“Why didn’t my father tell me about that project?” Portia asked.
“Oh, Portia. You try and try, but you’ll never be the heir that your father wants.” His smile had no sympathy in it. No pity. “But you don’t need to worry about disappointing him anymore. You’ll be dead in a minute.” He pointed the gun at Portia.
“You can’t do this!” Portia threw up her hands, as if that would stop him from shooting her.
“Yes. I can.”
The gunshot was crazy loud in the small room. Ears ringing, Dizzie jerked back and hit the glass wall. She ran her hands over her body frantically. Nothing hurt, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been shot.
“Help me!” Portia lay on the ground, her right shoulder bloody. There was a bullet embedded in the glass wall a few feet behind her. Leopold stepped forward, aiming the gun at Portia again.
His movement opened Dizzie’s path to the doorway.
This was it. Her opportunity to slip out. Maybe Leopold would turn the gun on her, maybe he wouldn’t. But shouldn’t she take the chance to escape?
“Help me.” This time Portia’s voice was closer to a whimper.
Dizzie looked at Portia from her position by the door. The open door.
Blood flowed from Portia’s shoulder, probably not enough to kill her. At least not from that first shot.
Leopold stood over Portia. He looked almost as surprised as Portia that he’d actually shot her. It must be different when you did the killing face-to-face rather than with an anonymous bombing.
Dizzie looked at the door again. Leopold and Portia were both distracted. She could get away. Maybe get deep enough into the company’s lower floors to hide for a short time.
Dammit.If she were the one lying in a pool of blood, she knew Portia and Leopold would leave her there. But Dizzie couldn’t do it. Killian would never recover if he lost Portia. And he would never forgive her if she cost him both his friends. She’d never forgive herself.
Dizzie may not be able to save Portia, but she had to try.
“Not as easy when you have to do the killing in person, is it?” Her voice barely wavered even if she wanted to throw up for taunting the murderous assistant with the gun. What was she thinking?
“It was a stroke of genius having you deliver the bomb.” His self-satisfied smile turned sour. “You’ve turned out to be more resourceful than I’d imagined. It’s almost like you had help disappearing.” The gun drifted away from Portia as he turned to face her.
He was digging. Waiting for her to betray someone. The hacker?
Probably. And although she was livid that she’d been used, Dizzie understood. That was the system she lived under.
It was what the Tremaine Corporation turned people into.
Dizzie batted her lashes. “Yes, Killian has been incredibly helpful keeping me off the grid.”
Leopold snarled and lunged at her. That distracted him from Portia, leaving Dizzie to face him.
This was such a stupid idea.
She ducked to avoid him and spun to the side, moving away from the door. He crashed into the wall where she’d been standing.
That had to hurt. It took him a second to turn around. The hit hadn’t disoriented him as much as she’d hoped.
She balanced her weight on the balls of her feet, ready to move quickly if she needed to. She was glad she’d kicked off the heels, since there was no way she could move fast in those or maintain her balance, but she missed her boots. Any kick she landed would do more damage to her than to him.
Dizzie kept her eyes on Leopold, who pushed away from the way, gun still in hand. His head was bleeding. She hoped the blood trickled into his eye and messed with his vision.
“That was a mistake,” he drawled.
Dizzie shrugged. Yeah, maybe. Especially since she was now farther from the door. But she wouldn’t regret it for as long as she had left.
“You’re not going to save her. You can’t even save yourself.” He swung the gun up and pulled the trigger.
