Answer the phone. It’s an associate of mine.
I know who that is in my contacts. She saved Harley when she was attacked while in hiding with my father. I have no idea who she has calling me, but I know not to ignore it.
“Yeah,” I bark into the phone.
“Hello, I’m Pen,” a female voice comes across the line. “I’m a friend of Persephone.”
“Look, I don’t have time to talk to you right now. I’m busy.”
“Let me guess, you’re trying to get Marnie back?”
Her words stop me.
“I was contracted by Marnie to monitor her. I messaged her the other day to let her know Silas and Ervin landed in Anchorage by private plane. Some idiot named Jim contacted them somehow. I don’t know how he connected the two, but he did.”
“If the fucker wasn’t dead already, I’d kill him with my bare hands myself. What do you know?”
“They rented a small house. I’m sending the coordinates to your phone now, along with floorplans and geographical maps. The purchasers for O have been contacted and are awaiting delivery, same with Marnie’s. Expected delivery is in two days.”
“I’m a short distance from their location. What else do you know?”
“Your hacker is good, but I have a line into the security footage for the premises. Sending it now. From the bakery footage before the explosion, Marnie was shot in the arm. I also have video of him knocking her out in the car. I don’t have a tracker on her, but I’m sure that’s where Silas took her. I have footage of him carrying her into the house. I’d hurry if I were you.”
“Thank you.”
“Just doing my job. When I told Persephone I couldn’t reach Marnie and she saw you on some of the footage, she suggested I contact you. Save her and send those assholes to hell. I’d come up there and take care of them myself or send an associate, but we wouldn’t make it on time. I’ve also secured Marnie as the legal heir to the money. She’ll be set for life. Her father is completely broke now. I’ve been syphoning money out of his accounts for months and moving it into an offshore one for Marnie. It’s what her mother would have wanted.”
“Again, thank you, but I can take care of my old lady myself.”
“Good. I’ll message if I come up with anything else.”
My phone starts pinging, and I hand it to Vortex. “We have help from some friends of mine. Here.”
He looks over everything, and between him and Miner, they come up with a plan.
We head farther up the road into a more remote area. Before reaching the property, we pull over at a park a short distance away and approach on foot. The trees and brush are thicker here, but there’s less traffic. We don’t want to give away our presence.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
MARNIE
As Silas carries me into a house, I start to wake up, but I don’t let him know. He lays me onto a bed and leans over me. His hand brushes my hair from my face.
“Oh, little Mimi, I’m going to punish you and kill that backwoods fucker for touching you.” He leans over me, and I force back the cringe as he kisses my forehead. He grips my property vest and releases a scoff in disgust.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but I’m going to stop this now.
My hand flexes on the knife in my pocket. While he’s distracted staring at me, I move fast. I bring the knife up and thrust it into his neck. He rears back and tries to yank it free, but I keep my hold on it, and it shifts. Blood bathes my body as I jerk the knife out of his flesh. Crimson arches through the air, and he slaps a hand against the wound, trying to stop it.
I rise from the bed, dripping in his blood. I kick him and lean over his body as he falls to the floor, silently bleeding out from his carotid artery. I open his jacket and pull out his gun.
“That’s for everything you did to me throughout my life. I’m not Mimi. I told you I’m Marnie.”
Taking in my surroundings, I see I’m in a bedroom, and I hear my father out in the living room.
“Silas, that’s enough,” he calls out. “I know I promised her to you, but after you killed Claire, I can’t let you have Mariah too. Come out here so we can discuss this.”
