have a timid bone in your body. If you did…”
He started for me, and I couldn’t help myself. I raised my head, and I couldn’t look away.
“You wouldn’t be a Hider for the 411 Network,” he finished softly.
My worst nightmare.
He droned on, sounding almost bored, “You were recruited into their network when your father murdered your mother. Six months after I pulled Brooke from Hillcrest, they told you your mother was missing, but you knew. You knew what happened to her when you went home the next day.”
I was frozen.
“You went to her funeral. You sat beside your father, but you knew the whole time he’d killed her, because that’s what he did. He hurt her. It’s why you were sent away, so he wouldn’t hurt you too. Am I correct?”
I felt sick.
“Their recruiter agents approached you when you were shopping. It was the day after you’d buried your mother in an empty casket. You were at the mall with two of your friends, or two girls your father had deemed appropriate for you. You didn’t even know them, but they were daughters of his colleagues, and you didn’t like them. Am I correct?”
I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t stop listening. I couldn’t do anything as he stripped my world right in front of me.
He knew everything.
How did he—Brooke. Brooke must’ve told him.
He tossed back the rest of his drink. “That was the day you decided to leave, not because he killed your mother, and not because you knew you’d be next, but because they told you the real truth.” His eyes flashed at me, an unnamed emotion there. “Your mother was still alive.”
I couldn’t even swallow.
“How—” I managed to say. “How do you know this?”
“I’m not done, little girl.” A glint of cruelty gleamed at me from his eyes. “Your father did beat your mother,” he sneered. “He did believe he’d killed her. He did order her body to be disposed of, but it was a 411 agent he sent to do it. He believes your mother was thrown to the bottom of a cliff and her body swept out to sea, when instead, she was hidden by the 411 Network. And when they asked you to join them that day in the mall, you said yes so fast you never stopped to think what would happen to anyone you left behind.”
My gut twisted.
A flame flickered to life.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
He yawned—he goddamn yawned—and went over to the cupboard to pour himself a second glass of bourbon.
He spoke with his back turned to me. “You haven’t checked in with your father recently, have you?”
I narrowed my eyes. What was he talking about? Blade would’ve—
“Your friend Blade never told you…”
A knife plunged into my chest, hearing him say Blade’s name.
Kai turned back around, holding his glass in front of him. He leaned back against the wall, his eyes locked on mine. “…because he didn’t want you to leave your location, and he knew you would.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your mother had family.”
My aunt. My cousin. I had an uncle too.
I shook my head. “But they—”
They hated my father. They blamed him for her death. I knew they did.
“You had a cousin. Do you remember her? She’s your age, Brooke’s age.”
Tawnia. I didn’t know her that well. My mother had kept us away from her family, more for their safety than ours.
“No. What are you saying? My aunt hated my father.”
“She did. But she didn’t convey that adequately to your cousin.”
Was he…no. No.
I didn’t want to think about what Kai might be inferring. There was no way.
“My aunt would never allow that,” I hissed.
“Your aunt is dead.”
He said that in the same tone he’d used when he told me to leave Brooke alone.
“She’s fine.” “Your aunt is dead.” Both statements meant nothing to him.
“Fuck you.”
He shrugged. “Maybe later.” He drank from his glass. “I brought you here for two reasons. One, a trade. You tell me where my sister is, and I’ll help with your cousin.”
Fuck. Seriously. Fuck. He was serious.
“What exactly are you saying about my father and my cousin?” I eyed him warily.
He finished his drink and set the glass beside him on the counter. “Your cousin didn’t believe your father murdered his wife. She believes your father lost his wife because she ran from him. She believes his daughter was so distraught at being abandoned that you got drunk and caused the car accident that supposedly burned your body