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His eyes connect with mine and my heart stops beating. “Is… is everything okay?” I stammer.
“You recognize this?” Trent tips his head toward the iPad. “Ever seen this guy?”
I blink up at him, and swallow hard, feeling like I’ve turned to ice. For some reason, my eyes lock on the eggs cooking in the pan.Don’t burn the eggs; don’t burn the eggs.Like this tiny stupid thing matters at all. I reach for the stove, and shift the saucepan to a different burner. But as I do, Trent grabs my wrist. The force of his grip forces me back to reality.
“Answer the question, Kat.”
“I…” I look up at him, frozen and terrified.
His eyes flash; his jaw tightens and in his expression I know the time has come.
A thundering wave of guilt crashes over me. All of this, this moment, this fear, it’s all my fault.
All the what ifs flood through my mind. My face flames hot. My stomach turns sour and marshy.
Terror floods my mind, my body. I know this isn’t a game. I know this isn’t a nightmare. I can’t fight this alone and now they’ve come looking. Now they’ve put not just me in danger, but also Trent.
And I can’t stand that idea for one more second.
“Kat. What the fuck is going on?” Trent’s voice is stern, ferocious.
All three of them are silent, waiting for me to speak.
I look back up at Trent, and then glance at Edward and Luke.
“I know who it is.” My voice is soft, but clear and certain.
“Say the fucking words, Kitty Kat. Right now.” He squares off with me, jaw muscles flexing under two-day stubble. He balances between Daddy and sibling. Lover and protector.
My stomach turns. My mouth goes dry. But I force myself to tell him. Because he is my only hope. “That night, when Mom and Dad had their accident…”
Then the words start coming. Pouring out of me, like a torrent. Like a downpour. I tell them everything. About the accident. About Rominovski threatening me that night. It all rushes out of me like a dangerous river.
They all listen, eyes locked on me, and I don’t dare stop as the words and tears come tumbling together.
Finally, it is out. All of it. And once it is, I am stuck between sheer terror and total relief. Because the secret isn’t mine alone anymore. And now I’m not the only one in danger.
Edward mutters a growlyfuck.Luke gets back to furiously typing, presumably searching for the Mercedes’ plate.
Trent grabs his laptop and starts typing away. Strange-looking interfaces appear. Computer codes and keystroke commands. “Spell his fucking name, Kat.”
I swallow hard and spell it out.
As I say the lastiin Rominovski, the hauntingly familiar dark-eyed, angry face pops up on the screen and I nearly throw up from the shock of it. Trent doesn’t linger on the photo, but instead scrolls down to his rap sheet, and finally…
…. to his last known address.
I grab Trent’s huge forearm. “Please. You can’t. He’ll kill you, Trent. He’ll kill all of us.”
Trent levels me with a cold, icy, unflinching stare. And in those eyes, I see it finally.
The last few days have been such a tangle of emotions. But now, his eyes cut through the space between us, shaking something deep inside me.
The thunder in my heart isn’t just fear. It’s certainty.
Because now, I see it. I see what he really is.
He’s not just a soldier.
