Page 26 of Sinister Engagement

Jackie's face blanched. It was a practiced move, though, as if she was showing the emotion, but didn't want to interrupt the beauty of her looks. "There's been no mistake, Gaven. There was DNA on the blood. My father's blood… and my sister's."

"She's not dead," I growled before gesturing to papers I'd thrown to the floor. "She left me a note."

For a moment, surprise skittered across Jackie's face and then it slowly morphed into careful consideration as she bent down and retrieved the short letter my fucking wife had left me the morning after I'd put a ring on her finger and taken her virginity. A virginity so sweet that I knew there would be no other like her. Just as there would be no other man for her. She had, however, chosen the worst of times to get cold feet and run away. It was too late. We were married, and I'd meant what I'd said—there was no place she could run that I would not find her. She wasmine.

"Gaven..." Jackie's voice was careful as she held up the note and looked from it back to me. "I'm not suggesting that she could be dead."

I frowned. "Then I suggest you tell me what you're suggesting," I bit out. "I'm not a patient man." Especially when I had a wife to track down.

Jackie inhaled and lowered the letter to her side, she stepped up and flicked a finger along the top of the file in my grasp. "There was blood on the knife—hers and his," she said. "She left you a note—Gaven, you're a fine man. Handsome. Skilled.Powerful." As she emphasized that last word, I narrowed my eyes on her. "My sister never wanted to marry you." I'd known that. I hadn't cared. "She wanted anormallife… is it really so hard to understand what's happened?"

"Why don't you spell it out for me?" I offered in a cold voice.

Jackie's hand lifted from the file and moved to my chest. I willed myself not to fling her away. "She must have been quite distraught by the events of last night," Jackie surmised. "I assume she came in here and found our father. She might have thought he could do something about... well, she might have regretted..."

It suddenly hit me what she was saying. I glanced back to the carpet in the office as two men began to cut the edges of the room and roll up the space where Raphael had bled out and died, removing the stain of his life as if it had never been there.

"You think your sister could have done this?" I asked, stunned.

Jackie's lips turned down. "I don't want to. Whatever you may think of me, Gaven, I don't like thinking of my sister as a killer, but… people will do insane things when they feel as if they've been backed into a corner. Did she tell you she wanted to go to college?"

"She couldn't very well go if she's on the run for a murder," I snapped, stepping away from her. "Angel would never have harmed your father. She wasn't capable of it. I know her."

Jackie lifted her chin and met my gaze—something few men could even do, especially when I was this close to rage. "You met and married my sister in less than a week and a half, Gaven," she stated plainly. "You didn't know her at all. She was a tool for you to use in order to join our family."

"She wasnota killer," I repeated.No, not a killer, but she was a liar, I thought. She'd lied to me. Perhaps she hadn't meant to, but that pathetic excuse for an apology was just another one of her lies. She ran for a reason, but I doubted very much that it had anything to do with fear or cold feet.

"My sister was a woman trapped," Jackie continued. The sound of her voice was quickly becoming one of the most unpleasant things I'd ever encountered. And as a man who'd been held in a Beijing prison for a few months, there were quite a number of unpleasant things that I'd been introduced to in my life. "Trapped women will do what they must if it means their freedom."

Freedom?I thought.No. Evangeline Price had no more freedom. Evangeline Price was my fucking wife. I owned her. Body and soul.

But to remind her of that, I would need to track her down.

Carefully, so as not to confuse Jaquelina Price, I lifted the file she'd handed me and then, meeting her gaze, I ripped it down the middle. "I will get to the bottom of this," I told her. "When I find Angel—and make no mistake, Jackie, I will find mywife—I'll know if she murdered Raphael and I'll know why."

A smirk appeared on the corner of Jackie's lips. Finally, a true emotion from this woman who called herself a Price. "I think you'll find, Mr. Belmonte, that my sister—though seemingly sweet—can be just as conniving as any woman. I don't believe it will be easy to track her down. I've already got men on it."

"Mymen," I reminded her. "I'm the new head of this empire."

Jackie's smirk turned into a full grin. "No," she said. "Mine. My father meant to induct you into the family officially today. Alas," she paused and waved her hand towards the office, "now that he's dead, he can no longer sign over the Price properties and therefore, it's men, to you. With Angel missing, I'm the last Price heir. The Price empire is mine."

My jaw loosened. There were very few instances in my life that I'd been taken by surprise. Now was one of them. She was right. Raphael and I had meant to sign the papers today, before Angel and I were supposed to leave for our honeymoon.

"Now," Jackie continued. "I'm going to ask my men to escort you off the premises, Mr. Belmonte. If I find out any information regarding my sister, I'll inform you." Her eyes met mine as two men appeared and moved toward me. "I hope you'll do the same."

Angel, I realized as the two guards Jackie had apparently called stopped on either side of me, wasn't the only liar in this family. I found myself leaning back on my heels as I tilted my head to the side and examined this new foe in front of me.

Tall. Elegant. Manipulative. Jaquelina Price was a careful person. Feminine, but dangerous. Like a beautiful serpent. I felt the mask that had fallen away in the last few days with Angel settle back into place. It was one that I knew well. The mask of a hitman and whether she knew it or not, Jacquelina Price was on my list. Whether she was a client, though, or a target had yet to be determined.

"Of course," I replied, my tone even. It was a practiced sound. One that gently put clients at ease and performed the opposite on my targets. "Please let me know if you hear anything. I want her found as much as you do."

"Oh, I highly doubt that, Mr. Belmonte," Jackie said. "I have something at stake here. My father was brutally murdered and now the whole of his life, his empire, falls upon me. I want to know where my sister is more than anyone. I want her to pay for what she's done."

There was no doubt in my mind that Jacquelina knew more than she was letting on, and the first thing I would have to do if I was going to find out what had happened the night before was to find my wife. That was where we agreed. But that was also where our alignment on the situation ended. Jackie lived up to her conniving and ruthless reputation and this was no different, but I needed to know thetruthof what happened, and I didn’t trust her story for a second. When I found out why Raph had been murdered and by whom, then I would deal with her because I couldn’t right now. Not with her surrounded by Price guards, so whether she was friend or foe only time would tell, but for now, I had only one focus.

My wife.

Angel would pay.

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