A second later, an unfamiliar voice replies, “All clear. Tango down and threat neutralized.”
“And Caleb?” Enzo asks. “I have someone who’sveryworried about him.”
“I’m fine,” Caleb says. A beat passes before he adds in an irritated tone, “Ronan. I’mfine. The blood is from where?—”
But I don’t hear more than that. My brain stalls at the word blood. And I’m up and running. Sprinting. Sobbing as I hurtle towards Caleb.
He catches me as I slam into him, his arms coming around me, hugging me tight. “Fuck,” he murmurs into my hair. “Ah, fuck.” Leaning away from me slightly, he frames my face with his hands. “Are you hurt? She didn’t hit you, did she?”
Enzo comes jogging up. “She looks okay to me.” He chuckles. “Fast one, there.”
Caleb grimaces. “Shit, Vienna. Your leg. Did you?—”
“It’s fine. But you said there was blood.” My gaze sweeps up and down his body, freezing on a dark spot on his shin. “You’re hurt!”
“It’s nothing,” he says. “Stupid mistake. I ran into the damn—” He makes an irritated sound. “I ran into the fucking coffee table in my hurry to get outside. She missed me every time she shot at me.”
“She?” I glance at the person still lying on theground. Ronan is kneeling beside her as he fastens zip-ties around her wrists. One hand is covered in blood. Long brown hair has fallen free of her hat and hangs in damp tangles over her shoulders.
“She,” Caleb affirms. He nods at Ronan, who pulls the woman to her feet.
At first, I don’t recognize her. But then her face screws up, and she spits, “You! How do you keep doing it? You’re like a fucking cat with nine lives!”
I gape at her. “Frieda?” The woman with Tom? The woman who claimed blood made her queasy and wanted to hang out in a ski chalet with a hot tub?
“Vienna,”she snarls. Fury twists her features. “You just can’t leave Tom alone,canyou? I thought once you moved away, that would be the end of it. Butno, you can’t be happy with one man. You need to take mine, too.”
“What?” Nothing makes sense. “Leave Tom alone? What are you talking about?”
“She’s crazy,” Caleb says. “You don’t need to talk to her.”
“First with all your littlestudysessions,” Frieda snaps. “I know what they were really all about. Trying to seduce Tom away from me. So I had to put a stop to it.”
“Put a stop to it?” I ask. “What?—”
“You didn’t die,” she continues, “but at least with your broken leg, you couldn’t go to class anymore. And it ended up working out great. You dropped out of school, moved out of town… I thought that would be the end of it.”
It feels like something heavy slammed into my chest. “Youhit me?”
“You were right there in the street,” she replies defensively. “I was protecting my man. Just like anyone would.”
“By running her down?” Caleb asks. His tone is murderous. “You ran her down and left her there? You could havekilledher.”
“The fuck?” Ronan mutters. “And I thought I’d seen everything.”
“It was all perfect until you tried to poach him again!” Frieda whines. “There you were, fluttering your stupid eyelashes at him in the bakery. Flirting with him. And after, Tom was all,I’m so glad Vienna’s doing okay. She looks like she’s doing really well.”
I’m so shocked, it takes a few seconds to find my words. “So you decided tokillme? Because I was sitting in the bakery having lunch with another man?”
She scowls at me. “I knew what you were going to do. So I had to stop you. And it would have been so easy. I asked around to find out where you were staying, snuck out here and stuck some shit in the chimney… But this stupid hero had to come save you.” Frieda glances at Caleb. “She doesn’t want you, you know. She wants Tom. She’s just using?—”
“Shut. Up.” Caleb looks like he’s close to losing it.
In the distance, sirens approach.
“We can watch her,” Enzo offers. “Until the police get here, which sounds like it’ll be soon.” He gives Caleb a meaningful look. “If you want some time with Vienna first.”
Caleb takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as he visibly tries to calm himself. Then he lifts his chin. “Thanks, Enzo. I’ll take you up on that.”
