in his eyes—but he saw how others reacted to him. They liked him. They approved of him, and the truth is they wanted a change from our father’s rule. Anthony Bennett wouldn’t have it. He saw years into the future where Cord would’ve taken over the business. He would’ve had our father killed.” His eyes were so bleak. “That’s the way of our life. So he got rid of Cord first.”
He murdered my brother.
Brooke hadn’t been talking about her other brother. She’d meant her father.
I never thought of it, but… A father who could kill his own child? Or a mother? A flicker of rage began heating me inside.
I should’ve considered the father first. I had firsthand experience in that cruelty.
“I’m sorry. I thought—”
“I know what you thought,” he said, sounding tired. “A lot of people thought it. My father made the mistake of waiting before killing me. He didn’t see me as a threat because I was only sixteen years old.”
I knew what was coming.
A knot formed around that ball of fury inside me. It was all mixing together.
“I killed my father instead, and I paid off a family friend to be our guardian. I paid off the courts. I paid off everyone.”
He stared at me. I expected a wall to fall in place, but it didn’t. Though he wasn’t hiding himself, he wasn’t showing anything either. He was dead. That’s what I saw when I looked into his eyes. Death.
“I did it the most humane way, at least in my opinion,” he said. “I smothered him with a pillow one night, and he just stopped breathing. No one asked why we weren’t seeking vengeance. Everyone knew.”
“You had Brooke come home after that.”
He nodded, his gaze moving away from me.
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