Jonah Bennett (Bennett Mafia)

I stepped away from him, ignoring the sudden quiet that came over the room.

There was a window, and though it was dark outside, I went to look through it.

I could see the lights in the trees. The guards. After that, it was just darkness.

I’d never had a hope of getting free. I saw it now. It was all hopeless.

“Cars—”

I spoke over Jonah, still turned toward the window, my back to them. “Who are you people?” I hadn’t wanted to think about it before, but I had to know. Jonah wasn’t an ally.

It was just me, me alone. I needed to know who I was dealing with.

“I’m a forensic technician,” I continued. “I’m a lab person. I do the tests, run the samples. I do the grunt work sometimes. I enjoy it. I like the science. I hate the death part, but I like everything else. It gives me purpose, but I was only one of the techies that worked on her.”

I’d been enamored with Jonah from the beginning. They saw how I reacted to him.

“For me to be here, they had to have seen the security feeds. It only makes sense. That’s the only indication of…” It was a bitter lump to swallow. “…how I was attracted to Jonah from the start. I told him about the ring, and the only people in the room were me, him, and Tanner.” I shook my head. “Tanner couldn’t have heard what I said. But the security camera would’ve. It was directly above us.”

They would’ve needed that footage. They’d used it to identify me, identify my sister, get me here. But why?

I turned, looking at Kai. “Why? Why this weekend?”

He didn’t speak.

“They know we’re close to him,” Tanner said.

Kai’s eyes flashed, and I almost stepped back, into the window, because of what I saw there.

Death. Anger.

I didn’t want to look at Jonah, see whatever he was thinking or feeling.

I’d heard enough.

He’d used me. Everything had been a lie. That’s all I needed to know.

“Carson.”

I turned back to the window, ignoring Jonah.

“Give her her phone,” Kai said. “You can take her home.”

I heard rustling behind me, and then Kai called my name from the door.

“You and your sister will be under observation for the week. It’s for your safety now, but do not alert her to their presence. You do, and I’ll have you and her brought back in.”

As warnings went, it was almost friendly, but as I nodded, I still felt the ominous threat there. They’d bring us in and then what?

I didn’t want to find out.

“Jonah, take her home.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

CARSON

The ride was quiet.

Jonah and I sat in the back of an Escalade. There were two guards in the front, and another vehicle following us. That was for Jonah’s safety.

Once I started recognizing the landmarks, seeing that they were taking me to my parents’ house, I asked, “Are you mafia?”

Jonah didn’t answer, not right away. We traveled a little farther before he turned to me.

“I’m a surgeon.”

“But that’s not what your family does.”

He didn’t answer me, and I saw that he wasn’t going to.

My parents lived out of town on a farm. The Escalade paused at the end of their driveway. It was a long one, half a mile, but if they’d turned in, the dogs would have woken everyone. Instead, all the vehicles pulled to the side of the road, and the headlights went off as they waited.

“Do you want us to drive you up to the house?” Jonah asked.

“No.” The house was dark. “They’re probably asleep.”

“Your parents are farmers?”

“My dad used to be, but he retired a while back. He rents the land now to other farmers.” I frowned. “Why are we here? I was staying in a hotel.”

“Tanner informed me that accommodations had been made for you, so your sister wouldn’t be alarmed.”

A chill went down my spine. That did not sound good. “What do you mean accommodations?”

“Your sister got a call, which she thought was from you, from your phone, telling her you’d be home later. You’ve been checked out of the hotel, and your sister said she’d be here this evening. Kai wants you near your sister, since he has one team dispatched to watch you both.”

I hadn’t a clue how to react to that. I ground my teeth together. “And if for some reason my sister goes to town and I’m not with her?”

“Then the team will be split in half. They’ll be thinned out, so that wouldn’t be smart.”

He sounded like his brother right now, cold to me.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. “Right.”

I was starting to hate that her body had ever come to the morgue. She died and brought him into my life. If she hadn’t, none of this would’ve happened.

I wouldn’t have met him.

I was going down a dark path, but I couldn’t stop myself.