if I broke things off with you and went back to him…agreed to marry him…that he’d protect Sean and the video would never see the light of day.”
He shook his head and shoved the window curtain aside to stare out into the dusky sky beyond. “So Mitch told you to jump and you said how high. All to protect your druggie of a brother.”
What she could see of his face was rock hard, no understanding there at all. But then she hadn’t expected anything less. “I only agreed so I could buy myself some time. Time to talk to Sean. To find out if the video was even true. It could have been digitally altered. It could have been fake. I wanted to find out as much as I could before going to the police.”
He swung away from the window to stare at her with flat, uncompromising eyes. “You should have come to me. Immediately. I would have got to the bottom of it.”
He was right. Sarah looked away.
“I know. But I wanted to talk to Sean first. But Sean…” She broke off to shake her head. “He admitted what I’d seen in the video was true. He begged me not to turn him in. Begged me to do what Mitch wanted. Said he’d figure a way out if I just played along with Mitch. That I just needed to be patient until he could get out and still protect us both.”
Brett shook his head. Pure contempt on his face. “So, he sold you to Mitch, to avoid prison.”
Sarah massaged her burning eyes, fighting back the tears.
“It was more than that. Sean was terrified. Truly terrified. It wasn’t just the prison sentence he’d face. The men he was mixed up with…they were dangerous. He said one wrong word and they’d kill him and then come after me. He said Mitch held both our lives in his hands.”
Brett frowned and sat back down in the desk chair. “You agreed to break it off with me and marry Mitch. So Sean wouldn’t be exposed, and Mitch would protect him?”
She took a deep breath and forced the rest of it out.
“Well that, but also because of you.” When he reeled back, shock touching his face, she flinched. “Mitch told me that you and he would be heading out together on rotation within the week, and that it would be damn easy to make sure that you didn’t make it back home.”
“What the fuck?” Brett jolted forward this time, the chair rocking wildly beneath him. “He threatened me?”
Sarah nodded. “He meant it too. He would have killed you without hesitation.”
“Fuck.” He rose to his feet and took another pass around the room. “I can’t believe you bought into that shit.”
A burst of anger went through her, heating her cold hands and feet and the icy pit in her belly. “Yes, I believed him. All it would take is one bullet, from a distance. A sniper shot when you weren’t expecting it. When you thought you were safe—like in camp, or something.”
“Sarah…” For the first time gentleness touched his face and voice. “I’m always expecting it.”
She scowled. “Not from a teammate.”
“Mitch was never my teammate. I knew that. No way in hell would he ever get the jump on me.”
“It wouldn’t have to be Mitch, he could have hired the hit out. He could have—”
“No.”
“Fine,” she snapped, slumping back in her chair. “It doesn’t matter now anyway.”
She took a deep breath and refocused. “But I wasn’t planning to go through with the wedding. I was sure I could figure a way out, one that would protect us all— me, you, and Sean. I hired a private investigator to look into Mitch. To find something I could use against him as leverage. But on paper, Mitch is squeaky clean, and the wedding date kept getting closer.”
Brett suddenly frowned and leaned forward again. “You called that first wedding off a couple weeks beforehand.”
“Yeah. I decided to call Mitch’s bluff. He was involved in the arms dealings too. So if he exposed Sean, it would expose himself as well. At least I hoped it would. I hoped Mitch would back off.”
“He must not have?” Brett shifted, the chair squeaking beneath him. “The wedding was back on a few weeks later.”
“At first it seemed like it had. But Mitch was out on rotation…far away. And then he came back. He showed up at my house and told me to call Sean. Only somebody else answered Sean’s phone, and they