Page 97 of Marked

Run! Run now!

She snapped opened her eyes. The buzzing intensified. A deep ache pulsed in her shoulder as she lifted her head. Her body resisted her movements. The glow of a fluorescent light overhead seared her retinas. She dropped her gaze away and her head spun.

Ugh, why did her shoulders hurt so badly? And there was no feeling in her fingers. She shifted her arms to bring them in front of her, but something held them in place. She widened her eyes and straightened.

Her wrists were bound together at her back and her ankles were taped together as well. She sat on the floor, her feet out in front of her and the unrelenting metal of a pole lining up with her spine. Vomit hit her palate as panic took over her nervous system. The lack of weight at her side told her someone had stolen her gun, and none of her pockets bulged with her phone.

A sharp gasp caught in her throat. Taking one slow breath after another, she forced herself to stay calm. If she freaked out, she’d alert whoever had taken her. As her heart rate lowered, she let her awareness drift from her head to her toes in search of an injury.

Pain throbbed on the left side of her neck. The skin was irritated and hot, as if it’d been burned.

She’d been Tased.

Memories blasted in, almost too quickly for her to make any sense of them.

Dammit, Sophia. Get a grip.

She’d met with Markie behind the church. He’d showed her a video and she’d sent it to Cole... then a loud blast. Markie’s brain matter on the wall of the church and then... zap.

She replayed the moments just before her electrocution in her mind again and again. There’d been no words from her attacker. Only a quick jolt.

But she’d reached for her gun. Turned around. His dress shirt filled her mind’s eye.

Oh my—

“I see you’re awake.”

She jerked her head toward the voice and stared across the industrial room at Kenneth. He marched slowly toward her, his hands shoved in his pockets and his gaze aimed at the concrete floor.

“Probably should’ve just shot you there. But then we’d have an even bigger mess, with a detective shot on scene, and I’m sure there’s camera footage of me leaving the station after you.” The words left his lips without remorse.

“Y-You did this?” Her broken question didn’t come close to summing up the magnitude of his betrayal. It wasn’t just that he’d electrocuted and taken her. Wasn’t that he’d shot Markie.

He was involved with Lionsgate... with Bella’s kidnapping.

Oh, god.

An iron ball dropped into the pit of her stomach, and she forced down a gag that threatened to empty her lunch on the floor. She shook her head. “How could you? Bella? That... that was you?”

Kenneth stopped a few feet short of her shoes, his gaze finally landing on her. Lifting his hand, he ran his palm over his spiky, short gray hair. “Believe me, I didn’t want Bella to get hurt. Either of you. But you gave me no choice.”

Anger replaced the shock that had leveled her senses. “You’re one of them.” Her boss, the guy she’d been working with to take down Lionsgate from the moment Lexi and Nash brought the organization to her attention, had been playing her. All this time. So many hours. So many meetings...

Never had she suspected he was working both sides.

“Not my fault.” Sadness had replaced his usual smile. “I thought I could protect you, that I could draw out the investigation and mislead you. But you’re like a dog with a bone when you want something.” Admiration filled his voice, but all that did was make her want to gouge out his eyes.

“Fuck you,” she spat. Fresh rage tingled her skin. “You were protecting them. Child traffickers. You should be hanged.”

“You fucked this up!” he said, outrage taking over his features. “I don’t know what you did at the farmhouse, but I know you had something to do with those killings.”

“My only regret is that you weren’t there.”

He shrugged. “You don’t understand how this works. I didn’t want to get involved with Lionsgate. But our paths crossed, and once they knew they could control me, they were relentless. I could go along with their plan or let them kill me.”

His words seeped into her brain, but she was still too fuzzy to operate at her usual capacity. For Lionsgate to be able to control Kenneth, though, they had to have some dirt on him.

“You won’t get away with this. There’s video footage of you at the warehouse meeting with the other traffickers.” She glanced around the room. While this space didn’t look the same as the one in the video, it was possible there were other parts of the warehouse Lionsgate was using.

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