Page 110 of Hide Little Traitor

The concrete fence that surrounds the property is too high to jump on a good day, but after two weeks of beatings and torture, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

And even if by some miracle he did get over to the other side, there’re miles of nothing but gators on this side of the property. We’d catch him and drag him back before he had a chance to breathe freedom.

Dad and Neil cross the lawn, their eyes locking on the man at our feet.

Pete here got a little greedy at the club he manages for the family and started skimming from the tills. It took us a while to figure it out, longer than it should have if I’m honest, but he’s about to pay the ultimate price for his betrayal.

“Wake him up,” Dad demands.

Ronan slaps his face a couple of times, dragging a groan from the man’s chest. He tries to roll over, but his bindings don’t let him get far.

His body stills when he remembers where he is and what has happened to him over the last couple of weeks, his eyes darting between Ronan and me like either of us can do anything to save him.

If that were an option, we would save ourselves from this life.

“Please, I’m sorry. I can give you back the money,” he pleads.

I sigh, dropping into a crouch beside my brother. “If that were the case, you wouldn’t have stolen from us. Only desperate men are stupid enough to steal from the Lombardis.”

“No, you don’t understand! They paid me to do it! It wasn’t about the money for me! They blackmailed me. Told me they would kill my family if I didn’t do as they said. I didn’t have a choice.”

This is the same story he’s been trying to spin since he first woke up in the cellar, but I’m not buying it now any more than I was the first time I heard it.

“If someone was blackmailing you to steal from us, you should have told us, and we would have dealt with it. But instead, you betrayed us. You knew what would happen when we found out, and you did it anyway.”

“Who threatened you?” Dad asks, stepping into view of the man.

“I don’t know.” He trembles. “They never gave me a name. We only ever interacted over the phone, and the one time someone came to reinforce the threat, they wore a mask. Please, I’m begging you. I’d do anything to protect my family, and they gave me no other choice.”

For a moment I think he’s considering it, but then he pulls out his gun, his finger hovering on the trigger for a beat before unloading the clip into the man’s face.

Blood and God knows what else splash over mine and Ronan’s faces, but neither of us react. It’s not the first time we’ve been covered in brain matter, and I’m certain it won’t be the last.

“Clean this up, and then I want you to go through his financials and phone records with a fine-tooth comb.”

“We’ve already done that, and there was nothing out of the ordinary,” I tell him.

“It wasn’t a request, it was an order. If you talk back to me again, I can think of a pretty redhead that could use a beating.”

The threat is delivered just to the two of us, too low for Chloe’s father to hear it, but it has the desired effect.

He knows that Ronan will do anything to keep her safe, and he’s not above using her to get his way when it comes to my brother.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

RONAN

NOW

The words on the screen blur together as I follow a bouncing ball of nothing.

Corbin, who apparently works for Kingston, sent over some photos of the van that tracked us to the cabin, but no matter how hard I try to hunt down a serial number, there’s nothing. As if the fucking vehicle doesn’t exist.

I should have believed it when he told me the same thing, but I’m used to being the one that verifies this kind of thing, and I needed to see for myself.

It’s not like I have anything better to do.

With Chloe and Kingston holed up in the other room, the three of us are stuck in here with two beds and no possibility of sharing one without killing each other.