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She looked up and met our gazes, her hands also tied behind her back.
"Oh, my God," she whispered. "He got both of you."
"Yes," I said. "He went all the way to Carmel to get Dani."
Rachel stared at us, a look of pain and sorrow in her dark-blue, violet eyes. "I'm so sorry, girls. I never wanted this to happen."
"What is happening exactly?" I asked.
Before she could reply, the door opened again, and a different man walked into the room. He wore black jeans and a gray sweater, and his brown hair and eyes were very familiar. I gasped in surprise once more.
"You?" I asked, shocked at the man facing me. "Mark Harrison? My mom's boyfriend? You kidnapped us?"
"That would have been one of my associates," he said smoothly.
"His name isn't Mark Harrison," Rachel said, a fiery anger in her eyes. "It's Max Davino, and he is not your mother's boyfriend. He's a criminal. He's a murderer."
My stomach clenched. I'd thought Mark was a nice, older man who had a crush on my mom, but he looked far from that now. The façade he'd shown me before was gone. He looked younger, sharper-edged, and ruthless.
"Look who's talking," he said to Rachel, his tone laced with anger. "You're right where you belong—on your knees."
Rachel immediately sprang to her feet. "Never," she said defiantly.
He slapped her hard across the face, her head snapping back, the horrifying sound echoing throughout the room.
Dani cried out in alarm.
"Stop," I said, as he looked like he was going to hit her again, if for no other reason than to destroy the defiant expression on her face. "What do you want? Why are you doing this?"
His hard gaze swung to me. "To get what's mine," he replied. "I have to admit you were a surprise. I couldn't believe it when I saw you at the school. I had no idea there were daughters—twin daughters. But I soon realized I could use that to my advantage." His gaze swung back to Rachel, whose left cheek was burning red from the imprint of his hand. "Did you think I'd forgotten about you? Or your sister?" he asked.
"No," she said coldly. "I just didn't think you'd find us. But then, Laura had to go and be a hero."
"Laura—nice name," he drawled. "What are you calling yourself now?"
"What does it matter?" she challenged.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you betrayed me, not just once, but twice. You stole from me. You put me in prison."
"You put yourself there," Rachel said sharply.
"I'm not stupid. I know you were behind the setup. You thought you won, but you didn't. I've been waiting a long time for this moment. You will pay for what you did to me. The question is—who else is going to pay? Your sister? Your nieces?" He pulled a gun from the back of his waistband. "I want it all back. And you know exactly where it is. So, tell me."
"It's gone," Rachel said defiantly. "We got rid of it years ago. We sold everything and gave the money to charity. There's nothing left."
"You're lying. You've lied about everything from the first day we met. You said you were an only child. You said you wanted in on my business. You said I could trust you. You said you loved me."
I was shocked by his words and by the anger and betrayal I saw in his eyes. This was about more than just stolen jewels.
"That was before I knew you were part of a crime family," Rachel said. "That was before I saw you shoot someone in the head without a second thought."
"That was your fault. You were supposed to make sure security had left. You fucked up."
"The guard wasn't supposed to be there," Rachel said defensively. "But you didn't have to kill him."
"And you didn't have to run away with my bag, but you did."
I realized they were talking about the robbery now, about killing Kade's father. Clearly, Max had pulled the trigger. At least I knew my mother wasn't guilty of that.
