He reached for her again, and she fell backward into a girl.
“I said stay away from me,” Reyna yelled.
They were drawing a crowd. Eyes were turning to them. People were memorizing their faces. She tugged the baseball cap down. Fuck.
“Please, you have to understand. I never wanted to hurt you,” Everett pleaded with her. “They had someone I cared about. I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” Then she pushed people out of her way, looking over her shoulder, as she ran from Everett.
Her heart was in her throat. She suddenly remembered all too clearly why she was forever stuck inside, why she kept being passed from one prison to another. The outside world was dangerous, and she had treated danger like a lost companion beckoning her in from the cold.
A hand grasped her arm, and she screamed. Then another covered her mouth. She tried to protest, clawing at the hand and kicking at the assailant.
“Hey! Hey!” the person was yelling at her. “What are you doing?”
She twisted her head and realized her attacker was Gabe. He saw her recognition and dropped his hands.
“He’s here. He’s here,” Reyna gasped.
“Who? Who is here?”
Reyna whipped back around to accuse Everett—but no one was there. Her head swam as she craned her neck around to see where he’d run off to.
“Reyna,” Gabe said, drawing her attention back to him. “Are you sure you didn’t get dosed, too?”
“He washere,” she said again. She hadn’t imagined it. He’d touched her. He’d tried to apologize.
“Who?”
“Everett.”
“The guy who turned you in?” Gabe asked.
She nodded. “He found me. He was trying to talk to me.”
“Shit. We need to get out of here. If a Visage plant is in my club, then it’s not safe. We have to get back to Jodie. I’ll have some guys scour the place for him and they’ll report back to me if they see him.”
“I’m screwed. I’m so screwed,” she muttered as she followed him to the entrance. “He saw me. He could tell someone. He might have seen you. We could all be compromised. This whole place could be.”
“Reyna, slow down. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Let’s take it a step at a time. Just focus on helping Jodie. Let me handle the rest.”
Reyna’s eyes continued to flit around the room. She wondered if her mind had conjured Everett out of thin air or if he had really been there. It seemed impossible. Even during all those weeks in isolation, she had never done something so outrageous as to picture him in front of her. Beckham, of course. But Everett? No.
Gabe hauled her out of the club and deposited her on the sidewalk next to Jodie, who was being held up by the bouncer.
“Another one?” the man grunted.
Gabe held up two fingers, and the man straightened and nodded. Reyna tried to follow the exchange but lost track of it when she bent over to catch Jodie again. Already the effects of the venom were wearing off, but the alcohol was holding on strong. Who even knew when Jodie had last had a drink?
“We should stay longer,” Jodie said, holding on to the brick wall for dear life. “I could use another drink.”
“You could use a kick in the ass.”
It was another ten minutes before Gabe came back. “Did a quick sweep and didn’t see anyone that matched his description. I have my guys on it. Let’s get back. I’ll have a report within the hour.”
They retreated to his SUV in silence with a drunk Jodie between them. Neither spoke on the ride back to Elle headquarters, though the drive took much longer than it had on the way out. Gabe kept checking his rearview mirror, changing directions, backtracking, trying to make sure they weren’t being followed. By the time they made it back into the underground parking lot, Reyna was exhausted from both the excitement of the evening and Jodie, who was crashing hard.
Unfortunately, that exhaustion would have to wait. A furious Meghan met them as soon as they entered through the steel door.
