Page 28 of Burning Justice

Raine said, “If we need to go, then we need to go.”

Maria heard Saxon in her ear and told Raine, “Turn your comms back on.”

Raine said, “I needed to have a private conversation.” But she reached up and switched it back on.

“Did you have it?”

The other woman nodded.

“Then it’s time to go.”

The commotion at the other end of the room was swelling, and Raine’s grandfather looked around—probably looking for Raine.

In her ear, Saxon said, “Rio is on his way here. The FBI is going to raid the house.”

Raine turned back to the room.

Maria shoved her to the door. “We’re already on our way out.”

“Hurry.” That was Kane.

“What’s going on?” Raine followed her through the front door.

Maria waited until they were out of earshot of the bouncer, then said, “I think you know exactly why the Feds might show up here. Don’t you?”

Kane met up with them by the fountain and walked behind them down the long drive.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Raine’s plea didn’t have much strength to it. Probably because she’d known they weren’t going to believe her before she’d even said it. After all, she was the one who’d brought them here—precisely because she knew her family was connected.

Which meant there was a whole lot Raine hadn’t said. Even if she tried to live like she knew nothing and had no connection to this situation, it was a lie.

In her ear, Saxon said, “Two minutes. I’ll pick you guys up out front.”

Maria said, “Why don’t we hang around, and you can tell Rio that you have no information?”

Raine whirled around and faced her, forcing Maria to stop walking. She said, “I’m not part of it.”

“But you were prepared to do the right thing and bring me here.”

“So you could look for your father!”

Maria eyed her friend, understanding how she might want to hide her connection to a group of dangerous people. How some might consider her untrustworthy because of her family.

“I know what it feels like to be judged for who your family is.” Maria had been forced to train harder, score higher, and prove herself over and over because her father had been suspected of voluntarily working for criminals all over the world. As if he would have orchestrated his wife’s murder and left Maria just to get paid.

No way.

“I know what it feels like to have to prove who you are. To wish you could be judged on your own merit, not maligned because of something someone else did.”

Raine’s eyes filled with tears. As she shook her head, the moisture glistened in the light. “You don’t know anything about me.”

Saxon pulled up at the curb in his 4Runner. Kane opened the back door right as a commotion erupted on the street. Screeching tires. Men in dark fatigues and helmets, carrying assault rifles, raced across the grass, coming out of every corner, every shadow, the white FBI letters on their vests prominently visible in the dark.

A tactical truck pulled up to the curb, followed by three other SUVs. Another two SUVs came from the other direction, and personnel poured out of all of them.

“Stay where you are!” It was Rio, striding across the lawn to the front door.

The bouncer had run inside.

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