Page 92 of Spying Under the Mistletoe
Can they?
The agents look at Landon.
He turns to me. “Chloe, the FBI was able to identify the bodies. They belonged to William Reinhart, Curtis Cartwright, and Mark Greenwood.”
My biological father, my stepfather, and my ex-boyfriend.
At their names, it’s like a tap has been turned on, the blood rapidly draining from my head. I sway, the ramification ping-ponging in my thoughts.It can’t be them. The FBI must be wrong. Not as convinced by my words as my brain, my legs call it a day, and I slump to the floor.
Landon catches me before my body has a chance to hit the hardwood. I’m vaguely aware of him scooping me up and placing me on the couch.
Despite the warmth of the room, a chill sneaks into my body, and I shiver uncontrollably.
Landon wraps his arm around me and says something to Ava. I have no idea what. It’s like he’s talking to her through glycerine, his words garbled.
Ava grabs the red-and-white plaid blanket from the armchair and hands it to Landon. It’s the Christmas blanket I’d bought from my apartment. For once, it doesn’t bring me comfort. It doesn’t warm me up.
I could stand on the beach in Hawaii during a heat wave, and I still wouldn’t warm up.
Landon says something else. Again, I have no idea what he’s saying.
I try to piece all the bits together to make sense of everything. I come up blank. The only thing I can comprehend is the question that keeps repeating in my brain again and again and again.
Why were they murdered? Was it because they’d left me with a broken heart?
Or had they simply become twisted up in my family’s criminal activities?
But that doesn’t make sense. While my father and stepfather might have gotten caught up in it, since there’s no way they could have not known about my family’s dark side, Mark had nothing to do with that world.
I started dating him after I left my family.
They would’ve left him alone.
Or I assumed they would’ve left him alone. Was I wrong to believe that? Had I condemned all future boyfriends to a life of crime due to my family making them an “offer” they couldn’t refuse?
A voice in my head whispers another possibility.Or had it never been their intention to leave me? Did someone make the choice for them?
Adam passes me a glass of amber liquid. My arms refuse to obey the simple command to take it from him.
Landon accepts it from him and lifts the glass to my lips. I don’t understand what he’s saying, but I do understand what he wants me to do.
I sip the liquid and relish the slow burn as it slides down my throat. For the first time since Landon broke the news, the numbness recedes a little, enough for me to accept the glass from him, the liquid sloshing inside it.
I take another sip, aware of several people talking, but I have no idea if they’re talking to each other or if the questions are directed at me.
Had they really intended to leave me? Or did someone make that choice for them?
Ava sits on the other side of me and hugs me. “I’m so sorry, Chloe,” she hoarsely whispers.
Had they really intended to leave me? Or did someone make that choice for them?
If they had been involved with my family’s criminal activities, why were they murdered? Did they know too much? Did they all try to walk away, only to discover that there’s no escaping once you agree to help my grandfather with that first request?
The thought of them stolen from me all those years ago finally forms a crack in the numbness. Tears dampen my face and the blanket wrapped around me.
Landon pulls me to him, and I sob into his shoulder.
For all those years…
