had remained true to herself until she went missing.
I felt Carol and Blade waiting for me to talk. Lowering my head, like I’d done all those years ago, I started to explain. “For a year and a half of my life, before everything went to shit, Brooke was my best friend.”
• • •
It was two-fifteen in the morning, and I stared at my roommates.
They were curled up in blankets, sleeping in the living room. Blade had taken the chair, his long legs resting on the coffee table. Carol was twisted in her blanket on the couch across from me. A dribble of drool glistened on her chin, and her hair had fallen over her face.
They’d sat and listened to me as I told them everything.
What I’d said wasn’t a total revelation. Blade knew I knew Brooke Bennett. They just hadn’t known how much I cared for her or how much I loathed her brother. I’d told them about the day her brother and father came to see her.
I’d told them how Brooke’s father took her into the park, how she didn’t want to go with him.
How they’d talked.
How Kai Bennett had stared at me as we both waited, his eyes lifeless and cold.
I told them how I’d been scared to move, to look at him, to make a sound. I’d felt the same fury and violence from him that I’d seen from my father, and it had almost made me piss myself.
And then I told them how as I stood there, I’d heard Brooke cry out.
She’d folded to the ground, sobbing, as her father stood over her.
He’d just watched—watched as his little girl, his only girl, fell apart in front of him, and he hadn’t made a move to comfort her.
I’d moved to try to go to her, but Kai had blocked me.
“She’s fine,” he’d said, like I was trying to bat a mosquito.
I’d hated both him and his father with the same passion in that moment. Unable to hold my anger back, I’d glared at Kai.
He hadn’t cared. He hadn’t even batted an eye. He’d just stared back at me, unblinking, no reaction.
When his father came back, Kai had turned to follow him.
They were both silent as they returned to the car, and almost without a pause, both got back inside.
But there had been a small pause, because that was the only time I saw her brother hesitate.
The guard had opened their father’s door, and Bennett Sr. got inside. The door shut right away, and that guard returned to the third SUV. But Kai stood there a second, just a split second.
His gaze went to his sister, who was still crumbled in a mess on the ground.
She rocked herself, her sobs shattering me. It was the sound of true agony, as if someone had torn her soul from her heart, and he’d stared at her. One blink. His face had shuddered. Then his father had called him from inside the car, and the emotion was gone. Anything he’d felt had vanished. His face was devoid of all emotion as he’d sat inside.
The door closed.
His guard returned to his seat in this third SUV, and at once, all of the remaining guards returned to their vehicles.
There was a second’s pause before the caravan moved forward.
One by one, the four SUVs had left, and as soon as they were gone, I’d sprinted for Brooke. My heart was in my throat as I slid to my knees beside her, wrapped my arms around her.
Her hand had fisted my shirt as she spoke. “He said—he said. Ka—he killed my brother.”
Kai had killed him.
CHAPTER FOUR
There was a creak from the floorboards outside my door, and I looked up.
It’d been two days, but Blade still had concern in his eyes. Not that I could blame him.
This wasn’t me. Not usually. Not anymore.
I’d been in a stupor since the news broke about Brooke being missing. There’d been no new reports, just speculation that it had something to do with the Bennett family. I knew that family was big news, but they resided up in Vancouver—Canada, where we were. Still, when news broke about Brooke, Blade monitored the stations in the States, which had learned who exactly Brooke was related to. Images of Kai Bennett, along with Tanner and Jonah, flooded the networks. It was the biggest news story down there, though the local news channels around here were more subdued. They were aware of how the Bennett family worked. If they said anything too outlandish or