Jonah Bennett (Bennett Mafia)

I could possibly be screwed here. That seemed a high probability.

At this point, I was giving it up to the universe where I should go. So I kept going.

I went through another batch of hallways and turned left. After a bit, I came to a bedroom.

Another bedroom.

I got a glimpse of the middle atrium.

I kept on going.

I was going past rooms I didn’t remember seeing before, but I was on the other side of the middle green area, so that made sense.

A gym.

An indoor pool.

Another courtyard, but this one was inside. It looked like it was outside, but it wasn’t.

I kept on, coming to another set of doors.

I opened them and heard voices, and I froze because one of them was female.

“You never told me about Melissa!”

I careened to a halt as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Whoever she was, she was furious.

“I learned this morning that she died nine months ago! My little brother’s fiancée was murdered in front of him,” she rasped out in a screech. “Kai and Tanner were there. They fucking swooped in to save you, and you asked them not to tell me! It’s me, Jonah! Me! What were you thin—”

“I was thinking I didn’t want you to worry about me!”

I nearly fell over, hearing that. My mind returned to that day. I’d seen the torment, but hearing it again, it tore through me, leaving scars in its path.

“Jonah.” A deep sob sounded from her.

I didn’t want to hear this, but I couldn’t make myself leave. I had to hear, but it was going to make me bleed on the inside.

“Brooke,” he said quietly, and I recognized that voice. He’d used it with me just a few hours ago.

Pain laced through me, spreading out, inching and weaving around all of my veins.

“You’d just had Millie,” he continued. “I didn’t want you to deal with—”

“Deal?” Another choke from her. “Do you not know how much I love you? How much I adore you? You’re my little brother. You’re mine to watch over. Mine. Kai takes care of all of us. Tanner, he does what he does, but you—I got you growing up. You and I were both shipped off. You and I are both different, but you and I—it was us. I never felt more part of the family than when I was with you. I’m the only girl. You’re nice. You should understand me.”

I blinked away tears.

“You’d just had Millie,” he said again. “I know what you would’ve done. You would’ve packed up your newborn and flown straight to me. You would’ve tried to take care of me, your husband, and your newborn. I didn’t want you to be at risk, or her to be at risk.”

“Jonah.”

“You had an at-risk pregnancy and birth. Yes, I wanted my sister with me, but I’m a doctor in my heart. You needed to be taken care of, and not knowing about me was what you needed. I’d do it again.”

I could hear her sobbing.

“Brooke.”

A hand covered my mouth, and I felt myself yanked backwards—back through the door I’d just gone through, past the inside courtyard, past the pool, and into the gym.

The door shut behind us, and we were encased in four walls of mirrors—or mirrored glass, at least. I was able to see through them to the outside. The blond brother shoved me farther into the room and released me, blocking my way out with a smirk on his face.

“Aren’t you the sneaky little eavesdropper?” he said. “You’re supposed to be secured nice and tight in the lock room.”

I opened my mouth, ready to deliver some explanation, when I comprehended his words.

The lock room.

That’s what we’d been in?

Not all the bedrooms were the same?

I felt hot all over, and I knew my face was red, because that’s how I rolled, being a redhead. “Lock room?” I asked.

But of course. That made sense. The coded lock. I closed my eyes, bracing myself. “Is that where you put all your captives?”

He snorted. “No. Most of us use trusty guards to keep ours in. Consider yourself insulted that Jonah didn’t want to use guards for you, but then again, maybe he’d been thinking it through. We have security footage for that room.”

I rocked backward. My voice dropped to a whisper. “What?”

Security footage?!

Chapter Twenty-Three

JONAH

I hadn’t seen any guards in the house. That should’ve been my first clue, but I’d taken two steps into the kitchen when my sister pounced. She hadn’t explained anything, just started in. I’d been quiet for a while, letting her get this out of her system. I owed her this, at least, but after a few minutes, I’d started pushing back.

We were now in our third round of Brooke being angry that I’d kept Melissa’s death from her, and I couldn’t handle hearing about it again. When she stepped forward, waving her glass of wine in the air, I caught her wrist before she flung it on the floor.