Page 38 of A Captive Situation

I pulled out two bowls but didn’t move from the counter. He was in front of the food. I was not going over there to get it, not with him so close.

He must’ve sensed my thoughts because he made a grunting sound and reached for the bowls. Our fingers grazed each other as I held one out to him. His eyes jumped back to mine, staring into me. Hard. Searching for ... I didn’t know. I shoved down all of my thoughts. There was no way I was letting him in so he could read me.

He saw the wall slam down and his only reaction was that he tensed, but he said roughly, “Here.”

I took it, making sure not to touch him, and went to the table. I was starting to sit, when he stopped me, saying, “Living room. Might as well get comfortable for what I need to tell you.”

That sent my stomach into a whole new tizzy, tightening up.

Grabbing a spoon and a napkin that he’d laid out, I stalked to the other room. Curling up in a corner of one of the couches, I glared as he joined me. There were two couches in the room with a television in the corner. The front door was in the opposite corner.

He walked in carrying his soup and two water bottles. He didn’t hand it to me or bring it over to me. He sat on the opposite couch. We couldn’t have been farther apart unless there were other chairs and one was positioned literally right in front of the door. He tossed one of the bottles so it landed next to me.

I glared. I was going to do all the glaring I wanted because I had a right to be livid.

I stated, “So.”

His eyes lifted from his soup, finding me. Darkening.

I folded my legs underneath me, getting more comfortable, holding my soup up in front of me as I lifted the spoon. “Who the hell are you, Jake Worthing?”

The corner of his mouth lifted up, slightly, but it was gone as quick as it appeared. If I hadn’t been watching him, I would’ve missed it. Then he got serious, his face getting scary. “A while ago, my younger brother met and fell in love with a woman. Her name was Kelly. He fell hard and fast, and well, that’s the beginning of all of this, or maybe it was the night they were both murdered.”

I sucked in some air. “I’m sorry.” I hadn’t known his brother was murdered, but I’d heard how his body was found.

Damn.

He dropped his gaze, setting his soup on the nearest end table. “I mentioned this earlier, but some of my family are cops and there’sanother whole section that’s pretty much the opposite.” He looked up, meeting my eyes. “They’re in the Mafia.”

My mouth dried up quickly.

My hands began shaking so I put my soup on the end table next to me, then wrapped my arms around both of my knees, hugging them to my chest.

This wasn’t good. “Mafia?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly, but with a clipped edge. “Justin, that’s my brother. He and I weren’t close to either side. That was my choice. I moved to the city to get away from both sides of the family. Some of them are up in Maine, some are spread out around the city. But when Justin came with me, it didn’t end well for him.”

My heart sank for him. “He was murdered?”

“He was murdered,” he confirmed. His face was set in a mask of concrete. “I’m supposed to go up to Maine and take over the family business.”

“You mean join the force up in Maine?” I leaned forward in my seat. “With the other law-abiding family up there?”

His head lifted again. His eyes were stark, and I had my answer.

I fell back into the couch again. “Not the law-abiding side, huh?” That came out in a soft whisper.

“I’m supposed to be their head.”

The head? What did that mean?

My head was swimming.

He kept talking. “The second shooter used to be one of my family’s soldiers.That’swhy I grabbed you. Like I explained before, we didn’t have time for me to suss it all out and for me to explain it to you or for you to understand it. He had a silencer, but I didn’t. That neighborhood, they probably aren’t used to the sounds of a gunshot. Someone’s going to look. If we stayed, cops would’ve arrived, and it’d be a whole different ball game from the first shooting. I would’ve been taken in, questioned. You too. We would’ve had a whole bunch of eyes on us, including dirty cops. Anyone who was able to send one of myown family’s soldiers after us would’ve easily got to someone in the force to finish the job. There’s also the fact that two shooters already saw you with me. He got us outside of your cousin’s place. I wasn’t followed. He was waiting for us there.”

He waited, letting me connect the dots.

They already knew about me.

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