text from my brother. Problem’s handled. But Vance had lied. The problem hadn’t been handled. Kyle Abernathy was still alive.
Luna turned in his seat to look at me. “Because?”
“I’m the one who beat the fuck out of him at that party,” I admitted. “I killed his assistant.”
“Jesucristo.” Luna leaned back in his seat. “Do I want to know why?”
Pick a reason. “Abernathy was a predator. His assistant was worse.” I was out of my mind. “Abernathy got Sanaa to sign a contract, then told me he was going to ‘break her in’ before his assistant said they were going to pass her around the Trinity executives so they could all get a taste of her. She was seventeen. She was my girlfriend. I was deploying the next morning. In a rage, I threw my elbow into the assistant’s face before going after Abernathy. Killing the assistant wasn’t intentional.”
“Dios mio,” Luna muttered. “And you’re just now telling me this?”
I didn’t answer. There was no point.
Luna scrubbed a hand over his face. “How come you weren’t charged?”
“Vance. He said he’d handled it.” I’d stupidly taken him at his word.
Luna muttered another curse in Spanish. “Fucking pedophile should’ve been taken out, but you’re telling me that ten years ago, Vance handled covering up all of that on his own?” he asked skeptically.
I watched two vehicles pull in that could be potential threats. Everything was a fucking threat now. The first car pulled into a space, and the second drove to the bank of elevators. A woman wearing a straw hat got out of the back seat, and the car took off.
I looked at Luna. “Vance was the one renting that house.”
Exhaling, Luna scrubbed a hand over his face. “Madre de Dios.”
Vance walked into the suite with a strained smile. “You rang, love?”
I glanced at the time on my cell.
Twenty-two minutes left.
“We don’t have much time. Ronan’s going to be here in twenty minutes.” He used to always be early when we were younger. I was betting that hadn’t changed.
Vance frowned. “I don’t think now’s the time to—”
“I’m not talking about that.” I waved my hand dismissively through the air. I’d already decided I was done sparring with him. As much as I loved the release and the feeling of barely harnessed control, I would have to find some sort of normal exercise like a sane person. Like a stupid treadmill. Or something.
Vance’s phone rang, and he pulled it out to glance at the screen. His frown deepened.
“I think Ronan knows it’s Abernathy,” I blurted. “We have to find him now. Before Ronan does.”
Vance looked up. “We don’t even know for sure if it’s him.”
“Who else could it be? We banked this whole trip on it being him. It makes sense.”
Inhaling, Vance let it out slow. Then his placating tone came out. “Sanaa. We suspect it’s him. We tracked his movements up until Venezuela five months ago. It’s a known hotspot for plastic surgery, and we’re making all the right assumptions, but no one on the tour has a passport with a Venezuelan stamp in the past five months, and we’re coming up empty everywhere else.”
“But you yourself said we didn’t check all the cleaning crews at the venues or vendors, or local staff at every stop on the tour. Just because we couldn’t find a passport coinciding with where we think he was, doesn’t mean it isn’t him.”
The lines by his mouth going tight, he gave me his fake patience. “I understand that, love. But give this plan a little more time to work. We set the bait, we already got another note, this is working.” He stepped toward me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Be patient.”
I wasn’t patient. “We need to get to him.”
“That’s been the plan all along.” His expression turned lethal. “Draw him out, take him out.”
“If Ronan sees him, he’ll kill him.” Then he’ll have killed two men to protect me. Where would it end?
Vance’s face shut down. “If I see him, I’m going to kill him.”
“That’s different,” I stupidly admitted.
Dropping the pretense, Vance snorted. “Right.” Turning away, he looked back down at his cell phone.
“Don’t be like that. You know what I mean.” I didn’t even know what I meant. Was it okay for Ronan’s twin brother to kill in the name of protecting me, but not Ronan when he’d already done exactly that?
Vance’s persona slid easily back into place. “Sorry, love, don’t think I do.” His thumbs flew across his screen as he sent a