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“Let me worry about that.” I grabbed Liam’s keys off the hook. “Let’s go.”
“We’re leaving now? Are we stopping to talk to Bane and Sunny on the way?” He asked, tone dry. “You did just berate me for keeping secrets.”
“From me,” I finished. “Never keep secrets from me. You can tell those assholes what you want. From the car. On the way to Astoria. Now.”
I slammed out the door, chuckling at whatever Liam muttered under his breath, though I didn’t hear it.
The ride to Astoria was fast, because I broke the speed limit the whole way. The gift of a Hunt is seeing the measure of a man in an instant. Well, I had the measure of the Brotherhood. They used their own people as pawns. Relied on every underhanded tactic that existed. And saw innocent people as collateral.
I gave Kenzie two weeks because getting rid of those trackers gave us a reprieve. We had a window to relax while the Brotherhood scrambled to find another method of taking us out. But two weeks was still an arbitrary number. They could have a new strategy in a month or a day.
All I had was the nagging feeling those bastards knew too much about my weaknesses. Sooner rather than later, they’d use that leverage to their advantage.
I squealed into Liam’s parking space, killing the engine. “Is someone else here?” I asked.
“Blake and Henry.”
Liam let us inside. The aforementioned Blake and Henry stood on either side of the door leading to the underground storage room. They were two silent sentinels.
It was creepy.
“Boss,” Blake said, inclining his head. “She’s down there waiting for you.”
“She? Who’s down there?”
“Miss Blaine,” Henry said.
“Kenzie?” Liam rushed the door. “You left her down there alone!”
“She ordered us to give her privacy,” Blake called after us.
We thundered down the stairs—my annoyance and respect for her growing with each step. Kenzie knew this place was my first stop, so she beat us here to keep me from putting a hand on the slug. The woman has her priorities out of whack, but she doesn’t let anyone run over her. My kind of girl.
We tripped off the last step, startling Kenzie. She whirled away from Vito, lips parting and nothing coming out.
“Shit, Kenzie,” I cried. “I know you didn’t want me to torture the guy, but this is vindictive.”
“It’s not what you think!”
“Really?”
I took in Vito’s huge, unstaring eyes. They leered at me for the last time as rivers of red gushed from his neck—coating the shears sticking out of his jugular. The same blood covered Kenzie’s hands, top, and cheek.
“It looks like you killed Vito.”
KENZIE
“I didn’t kill him,” I half screamed. My heart pounded so loud in my ear, I couldn’t hear them or myself. I couldn’t think! “It wasn’t me.”
Liam slowly approached. “You’re the only one here, Mackenzie.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m having a nervous breakdown. I didn’t kill him because he killed himself,” I cried. “He grabbed the shears and plunged them in his neck. I couldn’t stop him.”
Liam grabbed my flailing hands. Blood and all, he held them to his chest—pouring his calm into me. Or that’s what it felt like as I felt his steady, pounding heart beneath my palms.
“He did this to himself?” Genny repeated. I saw her feel for his pulse. “Why would he do that? And what were you doing here in the first place?”
“What were you?! I said I wasn’t going to let you torture him and I meant it. If I had to be here to stop you, then so be it.” Something occurred to me. “Hold on. Why are you here, Liam?” I broke away from him. “You brought Genny here after promising you’d let me handle this myself?”
“Mackenzie—”
Genny shoved between us. “Can we get some perspective here? Vito is dead. Who the fuck cares what I was or wasn’t going to do? None of that matters now. Just tell us what happened, Kenzie.”
I glared at her. It mattered quite a bit, but Genevieve was right. The dead body in the room took priority.
Sidestepping her, I inched in front of Vito—picturing the scene with nightmarish clarity. “I guess it was my fault,” I whispered, eyes stinging. “I came here to show him the news reports. I thought if he saw for himself that the Brotherhood was done with him now, he’d have no reason to continue protecting their secrets.
“Vito lost his mind. He shouted that I didn’t know what I’d done. I ruined everything, and Brother Abraham would never forgive him. He kept saying that over and over. Brother Abraham will kill me.”
“Who is Brother Abraham?” Genny turned me to face her. “Who is he, Kenzie?”
I shook myself. “I don’t know. I couldn’t get anything out of him after that. I’m telling you, it’s like seeing his name on the eight o’clock news broke him.”
