“It’s better you don’t know. You’ve got a big mouth.”
I scowl. “I do not.”
“Just trust me.”
“How long will we be gone?”
“As long as it takes. The client wants something Barnaby had, and I’m hoping if I give it to them or find out what’s on it, it’ll be enough to make them back off. Or we can use the information against them.”
I think for a moment. “The hard drive, right?” He nods, and I focus on my fingers. “I don’t understand why they want me dead. I don’t know anything about a hard drive.”
Gable shrugs. “Maybe they assume Asher and I checked the drive, and that because Asher and you were together, hetold you. And because of who your dad is, the bounty is high. No one would pick up that job without a big enough incentive, and the longer you’re alive, the bigger the bounty gets and?—”
I hold my hand up, nausea roiling through my stomach. “Please spare the details of how much my life is worth; I might throw up my dinner.”
“Aren’t you curious?” he asks, a small grin on his face.
“Not really. Is it higher than your bounty?”
He falters. “A little.”
I click my fingers. “Ah! I’m worth more than you.”
“Indeath, Gibson.Death. Nothing to brag about.” He pauses. “Besides, it’s only like, one fifty more than me.”
“A hundred and fifty more? Bucks?”
“A hundred and fiftythousandmore.”
My mouth drops open. “Okay, now you have to tell me.”
“Half a mil.”
“Fuckyou!” I shout. “Oh my God, I’d kill me too!” I move onto my back, my mouth still open. My life is worth half a million dollars. Ella Gibson. A nobody who sometimes forgets to lock my car door.
“Gibson,” Gable says. I turn my head to him. “Will you come with me?”
I stare into his eyes, my heart thundering fast against my rib cage—because this isn’t just a case of running for my life. This is me running with a wanted killer. This is leaving the safety of my home and putting my trust in a murderer.
But without Gable, I’d be dead already. He’s spent this whole time keeping me safe and expecting nothing in return. He’s stayed in the shadows and saved me time and time again, and this is a side of him I’ve never seen.
Like he said, he’s never liked me. I’ve never liked him.Our only connection was Asher. Gable could have left the country, started a life somewhere else, and forgotten all about the girl his brother had fallen for.
But here he is. Wanting to help, wanting to rescue me.
I nod. “I’ll come with you.”
He exhales. “Good.”
I turn back onto my side. “What’s the plan, then?”
“We leave tonight.”
“Tonight?” I say. “I can’t leave without saying goodbye to my dad; he’ll hunt us both down. We have to wait until he’s back.”
Gable frowns. “Fine, but we go right after. Tell him you’ve booked a house up north to, I dunno, get your writing head back on. But we’ll go to my safe house and stay there until we get the hard drive or the information. And hopefully, at the same time, find out who killed Asher. And then we kill them.”
My breath catches at the thought of it. Of finally knowing who changed our lives that night and took Asher from us.
