“Sam Morris.” I state the name, suddenly seeing everything fucking different. “What did he do to you?” A protective pulse thrums in my chest when she won’t look at me, even if she lied. Even if she’s the biggest fucking liar I’ve ever met.
“He wasn’tthatbad,” Jenna frowns. “He called me a bitch once. Cade heard it, and that was it, I guess. I thought it was an accident. He told me today that it wasn’t.” She lets out a dry laugh, shaking her head. “I should’ve known, honestly. I really should’ve. I was in denial. He’s not okay.” She brings her gaze to mine. “I was obsessed with finding him. I couldn’t reconcile it in my brain, Cal.”
“Your brother has to want to get better,” I say, putting my gun back in my belt and crossing the room to her. I can’t fucking take it. I kneel down beside her, the storm in her eyes no longer a goddamn mystery. “You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, Jen.”
Fresh tears slip down her cheeks. “I hate what happened to him.”
“Me, too,” I place my hands on her knees, and then my gaze flick upwards, catching a hint of purple around the base of her neck.
What the fuck is that?
I narrow my gaze at it, and she seems to follow, her hand flying up to the spot. “What is that, Jenna? What happened? That wasn’t there last night.” It’s fucking stupid, but I still care. Evenmorenow than before.
“I found Cade,” Jenna’s tears suddenly stop. “He was in the middle of one of those strange manic stents. They don’t happen often, and I’ve only seen it once before today.”
My jaw tenses, anger burning in my chest. “He touched you.”
She frowns. “Yeah. He didn’t know it was me.”
“No fucking excuses.” I stand to my feet.
“They’re going to catch him,” Jenna says, her voice blank, “And then they’re going to give him the death penalty.”
“No,” I correct her. “I can’t let that happen. It’ll ruin my entire operation.”
“Operation?”
“Yeah,” I meet her gaze. “I can’t afford to lose my contracts.
Confusion fills her face. “With construction?”
“With killing people. Bad people, mostly, though I quit keeping a record of who was deserving of what they got.”
Jenna purses her lips together, as if she’s processing what I just said. If it bothers her, she doesn’t say it. Instead, she gestures toward the living room. “So, what do we do with him?”
I take a long, deep breath. “We fix it, Miss Kellan.”
She eyes me, and I see the hesitation there. “I… I’m sorry I lied.”
My gaze rakes over her, from her disheveled blonde hair to her sad blue eyes and her askew sweater and jeans. “Honestly, I like you better like this.” I can’t stop the soft smile on my face. “I was never really into the academic type.”
“I never finished my English degree,” she blurts out, as I pull out my phone and start making arrangements. “I worked as an account manager for mechanic shop near my mom’s place, and worried about Cade. I never invested in myself.”
“You should’ve,” I state. “You’re intelligent, and you had me fooled.”
“You knew something was off.”
“Yeah, but I’m a little paranoid,” I mumble.
I head back to the living room and kneel by Mark, two fingers at his carotid once more. Thready, but steady. I tip his head back, check his airway, ignore the wet, sticky spit pooling at his cheek. He’s only got head injuries.
So, we should be able to do this cleanly.
I do quick math in my head. Mark is six-one, maybe 180, but in his current state, dead weight. If the plan is to move him, to make this scene look like something else, I'm going to need leverage, or better, a second set of hands. I look at Jenna.
Her eyes are rimmed red, lips pinched. She’s had probably the worst day of her life. It’s hard to say, but now that I know who shereallyis, I know she’s exactly what I need her to be. And fuck, I just want her more.
Which is a good thing, because she’s about to witness a crime.
