Pick up, you asshole!
“Saint, I—”
I level my cousin with a lethal look, and he instantly clams up. “Do not even attempt to speak to me right now.”
“I’ve got them!” Theo calls out, and I rush to his side.
“Where?”
He scratches the back of his head, frowning. “At the hospital.”
“That makes no sense,” Caz says.
“I know,” I agree, “but it’s the best lead we’ve got. Let’s go.” I move toward the door.
“Hold up a sec,” Theo says. “Let me pull up the cam outside the hospital.”
“We don’t have time to waste,” I shout, hustling toward the door.
“There!” Theo shouts. Caz leans over his shoulder, his gaze darkening.
“What?” I race back to their side.
“That’s Bryant Eccleston with Darrow,” Theo says, pointing to where Knight’s number two is helping him out of a car and into the hospital.
“But no Lo,” I add, kicking the wall in frustration.
“He’s injured,” Theo says, glancing up at me with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “Maybe, she got away.”
“Lo has proven she’s resourceful, so it’s possible,” I agree, hope blossoming in my chest.
“Or she fought back,” Caz says, more quietly, not completing the end of the sentence.
“She’s not dead,” I blurt, feeling it in my bones.
“Then where is she?” Caz asks. “If she’s still alive, why hasn’t she contacted us?”
“Because she doesn’t trust us anymore,” Theo says, pinning me with a troubled expression.
The three of us look at Galen, and panic skates across his face. The reality of what he’s done is fully sinking in.
“She thinks you were acting under my instruction,” I growl, lunging at him and kicking him in the leg. “This is all your fault, and I will never forgive you if we’ve lost her.”
CHAPTER 3
Harlow
IREACH THEcabin in less than two hours, having ditched Dar’s BMW at a gas station and hot-wired a battered old Chevy I found lying idle. I couldn’t risk driving Dar’s car here in case it had a tracker. I head straight for the shower the minute I step foot inside my safe haven, properly breathing for the first time in hours.
After I’ve washed the blood and grime from my skin, I change into sweatpants and an oversized sweater and pad downstairs. Putting a frozen pizza in the oven, I pour a glass of water and head into the living area. I drop on the couch, leaning my head back as I contemplate one of the longest days of my life. It’s after one a.m., and I should be exhausted, but adrenaline still pumps through my veins, and I’m too wired to sleep.
I can’t believe Galen traded me to Darrow. That he was so cold and callous. So insistent that Darrow kill me.What the fuck have I ever done to Galen Lennox to deserve that?I know he thinks I betrayed them. That he believes I have the evidence proving Sinner and his buddies killed Daphne Leydon, the police commissioner’s wife and the woman who was also the niece of the newly elected president of the United States, and that I intend to use that to bring the organization down, but why would he make such a call without verifying the truth?And would he go against his cousin like that?
That’s the part that has me most tied up in knots. The thought they were all in on it—that the emotional goodbye at the forest was an act. That this was their plan all along, because it honestly doesn’t seem like their style.
Things were different with Saint and me last night. I know the emotion I saw on his face was real.Why would he give Caz a Kevlar vest for me at the fight if he was planning on killing me? Surely, it would’ve been easier to leave me unprotected in the hope a stray bullet would do the job for them?
I don’t think Saint wanted me dead. But I’m also struggling with the notion Galen would go behind his back and do this without his knowledge.
