He held it up. “Brooke always liked this wine. I thought…”

I nodded. “Thank you. That’s perfect.”

“Perfect?” He raised an eyebrow, handing it over.

I grabbed the stem of the glass, avoiding his hand, and I knew he took note.

He stepped back. “Perfect is a big word, especially for someone who’s still here against her will.”

I paused in raising it to my mouth. “What?”

He motioned to the table.

There was a bowl, two plates, three glasses, and two sets of silverware for every seat. Every glass and plate had a gold rim at the edge. It was another reminder of this world I was visiting—a world where I used to live, or I should’ve.

Why was I thinking like this?

I loved being a Hider operative. And that wasn’t this world.

It never would be.

I sat and pulled my chair up to the table. “When are you going to let me go?”

There.

I had to leave, because staying here was messing with my mind. It was muddling everything.

“I thought you were going to bargain for your friend first.”

There was the Kai I knew. We were back on solid footing. I was the 411 Hider, and he was my kidnapper.

I looked up, feeling more settled inside. “And if I asked that? What then? Would you actually grant that?”

He took a sip from his glass before putting it on the table as he sat to my left at the head of the table.

“I have a proposition for you.” He motioned to the table and the room. “That’s the reason for all of this.”

“A proposition?”

“Yes.” He nodded, his mouth pressing tight before relaxing. He raised his chin. “I let your friend go home.”

“You did?”

Surprise spread through me. My hand tightened on my chair.

“Your Network has been unable to find Brooke. Your friend has no idea where she is. He was bluffing to try to get you back. We followed up on his call, and the person we found had nothing to do with my sister. Now, I’m in a place where I’ve exhausted most of my options.” His eyes pierced mine. “I fully believe you know where my sister is, but the normal ways I would force you to tell me are…unavailable, so I have a different proposition for you.”

“You let Blade go?”

I was still stuck on that one.

“I let him go as a gesture of goodwill to you. He will not make claims of being kidnapped by my family—to the law or to your employers. As far as they’re concerned, he attempted to get you back by himself, and it went bad. He failed. He is back home, and I’ve been told he was put to work immediately.”

Oh God.

I heard what he was saying. “You have people in the Network. They’re giving you information.”

It made sense—that’s how he found me, how he knew Blade was acting on his own.

“Yes, I do.”

“That’s how you knew about me this whole time.”

“Yes.” He gentled his tone. “Brooke asked me to keep tabs on you. She worried about you.”

It didn’t help. I already knew this, and it so didn’t help. I felt a sting of betrayal. The Network was sacred. No one was supposed to be bought. We were all pure. That’s what I’d thought. That’s what I had believed this whole time.

We were good.

Looking at Kai now—he was bad. But since I’d been held by him, the lines had become more and more blurred. And now, hearing there was someone in the Network working for him, fury flared inside of me.

“I believe you know where my sister is,” Kai continued. “I will not be convinced otherwise, but you won’t tell me. I’m loath to force the issue. I’ve tried, and I’m not willing to resort to the lengths that are my last options. So…” He reached for his glass and took a healthy sip from it, gritting his teeth before putting it back on the table. “…here’s another play.”

He paused. His eyes were steady on mine.

“I’ll tell you the truth. All of it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

My answer was swift. “Okay.” I raised my head, rolled my shoulders back, and waited.

I didn’t have to wait long.

Kai leaned back in his seat, picking up his glass. “Brooke ran, but she wasn’t alone. She ran away with her boyfriend, a member of a Milwaukee-based mafia family, Levi Barnes. He’s not in line to take over the family business, but he’s connected to them. His father is the youngest of Mildreth Barnes’ sons. Brooke ran with him because she overheard a meeting where I was told Levi was informing on his family to the FBI.”

Ice ran down my spine.

She wasn’t afraid for her life. She was scared for her boyfriend’s. It all made sense now.

“Brooke knows I’ve recently been more ambitious in reaching out to the Midwestern part of the States, to the families who run those territories. She assumed I would either kill Levi as a gift to his family or I would turn him over to them.”

Rats got killed. That’s just what happened.

I nodded, swallowing faintly. “I see.”

“You don’t.” He leaned forward, moving without making a sound. The chair didn’t squeak. There was no shift in the floorboards. If I hadn’t seen it, I would never have heard him. There was an almost ghostly quality to the way he moved sometimes. Silent. Stalking. Hunting.