His eyes grew fierce now, pinning me down. “If you reveal what I’m about to tell you, I will have you murdered.” He paused.

He meant what he said, and I forced my head to nod. The shiver wrapped around my entire body, but I had to listen. It was important.

“I want in on the Midwest. That’s my goal, and I have done extensive research into all the controlling families. Brooke’s boyfriend’s family is weak. They’re my way in, so my sister was wrong about my intentions. I have no wish to kill her boyfriend. I want to use him. He’s going to be my way in to destroy his family.”

Of course.

I hung my head, whispering, “You don’t really want to find your sister. You want to find her boyfriend.”

“No.” I heard his chair move now as he leaned back again. “You’re wrong. I want to find my sister because I love her, and because the longer she’s out there…”

I looked up, his voice beckoning me, and I saw him nod toward the window.

“…the more unsafe she is. She’s a Bennett. You think I’m the only one looking for her? I have enemies who would relish hacking her to pieces—while she’s alive, while she’s screaming my name, and videotaping it all for their sick pleasure.”

He stopped, his eyes closed tightly. His jaw clenched, and then he shoved back his chair. His glass in hand, he dumped the rest of his bourbon down his throat before stalking to the liquor cabinet. “I have been protecting my family since I was a child. Against who is the only component that’s changed.” He poured his glass half full. Capping the bottle again, he remained there, his back to me. “I have to find my sister. I need your help to do that.”

He looked back, his eyes stricken. “Please.”

A lump formed in my throat.

God. I knew the danger of the Bennett name, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that most of the danger was from the family itself.

“I can’t,” I whispered.

His nostrils flared. “But you know where she is.”

I couldn’t touch that either. I hung my head again, closing my eyes.

I suddenly wanted all of this to go away.

I didn’t want to be in these clothes that reminded me of my past. I didn’t want to be here in this room, with him, knowing he would do anything to find his sister. I wanted to be back at my home with Blade, with Carol, with my cover job as a nurse aide who spoke in inspiring quotes.

I missed being Raven, not Riley.

“Where is she?!” Kai roared, throwing his glass across the room.

It shattered against the wall, falling to the floor, and I didn’t flinch. Not. One. Bit.

I shook my head. “I can’t help you, and you know it.”

He returned to his seat, and this time I refused to look at him.

The room was tense, the air thick and oppressing, and for a moment, I felt as if my father were with us.

I shoved that down. I would not cower. I would not be intimidated.

“Our father killed my brother,” he said softly.

What? I looked up.

He wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was trained on the table, but I knew he wasn’t seeing what was physically in front of him.

His fingers tightened around the bottle he now held in front of him.

“Anthony Bennett was a sadistic father.” He shuddered. His hand twitched, and his head shook slightly. “He was obsessed with power, and Cord was getting to the age where he was supposed to start taking over some of the responsibilities of the family. Our father didn’t want that to happen. He knew Cord was kind—weak, in his eyes—but he saw how others reacted to him. They liked him. They approved of him, and the truth is they wanted a change from our father’s rule. Anthony Bennett wouldn’t have it. He saw years into the future where Cord would’ve taken over the business. He would’ve had our father killed.” His eyes were so bleak. “That’s the way of our life. So he got rid of Cord first.”

He murdered my brother.

Brooke hadn’t been talking about her other brother. She’d meant her father.

I never thought of it, but… A father who could kill his own child? Or a mother? A flicker of rage began heating me inside.

I should’ve considered the father first. I had firsthand experience in that cruelty.

“I’m sorry. I thought—”

“I know what you thought,” he said, sounding tired. “A lot of people thought it. My father made the mistake of waiting before killing me. He didn’t see me as a threat because I was only sixteen years old.”

I knew what was coming.

A knot formed around that ball of fury inside me. It was all mixing together.

“I killed my father instead, and I paid off a family friend to be our guardian. I paid off the courts. I paid off everyone.”

He stared at me. I expected a wall to fall in place, but it didn’t. Though he wasn’t hiding himself, he wasn’t showing anything either. He was dead. That’s what I saw when I looked into his eyes. Death.

“I did it the most humane way, at least in my opinion,” he said. “I smothered him with a pillow one night, and he just stopped breathing. No one asked why we weren’t seeking vengeance. Everyone knew.”

“You had Brooke come home after that.”

He nodded, his gaze moving away from me.