Page 155 of The Protégé

“Give me all the names of the elite members and I’ll let you go,” I demanded. “Who’s sitting at the top?”

“Fuck you! I’m not telling you shit. You can’t do anything to me.” Arrogance gleamed in his eyes.

“You’re being used by The Trogyn, Jonah. They’ll kill you right after they use you. Do you think they’ll let you live after this mess you’ve caused? Being the son of a prominent member means nothing to them. You’re just one piece of the puzzle.” I pointed at him. “Like everyone before you, you’re disposable. And so is your biological father.”

“If you don’t hand over all the evidence,” he spoke through gritted teeth, “I’ll kill her.”

An iceberg formed in my stomach, completely interrupting my flow.

Jonah saw my weakness, grinned, turned on his phone, and showed me a picture of Elena stuffed in a car trunk.

A wave of wrath broke through the iceberg, hot and destructive. I charged at him, threw a powerful fist into his face, and gripped his neck, squeezing.

“Where is she?” I seethed, not recognizing the voice that escaped my mouth.

I could kill him right now, break his trachea, and watch his eyes roll back as life drained out of him.

Elena needs you to be calm and collected.

Jonah kicked me, but the rage had solidified me into an immovable boulder. I threw another punch at him and shovedhim away. If my hands stayed on him, he’d die right now. Jonah had already given me enough to work with. I needed to pivot.

I turned my head to the table with the three men on my team who had risen after seeing me punch Jonah. They nodded, understanding my command. The salt and pepper shakers had recorded our conversation.

They approached him. “Jonah Reimann, you’re under arrest for the murders of Helen Reimann, Pablo Toledo, Samuel Donatello, Carlos Sanchez, and Kate Sinclair.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Jonah stepped away from them, looking around the café where the women and men from the other tables approached, surrounding him.

“FBI and INTERPOL,” said the men and women.

Jonah darted away from them, but was caught by an officer, who read him his Miranda rights.

He glared at me. “You set me up!”

“You set yourself up,” I seethed. “Enjoy your prison stay. But I have a feeling you’ll have a visit from The Trogyn soon.”

Satisfied with the fear on his face, I turned on my phone and looked at Elena’s phone tracker. I had her phone tracked because of the mounting danger swirling around us. The phone showed she was in the woods by an industrial park.

An incoming call from Reid flashed across my screen. He wouldn’t have called me unless something had emerged.

“What do you know?” I asked him.

“Elena never returned from her coffee run. I hacked into Coffee Hut’s ordering system, and the app showed she never made it to the store to pick up her order.”

“They have her.” Every fiber of my being blazed with fury and concern.

Stay calm. The tracker shows she’s moving. Maybe she’s escaped.

I clung onto hope for dear life as I gave Reid the location of where her phone had pinged. “I’m on my way.”

As I made my way out of the restaurant, I called the boys. “Release the drones.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

ELENA

I madeit halfway into the woods when I heard. “You can’t run from me, bitch!”

Terror escalated as I forced my legs to move faster. I tripped on a branch, fell to the ground. Something sharp poked my leg, but I didn’t have time to look. I pushed myself up and ran out of the woods into a parking lot full of delivery trucks. No one was around.

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