“Don’t.” The word came out more tired than angry… more like a plea than an order. “Don’t lie to me.”
A full thirty seconds of silence throbbed between them. And then her raw, ragged exhale hit his ears.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was thick and full of guilt.
Something inside of him unclenched. He started to breathe again.
“You’re here to meet Mitch?”
“No. No. Mitch doesn’t even know I was headed here.” She sounded exhausted now. Empty.
Tag reached up to switch on the overhead light and shifted in his seat to study her face. “Then why?”
Her chest lifted as she took a deep breath, and then went still. She held it for several seconds before letting out a noisy exhale. He recognized the gesture from back in the day. She was fortifying herself to tackle an unpleasant chore.
“I know you won’t believe me, but I am here to find Sean.”
She was right. He didn’t believe her. Scowling, he shook his head. “Sarah.”
“Just hear me out, okay?” She scooted around in her bucket seat until she was facing him. “I am here to find Sean. But not because he moved here. I don’t know where he is. I haven’t talked to him in two months. I’m here because that man who took me, who kidnapped me to make Mitch pay, he said Mitch took Sean to Dark Falls. He said Sean was here.” Her voice cracked.
Tag scrubbed a hand over his face as he mulled that over.
“Porter Hayes? He told you Sean and Mitch came here.” He watched Sarah’s throat tremble as she swallowed and nodded.
Her voice slumped to a choked whisper, and her gaze fell until she was staring at his chin. “I asked him if he knew Sean. He said Mitch killed him, or that Mitch’s buddies had.”
Tag went still, mulling the confession over. Could Sean have found out about Mitch’s illegal arms trafficking? If Mitch’s associates considered the kid a security risk, then yeah, they could have killed him.
But why would Sarah ask Hayes about the kid? Why would she question if he’d known her brother? Unless…
She’d known that Hayes was Mitch’s partner, was that brother of hers— “Is Sean one of Mitch’s business partners too?”
Hell, he wouldn’t put it past the little prick. Chasing his next fix had stolen whatever morality he’d had. He’d be ripe for the big money that came with arms dealing. Sarah might still be fixated on the sweet little brother she’d known, the one she’d raised since their parents had died. But the Sean she’d raised had disappeared before he’d hit eighteen.
A quick, jerky nod of Sarah’s head told him he was on the right track.
But damn—Sean’s involvement meant they were looking at a complete clusterfuck. Rio and NCIS were investigating Mitch now. That investigation was bound to leak out all over the place. If Sean was alive, he’d go down too. Hard.
Which would devastate Sarah.
That’s when another question hit him. Only this one stopped his heart for a second or two and squeezed all the air from his lungs.
Had Sarah known what her fiancé and brother had been up to?
Disbelief hurled through him.
Noooo.
Not a fucking chance. Sarah wouldn’t be complicit in something so inexcusable. She would have turned the bastards in. She would have stopped the weapons pipeline.
What she wouldn’t have done was sit back and let those guns sell, let those weapons be used on American soldiers.
Except…
Acid exploded in his gut.
This was Sean Gillespie, Sarah’s little brother, the little bro she’d proved, repeatedly, that she’d do anything for.
Did that include committing treason?
“Did you know what they were involved in, Sarah? Did you know they were running guns?”
The question exploded from him, as destructive as a bullet. It detonated in the cab, washing the color from her face.
For a fraction of a second her eyes touched his. They were so dark they looked black, and they were bleeding guilt.
She had. She’d known. Jesus Christ, she’d known.
He let the disbelief numb him. Block out all emotion, until only emptiness remained.
Turns out Mitch had done him a favor…
…he’d never really known her, not at all, not if she’d sat on something like that for Christ knew how long.
Chapter Thirteen
Sarah turned away from the revulsion on Brett’s face, the disgust burning in his blue eyes. She’d seen his eyes blaze with emotion before: with amusement, with hunger, with love. But never with such overwhelming contempt.
At least not directed at her.
Her breathing hitched, the swell of grief so strong it stole the life from her lungs. Whatever they’d