Page 59 of Don't Lie To Me

Withaheavysigh,Jagger sinks into one of the jade-green velvet chairs, as he runs a hand through his hair. Stress lines on his forehead make him look every bit his thirty-one years. “All I know is when Ma brought you home to us, she was petrified something terrible was going to happen to you. You were so little and scared. So fragile. She made the four of us promise to protect you no matter what. From that day, I have loved you as if you were our flesh and blood. What you found out yesterday doesn’t change anything for us. You are our sister, an Iron Stryker, and you always will be.”

I see the love he holds for me; he’s not the kind of guy to admit his feelings, but he really cares about me, and I love him for it. It doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t born here, though. “But who am I?”

“The daughter of some high-up politician who got messed up in some bad shit with the wrong people. I don’t know the full story, only snippets of what I overheard Syd rambling about at the time. But Sloane, no one except for our immediate family can know about this. If word gets out, then the same scumbags who killed your family could track you down as well. It puts a massive target on your back.”

“Reef was the one who gave me all this. I think he’s trying to protect me. He was tasked with finding the girl by the commissioner who believed she has been hidden on my premises,” I say, knowing she’sthe one on a witch hunt. She’s a tenacious woman, and I know she’s not going to give up so easily.

His lips turn up at the sides into a menacing smirk. “I’ll deal with her, if you can get your detective friend to keep his trap shut.”

I nod, agreeing. I’m not quite sure how I’ll do it yet, but last night he did say my secret was safe with him. He seems eager to bend the rules for me. Exactly why I haven’t worked out yet, but I’m happy to use it to my advantage for now. “If I didn’t find out on my own, would you have ever told me the truth?”

“No. You were safer kept in the dark. Us four brothers and Onyx are the only ones who know. You have been here so long, and Ma always treated you just like one of the kids, anyone else just accepted it.”

“Syd didn’t though, did he.” My pained eyes meet his. He knows the torment Syd put me through as a kid growing up in this place. That man hated me with a fucking passion, and I guess now it makes sense.

His eyes flash with a knowing darkness. “Syd got what he deserved,” he growls. There is no one in this world that hates that man more than me, except maybe Jagger.

A frantic, pounding knock echoes through the room. “Sloane, we have a situation I think you need to see,” comes Romeo’s voice.

“What now?” I groan to myself. Jagger is up and out the door before me, his boots clomping along the concrete floor. I follow behind him to find both Onyx and Romeo waiting for me on the other side of the door. I look between the two of them, their faces sending a fresh wave of panic flooding through my veins. “What?”

“You need to see this for yourself,” Romeo mutters, taking off up the hall.

The four of us head back through the club and to room number six. Onyx steps in front of me protectively so heenters the room first. There, in the center of the room on one of my luxurious beds, lies a young woman’s body, lifeless, her long platinum-blonde hair cascading over her shoulders in a matted bloody mess, her heart ripped out of her body and left on her chest.

I stagger back, nearly falling to the flaw when I bump into Romeo. My chest constricts, sickness washing over me for the poor girl.

“What the actual fuck,” mutters Jagger from my side.

I glance back at him, my heart pounding, a cold sweat prickling my skin as I feel the color drain from my face. How the hell did this happen in my club? My mind bounces through the possibilities. “These rooms weren’t even booked last night because of the raid,” I say out loud, but mostly to myself. Hesitantly I step forward, my heart in my throat. I’m not sure I can deal with this today, not another innocent girl taken on my watch. They are supposed to be safe here, protected. I take a quick glance at her face. She’s young, in her early twenties, her skin pale like porcelain. But her face isn’t familiar to me.

“She looks like you, Sloane,” Romeo’s voice breaks the silence, saying exactly what I was thinking. She looks just like me. “Do you know her? Does she work for us?” he asks, throwing questions at me faster than I have time to respond.

“I’ve never seen her before. How the hell did she get in here?” I wonder out loud.

Onyx’s shirt brushes my arm as he joins me, his hand to my lower back. “You need to see the bathroom.”

I glance over my shoulder at him, wondering what fresh hell is waiting for me in there. Tentatively I move past the poor girl andinto the adjoining bathroom. There scrawled on the mirror in deep crimson is a message.I’m coming for you, mia ragazza.I stumble back into Jagger’s brick wall of a body.

His strong hands catch me, his eyes wide in shock and fear. “What the fuck is this shit?” He glares back at Romeo and Onyx like it’s their fault. Like they should have stopped this shit from happening.

“The blackout last night,” Onyx tries to explain. “All the wires to the electrical box were cut. We got the power back online using the generator until the electrician could fix the box.”

“But someone could have slipped into the building while everything was down,” I whisper, piecing it all together. That blackout wasn’t a coincidence, it was set up on purpose. If I wasn’t so fucked up last night, I would have seen this shit coming. I could have done something. They’re all right. I need to pull myself together and stop being so selfish.

“What does it say?” Jagger demands, staring directly at Romeo.

“I’m coming for you, my girl.It’s the same as the images Sloane received while on her date with the detective,” Romeo answers him. But his eyes are on me, and I see the worry there. An image with a fucked-up note was nothing, but this… this is sadistic as hell.

“What images?” Jagger’s attention flicks back to me, his eyes narrowing. I don’t normally keep stuff from him, but the truth is I have been preoccupied this week, and I have hardly seen him.

“I thought it was Romeo messing with me,” I admit. “When I was out with Reef the other night, the server handed me an envelope with a couple of photos and a creepy message in it.”

Romeo’s hand brushes my arm. “You know it wasn’t me now. I was with you all of last night.”

I blink back at him, knowing what he’s saying is true. I may have been asleep for most of the night, but I know Onyx would have been watching. I glance toward him, silently asking him the question.

“He didn’t leave the room,” Onyx agrees.

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