Sherrilyn Kenyon - Silent Truth

He lunged and caught her arm, yanking her against him.

She shoved her fist between them. “Don’t be stupid!”

“Been called a lot of things, babe, but not stupid. Especially since we both know they only promote someone with a genius IQ to lieutenant.”

She had no one to back her in a dispute, but he’d been right about her intelligence. She’d figure out a way to stop him from playing with her as if she were a puppet. Or a blow-up doll in his case. “Leave now or you’ll regret this.”

“Only thing I’ll regret is not having planned enough time to take you right here in the office.” He reached up and fondled her breast.

She stood perfectly still, not fighting him. “You should take care not to risk angering Fra Vestavia,” she warned.

“You wouldn’t dare say a word to Vestavia. You complain and he’ll yank you off the team and give you to me for sure. The Fratelli would suspect a woman of flaunting herself, even you.”

She didn’t say a word. Basil was right.

And he was going to be a problem whether the mission succeeded or failed.

Hunter left the limousine parked a quarter-mile from the address north of downtown Chicago. Abbie had jumped out, raring to go meet her brother. He hoped she could convince her brother to help her.

If not, Hunter had to find her somewhere safe to hide soon.

Things would turn ugly when he encountered BAD.

She wore a suede coat he’d picked up for her in Bloomington, where he’d changed into jeans and a black turtleneck pullover. The down vest he wore was all he needed with the late-afternoon temperatures hovering in the low fifties.

She surprised him by taking his hand when he reached for hers. They walked along at a quick pace, dodging a woman with a little white dog and another lady with a stroller. When Hunter located her brother’s six-story building, Abbie used the phone on the wall next to the entrance to his apartment to call him so he could key the security code to unlock the door.

Hunter kept an eye on the area, but nothing out of the ordinary moved around the quiet neighborhood.

“Hi, it’s me.” Abbie listened and raised her head to face a security camera, then nodded at Hunter and said, “He’s a friend of mine and he’s healthy, too.”

She frowned, listened, and rubbed her head. She’d had a headache on the way back, but this seemed to be a new headache. “Uhm, let me find out.” She covered the phone and turned to Hunter. “He doesn’t want anyone else up there but me.”

“That’s a negative.” Hunter eyed the camera, not caring if the guy didn’t like what he saw.

“He’s sickly. I read in the file he’s a hemophiliac,” she explained. “I’m just going to go up for maybe ten minutes and come right back down.”

“Tell him I’ll stand outside the door.” That was more ground than Hunter would normally give.

She told her brother, then covered the phone again. “He said he has elderly residents nearby who get upset if anyone lingers in the hallway.”

“I’m not letting-”

She cut him off. “I know you’ve been holding off all day to turn me over to somebody and I do appreciate the trouble this is causing you. I have to talk to my brother now, because the minute you hand me off my mother’s dead if I don’t make this work. I can’t live with missing this chance for her. If you aren’t going to let me go up there to see my brother then just kill me now because I will fight everyone to the death who tries to stop me. I need ten, maybe fifteen minutes. If I’m not back down by then, come and get me.” She lowered her voice. “I know you can get inside this building.”

He wanted to ask her to trust him to know what was best, but she’d throw back in his face that he didn’t trust her. The longer they stood outside, the higher their chance of being seen, especially if Gotthard had found the time to search Abbie’s file further and find the connection to her brother. “Okay, you go up, but do not go anywhere except up there and don’t leave his apartment unless I’m outside the door when he opens it.”

“You think I’ll run the minute I get up there?”

“No, Abbie. I know you’re going to try to convince your brother to go to the medical center right now. If you manage to do that, I don’t want you to leave with him because you think I’m going to hand you over to someone. Trust me when I say I’ll tell you before that happens.”

She didn’t say a word.

Hunter put a hand on her shoulder, wanting to keep her right here with him. “Stop looking at me as if I’ve treated you like that pig did. I just want you safe. I’m not turning my back on you. Dammit. If I could make it happen, I’d take you away with me somewhere I could spend hours showing you how much you do matter.”

Her bottom lip quivered. “You have the worst timing.”

“I know. I just need you to be careful… for me.” He kissed her and thought about shooting his finger at the damn camera, but he didn’t. He ended the kiss and whispered, “Hurry up and remember to wait for me to reach his floor before you leave. I’ll be standing within ten feet of his door in ten minutes or less.”

She looked torn in half, unsure what to do, but she said, “Thank you,” then spoke into the phone. “I’m coming up alone.”

The minute the door closed and she stepped onto the elevator, Hunter backed away and walked calmly to the end of the building, out of sight of the security camera. When he turned the corner, he ran.

Abbie stepped off the elevator, wrinkling her nose at the suffocating mildew smell. This building had appeared old downstairs, but not this dilapidated. Spiderwebs climbed the wall and trash littered the carpeted hallway.

Couldn’t her brother afford a better place? Especially with his illnesses?

She found his door ajar with a note stuck on it that read:

Come on in and walk to my library on your right. Walking strains my asthma.

She pushed the door open and squinted at the dark living room that smelled like the hallway, but a light shined from a room fifteen feet to her right. “It’s me, Abbie.”

When she’d taken two steps inside the living room, the front door shut as though kicked and someone strong grabbed her arms, twisting them behind her.

“What are you doing?” she yelled.

One hand held both her wrists. Cold fingers wrapped her neck. “Hello, sister.”

She tried to think past the slamming of her heart. “You’re scaring me.” Was her brother some kind of freak?

He didn’t say anything.

Why hadn’t she insisted on bringing up Hunter? “Who are you?”

“The only person who can save your mother.”

“She’s your mother, too.” Abbie’s words tripped over her tongue on shaky breaths.

“Details, details. I’m only interested in negotiating.”

“You know about her… that she’s sick? So you know who I am?”

“Of course I do, sister.”

She cringed at the sound of the word sister coming out in a taunting voice. “What do you want?”

He ran the back of his hand along her cheek and down across her breast.

Please don’t let him want that.

He whispered, “I’m going to let you choose.”

“Between what?”

“Who lives and who dies.”

Hunter needed tools, something he could use to activate the power-operated lock on the gate constructed of crisscrossed metal. Abbie’s brother had picked an apartment with decent security, but nothing really challenging… if Hunter had tools.