Phoenix swings backward with an elbow but only clips my cheek. I barely feel it. I grab him by the front of his shirt, lift, and drive him to the floor.
His head bounces off the tile.
Good.
“Lucky!” I hear Willow call, but my ears can’t communicate with my brain with this much adrenaline burning through me.
“This is what you do to women, right?” My voice is a deadly whisper. My fingers circle Phoenix’s throat. His hands claw at me. “You take the air out of them. You make them small.”
He wheezes. My pulse is pounding so hard, it shakes my vision. I lean in closer, increasing the pressure on his throat, my face inches from his own. “How does it feel when someone stronger decidesyou’re done?”
But the world is not a vacuum.
Blue and red explode against the clinic windows, and just two seconds later, the sound of footsteps strides into the lobby.
Oh shit.
Oh,shit.
I look back down at Phoenix, my brain tripping out. I’m going to kill this man. Well, I really,reallywant to kill this man. But the fuckingcopsare here.
I freeze. Phoenix freezes. And all three of us watch two cops stride in, each of their hands held in place, hovering over their guns.
“Identify yourselves,” the taller cop barks, his brows furrowed as he glares the law at us like a gun pressed to my forehead.
I’m poised over Phoenix, my knee dug into his chest. Phoenix’s hands are fisted into my shirt. Willow stands just off to the side with the same curtain ties I’d picked as a potential strangulation tool in her hands. There’s glass and blood all over the place.
We all look as guilty as we possibly could.
“I’m Phoenix Marrow,” the man says. And I let him up as he scrambles to his feet. It’s no different than me pulling on my Saint Shade mask. That’s how easily Phoenix turns it off and on. He takes a step toward the cop, extending a hand. “This is my clinic.”
“I recognize you,” the other officer says, and I hate that there’s a little admiration that leaks into his tone. “You’re the one I see online all the time.”
Phoenix flashes a criminally bright smile and shakes hands. “That’s me. How can I help you tonight?”
The taller of the two doesn’t look so instantly enamored. “Your security system was tripped. When they got no response, we were dispatched. Looks like there’s a problem here.”
Eyes flash back to me and Willow, where we’re both still standing here like we weren’t about to end this motherfucker’s life.
“No,” Phoenix says. “No problem. Just a misunderstanding. My niece and her boyfriend were just about to leave.”
“Would you like us to see them out, Mr. Marrow?” The shorter pushover asks.
“Please,” Phoenix says with a hint of a satisfied smile. “I need to close everything up. It’s been an unexpected night.”
In-fucking-deed it has.
“Take it easy, Mr. Marrow,” the cop says, waving me and Willow to them.
And my heart is racing about a thousand miles per minute as I take Willow’s hand in mine and step forward.
I was literally thirty seconds from breaking Phoenix’s neck. My rap sheet before I turned eighteen is two full pages long. And Willow. Willow is a full-fledged serial killer responsible for I don’t even know how many deaths.
And we’re walking through these doors with a couple of police officers.
I get one backward glance before we’re escorted outside. Phoenix watches us leave with a look that isn’t smug—smug would be too small a word. It’s a sort of cold, patient promise. Like a man who’s watched a chessboard and knows that losing a pawn will only set up a later checkmate.
We step out into the night, into the blinding light of their lights flashing blue and red. Bella is long gone. Good. She might have been ignorant, but she didn’t deserve to get caught up in the law.
