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.
I moved closer to her, dropping my voice to a whisper. “It would be easier if they helped us.”
“No!” she hissed. “The less people who know, the better. I know I’m putting you in a bad place, but this is what you do. I’m so sorry.” Her hand found mine, still a little cold and clammy. “Please help me.”
6:00 am
My phone started buzzing.
Brooke glanced over from the passenger side of the truck. “Is that your roommates?”
I silenced it, then moved and pressed a pre-programmed message back before turning it off. “Yeah. They’ll just think I went to the gym. I have a few hours before telling them I decided to stay for a slow swim or an hour massage. It’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?” She was so twitchy. The panic never left her.
I nodded. “I’m sure.”
She breathed easier and nodded, her head drooping. “Good. Thank God.”
She had told me she was running from her brother.
She had told me we needed to go somewhere with a train station.
She had told me even I couldn’t know where she’d end up.
She had told me the private detective she’d hired to find me only told her.
She had told me that same PI was killed the day before in a car accident.
She had told me that car accident, which might not have been an accident, had nothing to do with me.
She had told me all that to reassure me I was still safe.
At six-thirty that morning, I’d helped her disappear, while she’d lied to me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Present day
Cool hands touched the inside of my wrist.
I opened my eyes, lifting my head.
Jonah sat on the side of my bed, two fingers curved around my wrist while he gazed at his watch.
The rest of the night flooded back to me.
Kai had spoken the truth. He had broken me. The thought of giving up Brooke, telling him what I knew, was too much. So I went back to my training, and what happened next would give me nightmares for a long time.
It wasn’t anything physical. It was emotional. I could see Kai, see Tanner and Jonah when they came into the room, but I was lost in the back of my mind. A different force was in charge of my body, and the only thing I could think about was not giving up my assignment.