Page 98 of This Moment

“So you’ve proven you can sniff out the FBI; it still doesn’t explain how you knew I was here in Moose Village.”

He laughed. “That, my dear, was pure luck. A coworker of mine came up for a festival or some bullshit these small towns have. She thought she saw you working at the bakery in town and mentioned it to me at work. Unfortunately, my father was in my office when she decided to share this news with me. He demanded I come up here and see for myself. I thought about just lying, saying I did, and it wasn’t you, but he had one of his guys come with me. I didn’t think it would be possible that you would be that close to Boston. I kept trying to tell my father’s goon that I knew it couldn’t be you. You were most likely on the West Coast, but he was the one who came into the bakery to confirm. He was the one who told my father you were here. Once we spotted the FBI,he got spooked and returned to Boston. Now that the FBI is here, my father knows you’re talking.”

“I didn’t call them; they found me. They knew you were looking for me, and they found me first. Told me your father wouldn’t be far behind.”

He laughed. “If it hadn’t been for Jules, we wouldn’t have known you were here. My father can buy some cops in the Boston PD, but doesn’t mess with federal agents. I don’t know if he would have found you, Katy. But now he did, and it’s a fucking mess.”

“Why does it sound like you’re blaming me? You’re the one who killed someone!”

He closed his eyes. “I didn’t want to kill him.”

“But you did!”

His phone buzzed, and he seemed to snap out of what he was thinking. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. I gasped and took a few steps away from him.

“What are you going to do? Kill me?”

With a slow shake of his head, he said, “I don’t want to hurt you, Katy, but if I don’t bring you back to Boston, he’s going to hurt Melanie.”

I drew my head back in surprise. “Who is Melanie?”

His cheeks turned red. Jesus H, was he really holding a gun and pointing it at me while blushing?

“A girl I’ve been dating. I really like her…a lot. And my father knows it. He said he would hurt her if I didn’t clean up my mess.”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. When his phone buzzed again, he cursed.

“Put the purse down, Katy. And your cell phone.”

I shook my head, and when he walked closer, I dropped the purse.

“Is your cell in there?”

Nodding, I said, “It is.”

“This is what we’re going to do, and I don’t want you to make so much as a peep, understand me? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Why don’t you just shoot me and get it over with? Because once you bring me back to Boston, I’m as good as dead.”

He raised a brow. “Do you really think I want to do this?”

“I don’t know, Michael! I never thought I’d see you kill someone!”

He shook the gun at me, and I jumped. “I don’t have time for this! Let’s just go!”

“If I don’t show up at the bakery, they will start looking for me. Then what?”

“I have a plan.”

Michael motioned for me to walk, and I did. A part of me wondered what he would do if I ran. Would he shoot me? It depended on how much this Melanie girl meant to him.

“We’re going out the back door and we’re going to follow the same path I walked down here on.”

He glanced at his watch. “By the time we get up there, that idiot FBI agent will have returned to the house, and we can walk right off the property.”

I went to say something, and he pushed the gun into my side. “This isn’t up for discussion, Katy. Let’s go.”

By the time we climbed up and got to the road, I had said what felt like a million prayers. How long would it take before someone realized I was missing? I closed my eyes and cursed that I had talked Kian into leaving before me.

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