My heart stops. It shuts down.
Atlas killed Kortez.
After telling me just yesterday how much Kortez loved me…he went and killed him. Why? Because he felt threatened?
I laugh to myself, the man looking up at me in fear and confusion as the life slips from his eyes.
Atlas should feel threatened – by me.
I slide the gun into the pocket of my graduation gown and lean down to pick up the man by his feet. His head shakes from side to side as I drag him toward the warehouse, the light in his eyes finally dying out as we make it to the metal wall.
I prop him up against the building with his legs kicked out in front of him. The bullet holes are still leaking blood, leaving a trail from Kortez’s car to Atlas’s warehouse.
Will he send another cleaner to finish the job?
Will he make my best friend disappear from existence?
The questions roll around in my head until I find myself leaning down and swiping my fingers through the man’s blood and running it along the white door, fingerpainting a message to the man who I thought I loved in the blood of someone he trusted – just like I’m now covered in the blood of someone I trusted.
If he has someone else look into this place, he’ll know. He knows just as I now know, our love was just a lie. How else do you love a misfit, after all?
The fire crackles in the background, lighting up the drying message I left for my boyfriend.
I’M COMING FOR YOU NEXT.
Chapter 13
Wylder
"Where does he get off?” Evie is pacing back and forth in the middle of the living room; her phone clutched tightly in her hand as if she’s going to call the courthouse back at any minute and demand more time. “This isnotwhat was agreed! I knew Thompson was a conniving, greedy –"
Roman leans forward from his place on the couch, his eyes watching Evie more than I’m comfortable with. “Whoa, greedy? What does that mean?”
Evie sighs, looking from the Italian back over to me, asking me to silently help her. My eyes find Roman once again to see him much closer to her than he was a second ago, and it hits me just how dangerous this situation is. Roman is a killer. I know it because like recognizes like, and when it comes to how much blood is soaking my hands…I may have more skeletons in the closet than the mafia man standing in my soulmate’s living room.
I know he spoke to Tara, and after the comment he made aboutthrowing his hat in the ring,that’s pretty much the worst thing that could have happened.
There’s no doubt in my mind he’s already planning a future with her – a future that belongs to me. Evie is so close to slamming the dooron her past and when she does, it’ll be me by her side.
The issue is, even if her eyes are silently asking for help, her body is leaning into his. Her breath automatically syncs with the one she feels fanning down her neck. Her skin flushes as if he were touching more than the back of her hand…
She’s more interested in him than she planned – more thanweplanned.
I just don’t know if he’s worth her interest. I don’t know if he can be trusted.
When it comes down to it, will Roman choose the woman he’s falling for, or will he choose the man who unknowingly placed him in her path.
Keeping my eyes trained on Roman, I clear my throat and motion to Evie’s phone. “Thompson has a history of taking payoffs.” I shrug, “There’s a possibility someone is paying him to fuck with your case.”
Evie shoots me a look and shrugs Roman’s touch from her shoulder, “I need more time to –“
Her voice stutters and I watch as the darkness begins to close in the light gray eyes of hers, turning them a darker color than should be natural. “I need more time to build a case.”
I see Roman check his phone from the corner of my eye before he says, “I haven’t had any luck getting the security camera footage, but I can make some calls.”
Evie nods, her face set in stone although the rest of her body is shaking with nerves. “Good, because I’m getting nowhere with the police. They refuse to give me the information about the gun you had on you.”
Evie’s body continues to shake as she stands in the middle of me and Roman, her eyes darting between the two of us. I can see desperation. I can also see the confusion and anger.
