Prologue #2
“What… How…” I blinked and looked away, focusing on the white ceiling and the sound of a beeping monitor. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the hospital,” he said softly. “You were in a car accident. You were unconscious when they pulled you out through the passenger-side window.”
“I don’t remember,” I murmured, my memory a jumbled mess.
“You scared the hell out of me,” he continued.
His voice grew distant and muffled as images of the accident slowly flooded my memory. I stiffened, pulling a breath into my lungs. “Jonathan,” I rasped. “Where’s… Where’s Jonathan?”
Something flickered across his face, but he quickly shut it down.
“You need to rest,” he said gently.
“Where is he?” I repeated, panic clawing up my throat as the memory sharpened. Him being pulled free from the car, the rain failing to mask the sound of the gunshots that followed. His eyes hollow and unseeing.
“They’re still looking for him.”
My heart raced, the monitor echoing it with frantic beeps. “He was shot, Kristoff. You have to… He could be dying—”
“Sophie,” he said, lifting a hand and putting it over mine. “There’s a search party looking for his… for him.” Then, as if my words finally sank in, he straightened. “What do you mean by ‘shot’?”
“Someone shot him,” I sobbed. “Someone pulled him out of the car and then shot him.”
Kristoff exhaled roughly, rubbing his jaw. “The police didn’t say it was a crime scene. No reports of gunshots. Are you sure?”
I nodded, then winced. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“But—”
“Someone stopped,” I whispered, tears burning my eyes. “Someone shot him.”
“Who would want to shoot him?”
“Jacqueline.”
The word landed like a blow, especially considering Jacqueline was Kristoff’s first wife.
The woman who cheated on him with Jonathan, his then best friend, while my cousin was deployed, serving our country.
She even tried to pass her child off as Kristoff’s, and Kristoff hadn’t forgiven or forgotten.
Jonathan was tricked and used by Jacqueline, so call me petty and vindictive, but I was happy when I heard Jacqueline’s marriage to Jonathan had ended.
“She’s capable of a lot of things… but killing…” Kristoff spoke carefully. “Where is this coming from, Soph?”
My throat tightened.
“She’s been threatening him,” I explained, my headache increasing by the second, blurring my vision. I blinked again, then added, “Ask Jonathan’s lawyer.”
“Jacqueline wouldn’t do something so reckless,” he muttered, throwing a quick glance over his shoulder.
“Her own family would disown her. They have strict rules on not attracting attention. It’s the only way they manage to stay under the radar.
” I’d only met Jacqueline’s family once, during Kristoff’s wedding to her, which went to shit.
Not that I remembered any of it well, since I was much younger than him.
My stomach twisted. If he only knew. She’d already crossed lines. He had no idea what she was capable of. Murder was inevitably the next step for her. “I heard the gunshots, Kristoff.” I tried to shift my body up but he forced me to lie back down. “I swear—”
“I’ll look into it,” he assured in a soft voice. “Just rest now.”
I shook my head. There was no way I could rest while Jonathan was out there, injured. Possibly dying.
“What if he was taken?” I asked, but Kristoff simply shook his head, clearly thinking I was overreacting. “What if they came back and took his body. Jacqueline could have finally gone off the deep end.”
“Her family would never forgive her,” Kristoff murmured. “And money means more to her than Jonathan or her son, for that matter.”
“Maybe they helped her?”
Kristoff shook his head. “They wouldn’t risk their power and reputation for Jacqueline’s petty revenge.”
He might be right, but I wouldn’t put it past Jacqueline to find a way to use her connections to the Black Oil Syndicate.
They were a powerful organization in Texas, run by her cousins who had ties to the most powerful people in the country: politicians, businessmen, and criminals.
Neither Kristoff nor my aunt ever told me what kind of criminals, but they made it clear they didn’t want me around her or them.
I stared at the wall while I replayed what had happened: the rain, the headlights tailing us, the crash, the boots, the gunshots, the flat look in Jonathan’s eyes when he hit the pavement.
Logically, I knew Jacqueline wouldn’t have had the strength to drag Jonathan through that window, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have something to do with the shooting.
“Someone was following us, Kristoff,” I rasped, panic rising in my chest. “Jonathan was shot.”
“Sophie—”
“I know what I saw.”
“I’m not doubting you, but you got a concussion and need to get better. That’s the priority right now.” Kristoff squeezed my hand before standing. “Try to rest.”
“But I—”
“I’ll call in a few favors and see what I can do to find Jonathan and figure out what Jacqueline might be up to.”
Kristoff had some badass friends, and if he said he’d do it, he would.
The sedatives must have finally won because my eyelids dropped, although I kept fighting to stay awake.
“I’m going to go home to shower, but I’ll be back. Gemma has been worried sick about you.”
“I’m fine,” I responded automatically. “Tell her not to worry.”
He scoffed softly. “I’m not lying to my wife, Soph.”
I managed a weak smile. Gemma was the best thing that had ever happened to Kristoff. She changed him, gave him everything he never knew he needed. The two of them were a perfect match, and I couldn’t help but wish for the same.
“Will you let me know if—” I swallowed a lump in my throat because deep down I knew what had happened. “When they find Jonathan.”
He nodded. “You’ll be the first to hear.”
I closed my eyes.
“Get some rest, and I’m going to do the same,” I told him. “And don’t come back until tomorrow,” I added, wanting some space. I knew rest wouldn’t find me even if sleep pulled me under.
The chair scraped against the hospital floor, and I opened my eyes again, watching him push the chair away before pressing a kiss on my forehead and leaving the room.
The door clicked shut, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the soft hum from the machines. As I lay there and replayed every second of the accident in my mind over and over again, I let the sound of distant footsteps somewhere down the hall ground me in the present.
It proved futile though, because despite the terror curling in my chest, my eyelids grew heavy and sleep pulled me under.
I wasn’t sure how long I was asleep before I heard the door creak open, followed by a soft whisper of fabric.
My eyes snapped open just as Jacqueline stepped into the moonlight and slipped into the chair next to my bed. She watched me with a cold expression, her lips forming a tight line. I took in her flawless complexion and long, wavy blonde hair and pulled the scratchy hospital blanket up to my chin.
She might have been a decade older than me, but she hid it well, and knowing what she was capable of, I was half a second away from screaming for a nurse.
“Where’s Jonathan?” I croaked.
She leaned closer, smiling faintly. “Funny, I was about to ask you that.”
My brow furrowed in confusion.
“What do you mean?” Her eyes narrowed on me, studying my face as if she were trying to claw out all my secrets. “What are you doing here?”
“Lying to me can be very dangerous,” she whispered.
I was in too much pain to listen to her nonsense babbling.
“Where is Jonathan?” I repeated.
Her smile widened.
“Forget Jonathan,” she murmured, then leaned over me, close enough to let me see the crazed glint in her eyes. “If not for yourself, do it for Kristoff and his family. You don’t want anything to happen to them, do you?”
My heart hammered against my ribs so violently I was sure she could hear it. “Are you threatening my family?”
“It’s a warning.” Her voice was eerily calm. “Forget him and we won’t have a problem.”
“You’re crazy if you think I’ll be like Jonathan and let you get away with everything.” The words scattered the moment they met the air and her eyes glinted murderously. I wasn’t exactly in a position to defend myself, and if I screamed, would help get here fast enough to stop this psychotic bitch?
“Oh, honey, you haven’t seen my crazy yet, but if you don’t stop looking for Jonathan and coming after me, you’ll get a front seat to it. And trust me… I have connections that can end you, your cousin, and his entire fucking clan.”
The terrifying threat swallowed me whole and rendered me silent.
It must have been the reaction she wanted.
She flashed a smile, then rose from the chair with deliberate calm.
She paused at the threshold and smoothed the front of her coat, poised as ever as she added over her shoulder, “Don’t be one of those brave fools, Sophie. It’s never worth it.”
My mouth opened but no sound came out, or maybe the pulse roaring in my ears simply drowned it out.
Her gaze hardened.
“Or the next accident befalling your family will be on your hands,” she continued softly.
Then she slipped out, leaving the silent room vibrating with terror.