Page 108 of Lethal Threat

“Oh no….” I run my hand down my ponytail as I consider what to tell her. It’s only right that she knows the truth since I came to her apartment. I take a breath. “The boat crash wasn’t an accident, and the men who caused it are still trying to kill me.”

Her dark brown eyes harden to almost black. “Why would they want to killyou?”

“My brother’s involved in something bad… and I don’t know exactly what yet. He’s been fighting addiction for the last year. Last night two men who look like Special Forces guys broke into my apartment. I overheard them saying my brother shouldn’t have gotten me involved. But because he had, they had to kill me. When I ran, I had to leave everything behind.”

She rises and walks to the kitchen. A second later, she comes back with a key ring. “These are to my grandmother’s little Mazda. She passed a couple of months ago. I’ve just been holding onto it for sentimental reasons.”

“Are you sure?”

She walks back to the kitchen, sets a teakettle on the stove, as if me telling her that someone is trying to murder me is the most ordinary thing in the world. “Are you working with the authorities?”

I can’t sit still. My nerves are strung too tight.

Pushing off the couch, I pace across the room. “There’s a problem with that… I think the local police, at least the officer who was there last night, are friends with one of the men.”

She frowns as she drops tea bags into two mugs. “I know a guy in the ATF…”

Wringing my hands, I consider the risks of telling more people, and how long it might take for a federal agency to get involved.

Crossing her arms she watches me with concern. “Sierra, you look terrified.”

“I am.”

“Where is your brother now?”

My voice is raw with emotion when I speak. “Missing. Maybe even dead. He’s been missing at least since the boat crash put me in the hospital with amnesia. That’s the last time I saw or heard from him or his girlfriend.”

Rachel unlocks her phone. Jots a number on a piece of paper, then writes the nameMaxover the top. “He’s solid. I’d trust him with my life.”

“How do you know him?”

She sighs, scrunches her lips, and lifts a brow. “I dated him.”

“Oh.”

Rachel slides her phone back into her purse as the tea kettle begins to whistle. Steam rises from the mugs. I take the cup she passes me, trying to suppress the shaking in my hand.

After a thoughtful pause, she asks, “Is there anyone else you trust?”

“No.” My answer is definitive.

“Didn’t you date that Pararescue guy?”

My eyes flash to hers. I huff out a breath, force myself to sound calm. “I did date him for a while.”

“He’d be the perfect kind of man to have on your side right now.”

My heart clunks.

“Cole and I have history. And it’s not pretty. The man, with his all-knowing attitude, took it in his own hands to have my brother arrested about seven months ago. I was just minutes away from getting Bryan in the car to go to a safemental health facility that specializes in addiction. Somewhere that could help. Bryan had completely gone off the rails in the year leading up to that night.”

That had been a horrible night. It makes my soul split in half to think about it.

Clutching the mug with both my hands, I stare into the pale tea. “I can barely wrap my brain around what had happened to take my brother down so far. He went from Army Special Forces to a deranged drug user. The night he got arrested was the pinnacle of his terrifying change. He had turned on me.”

“Oh no. That’s tragic, Sierra.”

My eyes close. The night replays in mind. The rage in his dark eyes is still so vivid it nearly makes me throw up.