Page 13 of While She Sleeps (The Hunter and The Thief #1)

CHAPTER TWELVE

EMBER

T he envelope of cash sits on the table in front of me, beside the manila envelope that makes my stomach flip to look at, let alone open.

The Hunter killed my brother.

The nameless, faceless, lethal man who rules the drug trade is the man who ran us off the road and into that ravine.

He’s the reason my brother is dead.

He’s the reason I can’t get into a car without a panic attack.

He’s the reason my entire life came crumpling down.

Before the accident, I had hoped that one day I would get out from under Lucas’s thumb. That maybe I’d be able to build a life for myself, far away from the sins of my past.

But that was torn away from me when I realized I would have to pay both our debts.

There’s no chance of freedom now. At least not for the foreseeable future, depending on how long my usefulness lasts.

I’m not so dumb as to think Lucas will allow a valuable member of his team to walk away from him without a fight.

But you don’t get to where I am without knowing how to get the hell out of dodge without a trace. When the time comes, I’ll make myself disappear, and not even Lucas will be able to find me.

My chest aches for my freedom, but it’s so far away. So unreachable.

I reach for the manila envelope and flick through the pages of information inside. There is basically nothing to go off. Just a few notes about warehouses and the times the Hunter has been at meetings Lucas has attended.

What the fuck does he want me to do with this?

It’s nothing.

It’s less than nothing.

I could get more from a fucking Google search than what Lucas has provided me with.

Sighing, I flick the folder shut and drop my head to the edge of the table, taking in a few deep breaths to settle the anxiety running rampant through my chest.

Lucas is sending me on a suicide mission.

But that gets me thinking, why would the Hunter kill my brother?

Travis was mid-level in Lucas’s organization, and in most cases, I’d even say he ranked below me. He wasn’t as talented a thief as I am, nor was he able to get in and out of places undetected like I can. He was just like every other guy who works for Lucas.

So that begs the question, what did Travis do to piss off the most feared man in the country?

Without thinking too much on it, I cross the room to the closet I keep my brother’s belongings in and tug out the box I remember throwing his phone in.

I plug it in to charge before returning to the closet and opening a few boxes until I find some files that I never bothered to go through.

When I went through all of this, my mental state was fragile, and my body was broken from the accident.

The last thing on my mind was whether our birth certificates were safe or if Travis was up to date with paying his taxes.

Returning to the table with a handful of paperwork, I retake my seat and start flicking through the piles of unpaid bills and notes jotted down on napkins.

Clearly, the man needed help with his admin skills if this is what he was working with.

I sigh and start making piles, splitting things into categories so I can toss out whatever I don’t need, which is pretty much all of it. It takes me longer than I care to admit to sift through all the paperwork, and in the end, there’s nothing that sticks out to me as a clue.

Not until Travis’s phone lights up. I pluck it off the charger, quickly unlocking it with my birthday. My brother may have been a criminal, but he was a softy at heart and cared about me more than anyone ever has, and likely ever will.

I flick through his texts, finding nothing of note aside from a bunch of booty calls that make my stomach roll. Was he always this much of a player? Or did I just ignore it all those years?

I click into his texts with Lucas and scroll back a couple of months before his death. Toward the end, Travis got secretive about the jobs our boss had him doing, and I don’t know why it never occurred to me before to check his phone.

Maybe because you were so bogged down in grief that you were fighting just to live, I remind myself. But the joke is on me because I’m still struggling to want to live.

Something catches my eye, and I quickly swipe back, my brows tugging together as I read through the thread.

Lucas: Got a job for you.

Travis: You got it. Send me the details.

Lucas: I’ll send Cain to meet you with the information. This one is off the books. No one can know you’re working on this. Not even Ember.

Travis: I’ll meet him in 10.

Well, there’s the confirmation I didn’t need that my brother was lying to me.

I drop the phone on the table and consider my options. I might be able to track his movements through the GPS in the phone, and while I know my way around a computer, hacking isn’t my strong suit.

The manila envelope catches my eye, and I drop my head into my hands. This is connected. I can feel it. Did Lucas order Travis to look into the Hunter? That’s the only way I can see that he would end up on his radar.

I nibble at my bottom lip, considering what my next move should be.

Lucas will kill me if I don’t deliver on this job. That was the first thing he ever drilled into us when we came on board. Failure equals death.

But on the flip side, the Hunter will kill me if I get too close to discovering his identity.

There’s not much I can do about any of it tonight, so I may as well crawl into bed for a few hours so I can look at this with fresh eyes.

If only I thought that would help.