Easton’s shoes are quieter as they approach. When they come to a sudden halt, my heart stops beating. My lungs don’t even dare to draw breath. “What are you doing here?” His voice is solid, firm. I’m so amazed by him that it hurts.
“I couldn’t miss your first gallery, doll. You honestly couldn’t have expected me to.”
“I’m not going with you. Not again, Aaron. It’s best if you just leave.” He’s lying, trying not to raise suspicion. If he goes too easily, our ruse will be up.
Aaron makes a disappointed noise. “Come on, now, doll. There’s no reason to be like that. Not with that beautiful girl just back there. I know you’d hate to have something happen to her.”
Easton continues to stand his ground. “I’m done being threatened by you. I’m not scared anymore.” That part, at least, is true. He isn’t scared. I am, though. “Just leave. You’re not welcome here.”
There’s some rustling before my still heart drops to my feet. “Don’t make this complicated. Come now or I won’t stop with you. You don’t think I know who she is? You really want to be responsible for her death?”
I’d bet my life there’s a gun pulled on Easton right now. Cold sweat runs down my back. We can’t show our hand this soon.I’ve got to trust that he can stay alive until it’s time to move. “Don’t do anything stupid, Aaron. Just don’t hurt her, okay?”
“Not if you behave, doll. You know the rules.”
Easton hesitates, but as always, he’s so much braver than me. “Fine. I’ll go willingly. No reason to make this complicated.”
“Good choice. Let’s go. I won’t make the mistake of letting you out of my sight again. Move and make it quiet. No alerting your littlefriendabout your change of plans.” Even from here, I can hear the derisive sarcasm he funnels into that one word. Like Easton is truly an idiot for believing that Blake is his friend. Little does he know the things that girl would do for him—isdoing for him.
Easton doesn’t respond, but the sound of him walking towards the exit ring loud and clear. Brady is white with rage and vibrating. He is still doing better than me. When the door closes, we’re both off like lightning. Under zero circumstances are we letting him out of our sight for more than a moment. Blakely is hot on our heels.
Just like we planned, there is no street parking available, so Aaron has no choice but to drag Easton by the collar to the parking garage behind the building. At least something is going right. That has to mean something. The CCTV there works as of this morning. It’s going to be fine.
He is going to be fine.
We peek around the door carefully before slipping out to follow them after ensuring we’re not seen. “Give me one chance and you’ll need to put money on my books,” Brady hisses furiously as we rush to catch up.
“Take a number.”
Our combined footsteps halt at the corner, checking to make sure he is still unaware. I’d feel better if I knew when the cops were going to show up. Blake was supposed to be the one to call them when she told Easton that he had company. Now it’s justblind faith and a stronger-than-ever determination to make sure that my boyfriend stays alive today.
I only stand to lose everything.
What could go wrong?
Never mind. Even in the darkest recesses of my mind, I don’t want to tempt fate in the wrong direction.
Where the fuck are the cops?
I don’t even realize I’ve spoken aloud until Blake responds. “The Chief swore that he’d send units immediately. We just can’t let them get away.”
We slink behind Easton and his tormentor, quiet as church mice as if we’re the criminals here. Luckily, Aaron is incredibly overconfident and has all his focus on making sure Easton doesn’t try to alert anyone of his impending kidnapping that he doesn’t even consider the possibility that it’s already underway.
He drags him roughly towards a luxury car parked at the back of the garage. Brady locks his arm across my chest to keep me from acting too soon, and we all duck behind a pillar to watch from a less visible location. Since when did he become the logical one? If we’re too soon, that gun will come back out, then everybody is fucked. I know that. However, seeing that creep with his hands on my boyfriend is tossing my sense of reason off the deep end and holding its head under the water for full effectiveness.
One more shove and Easton threatens to tumble down. Copper floods the inside of my mouth after biting down on my tongue to keep from trying to divert Aaron’s attention away from him. Easton’s feet get caught up on each other, making my heart stall, but then he recovers. Blakely swears under her breath as Easton comes up swinging.
With all the precision and control that Brady drilled into his head, his fist connects to that fuckhead’s jaw and sends him reeling. Not needing any further encouragement, Brady and Iare there in one second and on top of Aaron the next. Like with everything, we operate in seamless synchronicity. Aaron doesn’t even have time to see us coming. I shove his head into the trunk of his car, smiling inside at the sickening thunk. Brady relieves him of the gun tucked into the back of his shirt.
Aaron howls like an animal. “Oh, Jesus Christ. Shut the fuck up,” Brady growls, unloading the weapon. “See, we don’t need this, do we, Ace?” he asks, holding it up.
I throw more of my weight into the grip I have on his neck and shake my head. “Nah. We’re not scared little bitches.”
Brady hands it off to Blake who has already gotten Easton with her before I release the motherfucker. He charges immediately, towards Easton, of course, but we don’t let him get very far. Brady knocks him on his ass with one solid hit to his jaw. It takes some wrangling because he’s a squirmy little shit, but combined, we get his arms pinned above his head. I keep his legs still and look back. “Hey, baby. How many times did he kick you?”
Easton glares. “Every chance he got.”
“Come do your worst. We’ll keep him still for you.”
