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The truth.
We drop Harper off at the dorms and Sander goes with us to the cabin, where his car is parked. He leaves pretty soon after we get there. I’m pretty sure his girlfriend, Phoenix, is pretty freaked out about everything that happened today. I can’t blame her—I’d be freaked out if Hunter went through that without me. Not that Hunter is my boyfriend, not even close.
Hunter has some explaining to do—first, I need to know why he’s been acting so shady lately. And second, I need to know why somebody chased me through the mall with a gun. I thought I was taken off the hitman list.
Clearly, I was mistaken.
I sit down on the couch beside Hunter, who has taken a sudden interest in his phone. I glance at his screen to see that it’s black. He’s not even looking at anything. He’s just procrastinating whatever he’s about to tell me.
I put a hand over his phone, trying to get his attention. He hesitantly glances up.
“Ready to talk?” I ask.
He sighs. “Not really.”
“That bad?” I chew on the side of my lip anxiously.
He nods. “Maybe even worse than bad.”
I suck in a sharp breath at his admission, my heart racing. “Tell me, Hunter. I need to know.”
His eyes meet mine and he licks his lips. “Trouble, it’s not good.”
“Not good?” I ask, hoping he continues.
He doesn’t say anything.
I clear my throat. “Maybe… is my name back on the hitman websites?”
“Yes,” he nods slowly. “But there is more.”
“More?” I rub a hand at the base of my throat. Whatever he’s about to say is not good.
What could possibly beworsethan my name being back on the hitman database?
He takes a deep breath, grabbing onto my hand. “Cove, this is probably going to be hard to hear. It’s not the fact that your name is back up on the website that has me worried. It’s the fact that the price of your hit has increased from half a million dollars to one million dollars.”
My ears begin to ring at his confession.
Surely I misunderstood him, right?
“Who would pay a million dollars to kill me?” I shake my head back and forth. “It’s… weird, right? I’m nobody. I’m just Cove.”
He squeezes my hand. “I don’t know why anybody would want to kill you, but that’s what I’m trying to figure out. My team and I are working hard to find out who put out the hit. We’ve been looking into everybody in your family, but so far, everybody is pretty clean, at least when it comes to you. Your stepdad has some shady business deals, but we’re not here to bust him.”
Wouldn’t that be something—if William Bradbury the Third got busted for his shady business deals? It would be the scandal of the century.
“If he’s doing something bad, he probably should be busted,” I say.
Hunter grins. “I thought you’d say that. And he will pay, but not until you graduate from high school. Whatever happens to him now affects you. After you’ve graduated high school, there might be a letter sent to the FBI about him with a lot of proof.”
I laugh but abruptly stop.
Sure, I’m happy that my stepfather is going to have to pay for his crimes, but how can I laugh after what Hunter told me?
“Somebody wants me deadreallybad.” Tears press against the back of my eyes as I say it.
Half a million dollars was bad enough, but upping the price? It makes my chest ache.
