I step out from behind my desk, hands still up, and start to move toward her.
Evelina chokes out a wrenching sob, the gun still wildly shaking in her trembling hands.
“Dammit, Vaughn!” she screams. “STOP! Just tell me who it?—”
“You saw Andrés.”
The second I say it and see the way she flinches, I know I’m right.
“Evelina—”
“I don’tcarethat you helped him fake his own death!” she wails. “I don’tcarethat you didn’t tell me?—”
“I didn’t want to involve you,” I growl, walking toward her. “I didn’t want?—”
“Vaughn!” she screeches, wildly brandishing the gun at me as tears run down her face. “I need that name,now!! I don’t have any time!He’s going to kill Val and Roman!”
I keep walking.
“He’s got them!” she screams frantically. “He’s got them both tied up, and if you don’t give me that name, he’s going to?—”
“He’s not going to do anything, princess,” I murmur.
I take another step closer.
Then another.
“Goddammit!!” she chokes, jamming the gun at me. “STOP.WALKING!”
“Or what.”
I take another step. She starts backing away, but quickly hits the doorframe behind her.
I don’t stop advancing.
She chokes, her face crumpling as I step right into her space, until that shaking gun stops trembling and presses against the underside of my jaw.
“You’re not going to shoot me, princess,” I say quietly.
“My brother—!” She breaks, crying as the tears stream down her cheeks. The metal of the gun drags across my throat. “Yourbrother?—”
“I’ve had them both under near-constant surveillance ever since your father dragged them into a basement,” I growl. “They’re bothfine.”
“You don’t know that!” she chokes. “You?—”
I slide my phone from my pocket, tap a contact, and put the call on speaker, my eyes locked with Evelina's.
“Mr. Bancroft,” Thomas says through the phone. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“Status update.”
“Of course, sir. Mr. Nikitin and your brother are enjoying a dinner date at Atera and have just ordered dessert. Creme brûlée to share, I believe.”
Evelina's body curls in on itself like she’s just been punched in the stomach.
“Thank you, Thomas.”
I hang up and slip the phone back into my pocket. I lift my hand and wrap my fingers around the barrel of the gun, gently pulling it from her shaking grip.
