“What do you mean, dead?”
“As in, no longer alive.” His words are completely deadpan.
“I know what fucking dead means. I mean, what the hell happened?”
“We were parked across the street the whole time. No one went in through the front door, but when we went in to check on him like you asked, it seemed like someone got in through the back. From the state of him, the guy didn’t stand a chance.”
“And Mila?”
I ignore Ciara’s panicked expression at the mention of her friend’s name.
“Gone. Dante called to say her place is empty, but there was no sign of a struggle.”
Fuck.
This can’t be a coincidence that the person closest toCiara is missing and the last person she was seen with, other than me, is now lying dead in his apartment.
It looks like I’m not the only one keeping tabs on my wife.
“Keep me updated.” I hang up the call.
Ciara pulls the tie off her wrists and hurries to get dressed.
My chest tightens as I look at her, my previous rage morphing into a gut-wrenching guilt that feels like it’s eating me alive.
She stops to stare at me. “What is it?”
My pulse thunders in my ears. “Max is dead.”
She blinks at me, but then she must read the truth on my face as the soft pink blush that still coats her cheeks from her climax instantly fades.
“W-what? H-how?” Her green eyes widen with horror. “That’s not possible. I was just with him. He was… he wasfine.”
“And Mila’s missing,” I add before I lose my nerve and shield Ciara from this truth.
She looks like she’s about to throw up.
“I had my guys keeping an eye on her, just in case. But she’s gone.”
Ciara staggers backward until the backs of her thighs hit the desk, and she collapses onto it, staring at the floor.
I take a seat beside her and draw her against my side, praying she can’t sense the guilt radiating from me.
I don’t tell her I was the last one to see Max alive. That I left him bloodied and broken and completely vulnerable for someone else to swarm in and finish the job. Added to the fact that Mila is missing, means whoever is behind this just declared war.
Chapter Forty-Two
CIARA
I can’t decidewhether to throw up or scream. Though at this point, I’m not sure either one will make me feel better. Not when my best friend is missing and her brother is dead just hours after I left his apartment.
I slide off the desk, needing to put some distance between Ronan and me, as my heart thunders in my chest. “Why are you finding this out before me? Why am I the last to be told,again?”
His jaw ticks. “Ciara?—”
“No! You had someone following me, didn’t you? That’s how you knew I was with Max.”
Ronan’s eyes darken as he looks at me. “So, you admit it, then?”
