Heartless Lover (Dark Syndicate 5)

I know that too, and it makes me feel even more guilty than I already do.

I place my hand to my heart as my pulse leaps. “What about her? What will happen to her?”

“Your father will be notified of her death, and they’ll make arrangements to release her body to him. Of course, they’ll tell him you died.”

“Oh, God.” My whole being trembles.

Dad…

This will break him because he’ll be the first to figure out that Scarlett is the one who died, not me. The moment he sees her tattoo, he’ll know. He might not even need to see it to know. He was the only person who was never fooled when we used to swap places in our younger years.

When he figures it out, I don’t know what will happen. The moment he does, he won’t believe the suicide story either. Not because he doesn’t think I have reasons to do it, but because that will make everything else suspicious as fuck.

With the bad relationship I have with my father, the last thing I want to do is add more to his list of reasons to hate me. He blamed me for Mom’s death.

Back then, he was wrong. This time will be different.

“You need to leave tonight, Mon Cherie,” he points out. “You have to leave tonight. These are mafia men who are way above me. I have no doubt they will figure out what really happened at some point. When they do, you don’t want to be around.”

I believe him. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I can have everything ready for you to head back to the States. You need to get as far away from here as possible.”

“When I get there, I have to hide. It’s going to be risky for me there too.” This isn’t the case of me and Scarlett swapping places. Besides, I would never dream of doing something like that. “Marquees, I can’t just go back and pretend to be her. Doing so could put people in danger if Jake and Micah come after me.”

He nods. “I know.”

“So, if I’m hiding, what happens when people realize Scarlett is missing?”

I know she has five weeks off before she has to go back to work. Normally we speak a few times a week, but she’s been working so hard the most we could manage for the last few months is a message here and there. It’s been like that for the last five months because she wanted the lead role.

Nick was adamant in not giving a definite to any of the three women he’d placed on trial until the close of rehearsals. There’s a week’s refresher before the play begins. When Scarlett doesn’t turn up, that’s when people will start wondering where she is.

“We can’t worry about that,” Marquees replies with an exasperated sigh. “The worst thing that could happen now is Jake or Micah figuring out that you’re still alive and still here.”

“I’m scared,” I mutter.

Marquees sets his hands on my shoulders, and I gaze into his kind gray eyes, searching the hard lines of his face.

“I know. But we need to act fast. This is hard for me as a cop. I have to wait it out until I can do something. But you can do something now by getting yourself to safety. Don’t let your sister die in vain, Summer.”

His words bore into me.

I look back to her, stare for a few moments to commit this last image of her to my mind, then return my gaze to Marquees.

I nod and accept this grief and doom, which will follow me for the rest of my life.

Nowhere is safe. It never has been for me, and never will be.