Page 50 of Relentless

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“Four, but who’s counting,” Sabina replied.

“Obviously you, but what’s up?” Then the casual nature of her question grabbed hold of her and all the lightheartedness she’d felt moments ago scattered. “Please tell me no one else is dead.”

Silence.

Ethan walked over and took the phone from her hand. Ushering her to the couch, he put the phone on Speaker and spoke. “Sabina, it’s me,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“It wasn’t one of your teammates, Kara,” Sabina said.

Kara’s body sagged in relief. Then her brow furrowed. “Then who?”

“An employee of the venue where Evelyn’s niece had her wedding a few days ago,” Sabina answered.

Ethan had taken a seat beside her, and his spine stiffened. “It was the electric, wasn’t it?” he asked.

“What?” Kara asked, confused.

“How did you know?” Sabina asked at the same time.

He glanced at Kara then rose and took the two steps to the coffeepot. “The opportunity was too good a one to pass up,” he said, pulling two mugs from the cabinet. “I wasn’t certain, of course. But if I were the killer and knew her plans for those lights, messing with the electric supply would be a good way to make it look like an accident. Like Sunil.”

Kara considered this, considered how close her friend had come to death. She shuddered then took the mug Ethan handed her. “So the accident with the ladder actually saved her life,” she said.

Ethan inclined his head. “That would be my guess.”

“What happened?” Kara asked, directing the question to her sister.

“Essentially, one of the employees was running extra lights using the same system they’d set up for Evelyn, and they were electrocuted.”

“How do you know it was the same system?” Kara asked.

“The article said that the portable system had been intended to be used at a wedding a few days earlier and that it had been tested at that time. The regulations only required them to test it again if it had been more than a week since the last one.”

“So it was tested before Evelyn used it, andthenthe killer tampered with it. But because the venue wasn’t required to test it again, they didn’t catch the damage before letting one of their staff use it,” Ethan said.

“Exactly my thoughts,” Sabina concurred.

Kara felt frozen at the news. Her friend had narrowly escaped death, but in her place, someone else had died. She was so relieved Evelyn wasn’t the victim, but the relief was tempered by the loss of another life. She considered asking about the victim. She wanted to know. And yet she didn’t.

“Can we get someone to look at the system?” Ethan asked.

“Chad and Colton were discussing that this morning. Colton is going to call in some favors and see what they can do.” Colton was the lead operative of the West Coast HICC operations. Sabina ran the cyber team, and Chad ran the business as a whole.

“You’ll keep us updated?” Ethan asked. Although it was more a demand than an ask.

Sabina sniffed. “Of course. Wearetalking about my sister’s safety, Ethan.”

Ethan raised his brows at Sabina’s tone. It verged on territorial and while Kara wondered at it, too, the comment had been directed to Ethan. Ethan needed to be the one to respond.

“I appreciate that, Sabina,” he said. “Just as I’m sure you can appreciate my heightened concern. Wearetalking about the woman I love. The woman I hope to have many, many years with.”

Kara’s gaze jerked to his. It was one thing to tell her he loved her—as he had in San Diego. But another thing altogether to say it to other people. Not to mention the “many, many years” comment. She felt the same, but they hadn’t discussed it.

“I do hope you didn’t just dump that on her,” Chad said, joining the conversation.

He held her gaze. “None of it should come as any surprise to her.”

“Andsheis right here. There’s nodumpinganything on anyone,” she said. Not entirely true, but true enough.