Brutal (Vexley Sin Trilogy #1)

Prologue

Rain pelts, making the wooden dock slick.

I shouldn’t be here.

I know it.

I knew it the second I left the car, the second I chose not to wait, not to call it in, not to hand this off to someone safer.

But safer doesn’t get you this close.

And I am close.

Close enough to feel it.

The truth has a weight to it. You don’t see it, not at first, but once you do, it settles in your bones.

The file inside my coat does exactly that.

It’s enough.

Enough to prove that what looks like separate companies, separate deals, separate incidents is anything but.

It’s all the same thing.

I press my hand briefly against my chest, feeling the edge of the folder through the fabric.

This is proof.

Not rumor. Not suspicion.

Proof from a reliable source who slipped it to me minutes ago.

The kind of proof that brings down families. Powerful families who think they can’t be touched.

But they can.

This is how I redeem myself. How I become what my girl deserves. What I should have been long ago.

The marina is quieter than it should be.

That’s the first thing that’s wrong.

Too quiet.

Like something already happened. I slow as I move down the dock.

I wasn’t supposed to come this far. That’s the second thing.

The meeting point was closer to shore where the light is better.

So either I misunderstood the instructions…or they changed.

Voices carry over the water. I stop to listen.

There are at least two of them.

No. Three.

The third doesn’t speak.

That’s how I know he’s the most dangerous one there.

“…not the way—”

“…it doesn’t matter—”

“It matters if—”

The words cut off abruptly.

Something tightens in my chest.

This isn’t how the meeting is supposed to go.

I shouldn’t be here.

The thought hits again. I turn slightly, glancing back toward the shore.

I’ve come too far now. It’s too late.

I take another step forward.

I need to confirm, because if the contents of this file are true, I can destroy this family, their careers, their fortunes, their legacies.

All gone in an instant.

And they know it.

They have to.

Which means I’ve already crossed the line.

I slip on the damp wood, and my shoe makes a loud scrape.

Too loud.

The voices stop.

All of them.

I freeze.

Every instinct I have screams at me to move. To walk away. Not to run. That would make me look like I have something to hide.

I turn.

Take one step back.

Then another.

But behind me—

A hand clamps around my arm and yanks me backward. Hard.

I don’t scream. I don’t gasp. But I stumble, catching myself on instinct, the file shifting under my coat.

“What the hell—”

The man in front of me is bigger than I expected, and I don’t just mean size. His presence is big, the kind that owns every room he steps into.

He isn’t surprised.

He isn’t confused.

He isn’t even angry.

He’s simply fixated, as if I’ve stepped exactly where I was meant to.

“That’s far enough,” he says.

I swallow. “You’re making a mistake.” I keep my voice steady because I know what I’m holding. Because I know what it means.

He tightens his grip on me, pulling me away from the edge, while another man emerges from the shadows. This one isn’t quite as big, but already I can see his eyes even in the dark—emerald green and hard. Eyes that don’t miss anything.

And behind both of them, still in the shadow, is a third. Tall but thinner than the other two. Lanky, actually, like he still has to grow into his size.

He watches.

“I don’t think so,” the second man says.

I let out a breath. “You don’t understand,” I say. “What I have—”

“We understand exactly what you have.” From the first man. The big one.

My pulse spikes. “Then you understand what happens next. This doesn’t stay here. It doesn’t disappear. I made sure of that.”

Rain hammers harder against the dock. Water splashes up against the wood.

The man holding me shifts slightly, just enough to further tighten his grip.

“Did something change?” I ask. “I was told that—”

“Shut up!” The man holding me squeezes my throat.

I suck in a breath.

The third man in the shadows tilts his head, just slightly.

He’s not concerned. Not threatened.

And that’s when I know this is all wrong.

Not just the location.

Not just the timing.

Me.

I’m wrong.

I’m not supposed to be here.

“I think,” the second man says quietly, “you’ve misunderstood your position.”

I shake my head. “No. I know exactly where I stand.”

But do I?

The second man moves. And everything that happens next goes too quickly to stop.

Too quickly to fix.

The file shifts under my coat as I go down.

The last thing I understand is that whatever was supposed to happen here tonight with these three men…

I wasn’t part of it.

And that’s why I’m not walking away.