Classified ☑

[ chapter 37 ]

I backed away quickly, my knees buckling from hitting the coffee table. My arms flailed around as I tried to regain my balance.

Cole tried to stand up and stumbled, holding his hand out to me as he pleaded. "Nina, please listen, that's what I was trying to tell you before-"

Within a heartbeat, Dante was at my side, shoving Cole back into the couch. Cole's face scrunched up in agony from the pain he must've felt, but Dante didn't let it affect him. He held his brother down and stared him dead in the eye. "Don't you dare touch her."

Cole slapped at Dante's arms, but he didn't loosen his grip. "I'm trying to explain why I'm here but you interrupted. I pretended to be on Dad's side to see what he'd have me do and now I'm here to tell you all that. And I'm telling you the truth! Dad sent me here to kill her, but I'm not going to," Cole explained, his eyes searching Dante's face.

Dante kept his hands shoved against Cole, but turned to look at me. He wasn't buying it. For some reason though, part of me longed for Cole to be telling the truth.

"Cole, we were basically handed an exit. It was too easy to escape," Dante said, voicing something we'd both thought. "I don't buy that Dad would let us escape and then send you to kill Nina. It doesn't make any sense."

It didn't at all.

That's when an idea popped into my head. I tapped Dante on the shoulder to get his attention. He looked at me, his brows slightly narrowed. I touched my ear to get my message across.

His mouth formed an 'o' when he realized what I was saying. Cole looked between the two of us, not quite getting what we were communicating between the two of us.

"So they beat you up, so we'd take you in no questions asked?" Dante asked Cole.

Cole looked even more confused now, probably from the sudden change in tone from Dante. "Yeah," he drawled out. "Then I was supposed to kill Nina when I got the chance."

Poor Cole couldn't see how manipulative his own dad was. They knew he didn't pull the trigger when he had a chance kill me the first time, how I want's sure. But I was sure they knew because they also knew he wouldn't be able to kill me now. They were using him to get information from us.

The question now was how were they listening in on our conversation.

Dante held out his hand to Cole, and once again, he looked up at his older brother confused. "What?"

"Give me your phone," Dante mouthed. He still looked angry, but his shoulders had relaxed the tiniest bit.

Cole narrowed his brows at him, but turned over on the couch to reach into his back pocket and handed it to Dante. He looked it over and felt it in his hands, shaking his head before handing it back to Cole.

Brown eyes found mine and I saw that Cole felt skeptical about the whole thing. I did too. At this point he probably didn't know who he could trust either.

A tug on my arm pulled me out of the trance Cole had me in and I looked to see Dante looking down at me, his jaw slightly clenched. He nodded his head to leave the room and I followed, sparing one last glance at Cole who kept his eyes locked on his brother's back as he frowned.

We walked to the front door where there was a lot more privacy since Thomas and Gracie were in the kitchen still with the door closed. Joseph was upstairs somewhere while Mark and Shelly were still in my room.

"What is it?" I asked Dante.

He held up a small chip that was almost barely noticeable. "This was on Cole's phone. They can't hear us through it now, but this was definitely how they were listening in on our conversation before. We're lucky you thought of it before we accidentally gave them anything."

I took it from him and inspected it. It was hard to believe that this tiny thing was listening to us. "It's not working now?"

Dante shook his head. "No, it has to be connected to a phone or electronic device some way. That's the thing about using chips, you can't just stick them on people." There was hint of a small and contagious smile on his face, one I wasn't used to seeing.

The corners of my mouth tugged up. "Interesting. So, do you still think Cole is working with your dad?"

His smile disappeared just as quickly as it had come as a sigh left his lips, running a hand through his messy hair. "I'm not sure what to think or believe right now. The only thing I'm certain of is going to that bank tomorrow and finding out what your dad left you."

There was a warmth in his blue eyes that I wanted to latch onto, they were inviting. I reached in for a hug, needing to feel his presence, and he accepted it. His body still felt tense against mine, probably from all the stress he was feeling about everything.

Dante kissed the top of my head and loosened his grip on me so we could look at each other. He brushed a stray piece of hair out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ear, his touch leaving a trail of tingles on my skin. "We're going to figure this out, okay?"

I was about to nod my head, but Dante was shoved away from me and against the door. His back bounced off the door and he stood slightly hunched over as he glared at Joseph who was standing in front of him.

Joseph was seething in anger, it was practically radiating off of him. "Don't you dare touch my sister."

Well, that's ironic since Dante had almost said those exact words not long ago and he was the one who had shoved Cole. Thankfully, we weren't related though.

"She may trust you, but I don't."

Joseph's tone brought me back to reality. He spoke like I wasn't even in the room and that upset me. "Joseph-"

He turned around, his burning gaze locked on me now. "Nina, stay out of this." He turned away and focused his glare back on Dante. "Thomas may think it's a good idea to let you go to the bank with her tomorrow, but after that, you're gone. You and your brother You got it?"

Dante's jaw tightened as his blue eyes locked onto Joseph's. "Don't you think Nina can make that decision for herself?"

"Well, you did kill our dad and she still kept you around."

The look on Dante's face looked like he'd just got the wind knocked out of him. He stood there silently, not able to say anything back to Joseph.

"So no, I don't think she can make that decision for herself," Joseph said, shoving Dante once more into the door.

A/N: Sorry this filler chapter took me forever to get up. I hit a road block with it, so hopefully it came out okay. Also, some exciting news! I've been working on another mystery story that will be released once this book ends or towards the end of it. So be on the look out for that. :)