Page 44 of Sweet Possession (Criminal Underground 1)

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Mare

The ride was quiet, except for the soft rock on the radio. Trees and buildings filled the space on the other side of the window, my eyes blankly watching the city pass by. Jensen and I were both content to spend the short ride in silence, his hand holding mine on the center console.

This time when I walked into my apartment, I ached in the best way possible, my body completely sated. I left the door ajar for Jensen who was no doubt updating Ian on our arrival, a phone pressed to his ear in front of the house—I didn’t want to wake my potentially sleeping neighbors or they’d be up all night screaming at each other. Actually, now that I thought about it, they’d been quiet lately. I drifted into the basement studio, moving by rote. It wasn’t until I heard the crunch of glass beneath my shoes that I realized something was off. My post-sex haze dulled, and reality came slamming back to the forefront. Glancing down, I found broken shards scattered around the floor, a puddle of water pooled in the middle where a pile of roses lay.

Carefully stepping around the pieces, I plucked the crumpled piece of paper I saw from the table. Confusion continued to build, my brows furrowing as I opened the tightly-wadded paper and found a harshly scribbled threatening note.

You can run, and you can hide, but I will always find you, America.

Fear iced my veins. The handwriting didn’t look familiar, but it was so jagged and angry on the paper that I wasn’t sure if it was their normal handwriting or not. Jensen’s voice reaching my ears was the only thing keeping my breathing even and my vision from tunneling.

“What the…” Jensen trailed off, glancing around the mess in confusion.

“Jensen.” Anger boiled up, hot and ready to spill over. “What the fuck is this?” I snapped. My panic was gone now, completely replaced with a simmering feeling of betrayal and … a more potent form of fear that manifested itself in cold rage. Walking over to him, I held up the note so he could read it. “First, calling me out of work to train and now shit like this shows upinsidemy apartment.” His eyes scrolled from one side of the paper in my hand to the other. “Iknowthat you know something, and you’re going to tell me what it is.”

He was quiet, hazel eyes scanning the note several times. With each pass, his jaw ticked, clenching harder and harder until I was half-concerned he’d break a tooth. He knew alright, whatever it was,whoeverit was that was behind this. And he was going to fucking tell me, or I’d shove my knee where the sun didn’t shine and then ask again. I shook the paper in his face expectantly. “Well?” I demanded.

“Your father knows where you are,” he said, lifting his eyes to meet mine. There was no apology. No ‘we’ll keep you safe.’ Nothing but the cold, hard truth that left me feeling numb and dead inside. All of the happiness, all of the relief—the fucking care—I’d felt hours before was washed away under a tidal wave of betrayal.

It took a few moments for me to truly register what he’d admitted, as if the horror of it didn’t quite mesh with my mind. My worst nightmare was coming to life—the life I’d managed to build after my old one had been ruined. Ruined by trying to do the right thing.Am I a bad person?I wondered idly.Is that why this shit keeps happening?I thought good people were supposed to be rewarded, but I wasn’t. I’d reported a crime—a freaking murder, yet it hadn’t been enough. My father had walked free, and I’d been left to run and start a new life. Now, here I was—back to being hunted and all of the worries I’d been fighting against were suddenly being realized.

“Call Ian and Archer. Get their asses over here,” I bit out.“Now.”

Thankfully, he didn’t argue; instead, he dug his phone out and dialed the others. As he did that, I worked slowly, methodically. I swept up as much of the dried vase pieces as I could before tackling the puddle of dirty water. The focus it took to clean up the flowers and mess helped to keep my fury on a leash, but it was only a matter of time before the three of them would be here before me, and they had some questions to answer. They wanted to keep me around, but I had some conditions of my own if that was going to happen.

“Let me, sweetheart,” Jensen murmured after he’d ended the call as he took the rag from me. I didn’t—couldn’t—say anything as I stood up and watched him. Needing a distraction, I tossed in a single cup coffee pod to the old machine and hit brew. Ian and Archer walked in right as the stream of liquid finished filling the mug. I took it and held it in my hands for a moment, letting the heat warm my chilled skin.

“What happened?” Archer asked, surprise in his voice as he saw my expression of undisguised fury. Jensen apparently hadn’t told them why I’d called this littlefamilymeeting. I faced them, and all the anger, hurt, and fear threatened to swallow me whole. I had just started to let them back in. I’d finally admitted that I wanted what we used to have, but this … this was what had me hesitating. This was what could make them lose me in a heartbeat, and I would get them to understand if it was the last thing I did.

“I think you know exactly what happened, Archer,” I ground out. Icy blue eyes landed on me, and Ian’s gaze narrowed. Archer took the note from Jensen, his lips thinning as he read.

“Mare—” he started, but I cut him off, not wanting to hear the excuses he no doubt had at the ready. I wasn’t going to play that game. Not anymore. This was far too serious.

“Nope, you can stop right there,” I snapped, holding up my free hand. I was already losing control over my emotions.

I felt betrayed that they had kept something so monumental from me. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest, the thundering a reminder of how it had done so just hours before for much more pleasurable reasons. Now though, the progress and revelations I’d had during my time with Ian and Jensen were being yanked away by secrets.Again.

“Tell me you didn’t know,” I said, my voice heavy with sarcasm. Silence stretched into the room, and I scoffed, setting down the mug. “You can’t,” I said. “Of course you can’t because youdidknow. You knew my father knew where I was, and you deliberately chose to keep it from me. All three of you made that choice. Whatever your reasoning was, I honestly don’t care. All I care about is the fact thatyoudictated that I didn’t get to know that the one threat inmylife knew where I was. Has he known all along? Why hasn’t he come for me yet? I know he wants me dead.”

“We can handle your father, Mare,” Ian countered, his volume low and voice even as it always was when I challenged him.

“You can handle my father?” I snapped. “You don’t even know him. You don’t know what he’s capable of! You’re worried about me, and I get that, I do. But, Ian, he’s brutal. You’renothingto him.” I threw my hands in the air and turned away to pace. “This is a fucking mess. You should’ve told me.” I whipped back around and pinned him with a look. “Did you think I was too fragile, or that I would panic and run out into the nearest street and let myself be shot dead? Newsflash, I’m not a little girl anymore, Ian. I’m not the same America I was when I walked out of that courtroom five years ago. I’m not the same girl you were with before. If you want this the way you say you do, then you have to understand that you can’t keep shit like this from me. You can dominate me, you can spank me, tease me, but you can’t keep me in the dark because you think you know better than me. That’s not your choice to make. Honesty,” I spat, turning and looking from Ian to Jensen to Archer and back. “That’s how this relationship is supposed to fucking work—if we don’t even have that, then we’re bound for destruction. And knowing my luck, destruction comes with a casket and a one-way ticket to hell. You can’t…” I tried to take a breath but felt it stick in my throat. “If you want me—if you care about me the way you say you do—you can’t lie to me.”

The words came tumbling out, sounding just as hurt as I felt. They were full of anger and fear. Fear for them. Fear for myself. Fear that even if we made it through this—even if somehow, someway, my father didn’t kill us all—we would never work out in the end.

Deep down, a part of me said I was overreacting. They’d just been trying to protect me. If I let it go, though, what else would they keep from me? We weren’t traditional. And we weren’t normal. I wasn’t, and they weren’t. They had yet to come clean about what it actually was that they did; the “work” they sometimes disappeared to do wasn’t like a nine to five job. I had my suspicions, but that, too, was something they were keeping from me. If I kept letting it slide, would they keep everything from me when they thought I couldn’t handle it? What I couldn’t handle was being the weak one in our relationship. I couldn’t handle being cut out.

Jensen stepped forward, his face drawn tight as he looked at me. “We didn’t lie—”

“A lie by omission is still a lie,” I said, interrupting him. My hands trembled in my frustration. I picked up the mug to keep it from showing, but I was too scared I’d drop the damn thing so I set it back down again. Crossing my arms over my chest, I waited for their response but when none came, the next question came tumbling out. We were doing this now; there was no other choice. If they couldn’t—wouldn’t—answer, then that was it. No moreus. “That’s not the only thing you haven’t told me, is it?”

“What?” Archer asked quietly, his brows drawing together in confusion at my change of topic.

“Oh, sorry, you must have forgotten each time when you three were too busy distracting me,” I snapped. “What do you guys do for a living? I’m not stupid; I’ve been able to piece most of it together but you have to tell me and I swear to fucking God if you lie to me right now, I will kick you out of that door, and this will be the only time youeversee me again.”

For several moments, no one said a thing. The guys were quiet, staring at me with calculating gazes. It gave me a chance to take a breath and gather the thoughts that had scattered in my rant. The words hurt to say out loud, but I knew it needed to be laid out, my expectations as clear as day. They had distracted and brushed me off before, but I was patient and had picked up all their little clues. Now, theywouldtell me.

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