“Didn’t you quit there?”
I nodded, my excitement beginning to build. It was wonderful. Yeah, I’d been kidnapped from there, but what were the chances it’d happen a second time? And with Creighton present? It wouldn’t happen. West and Walden wouldn’t dare.
Octavia wasjustthe place to go.
I smiled widely at Palma. “Let’s go to a nightclub, and uh, Marshall can’t come with us.”
Palma’s eyes were wide, unblinking. “I mean, duh. Of course, but are you sure that’s what you want to do? I don’t feel I’m totally following what’s happening here.”
She didn’t. She couldn’t.
I decided, just this once, to lay it out for her. “Marshall did the worst thing he could do. He hurt me. Creighton’s killed men whomight’vehurt me.” I waited, letting that sink in her head.
It didn’t take long. She shuddered. “I have a question.”
“Yeah?”
“That robbery last weekend. They took two of those guys out. What happened to them?”
My mouth dried up. “What do you think?”
Yeah. She was getting it now.
She whispered, “We have to go out.”
“Now.”
Chapter Forty
Creighton
I was the shark swimming, and Marshall Finch was the surfer who didn’t know he was bleeding as he was swimming inmywaters. I only got time to start circling him when Blake and Beauregard came down in a tizzy. Both were worked up.
Blake declared we were going to Octavia the same time Lassiter strolled in through the back door.
“Awesome. You’re here.” Levi whooped.
Heath’s head reared back. “What the fuck? I locked that door the last time I went to get another drink.”
Lassiter shrugged. Levi, Lassiter, and I each had our own fob for Blake’s house. None of her housemates needed to know that information.
Blake took my hand, laced our fingers, and dragged me away as she shoved Lassiter in front of her. Levi was amused by the whole thing. “Right on. What’s happening?”
“Normally we’d take the subway, but since you’re here and you have all your guys, we can get a ride. Right?” the Beauregard roommate rambled as we hit the sidewalk. She took charge, directing Blake and me to one of my SUVs, and she, Levi, and Heath went to Lassiter’s vehicle.
Finch followed to the door, but Beauregard had an exchange with him before she shut the door in his face. My gaze slid to Blake, who was looking out the window away from me. She was drumming her fingers on her knee, and I knew that if I reached over to feel for her pulse, it’d be racing.
She lifted the gate for me to go after Finch. Now she was trying to prevent that from happening. She’d changed her mind.
Oh, Blake.
She thought I would get distracted and change my mind.
He hurt her. Therefore, he was mine to hurt.
She would need to do better than this. Putting physical distance between me and her housemate would not work.
Twenty minutes later, she had kept with her mission.
