“You sure did.”
Anger flared again, somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach. But I also knew it was that anger that kept me from being afraid.
“If all this information was so important to him, whydrape it around my neck?” I asked.
“Because when you’re as powerful as Donovan Prescott, you make powerful enemies,” Ripley answered. “If his properties were raided, or his computers stolen, no one would find what isn’t there. Even safe deposit boxes can be broken into, identities impersonated. But hanging this information around the neck of his wife?” He shrugged. “That’s the one way to ensure he always knew where it was. That he would always have access to it.”
I stared at the locket again and frowned. I thought about Grace, the sister that never was. The picture perfect fiancé, who never truly loved me. I was nothing more than a pawn to him; a tool to be used. Another pretty jewel in Donovan Prescott’s crown.
“You have to give it back to him,” I murmured quietly.
“What?”
“He’s after me, not you. And he’ll never stop coming for this thing.”
“Peyton—”
“I’m serious!” I exclaimed. “Tell him the whole thing was a clusterfuck because he sent reinforcements prematurely. That somehow I slipped away, but you still managed to recover the drive.”
“That’s not going to work,” said Colson.
“Sure it will. He’ll have to believe it. And he’ll—”
“We already ditched our phones,” said Theo, patting the laptop. “Severed all electronic connections. The four of us are dark now. Totally off the grid.”
“Yes, but you cansay—”
“Besides,” Colson went on, “Ripley and I already told him to fuck off.”
Ripley grinned, and his smile was strikingly seductive. He extended two big, tattooed arms, and cracked his knuckles.
“Y—You did?”
He whirled in his seat, to look directly at me. His expression was darkly serious.
“I told him that I ever saw him again, I would kill him,” he growled. “Slowly.”
The way his mouth moved was almost hypnotic. The grin faded, and darkness took hold. In that moment, I believed every word of what he said. Unequivocally. Without even a shadow of doubt.
“But you know what he can do, what he’s capable of,” I said breathlessly. “You work for him.”
Colson looked at the others for a moment, then at me.
“Not anymore.”
He started the engine and we were moving again, plunging on toward our grimly uncertain future. Whatever that future entailed, I knew we were in it together; the four of us inextricably tied, through fate and circumstance and a mutual hatred for Donovan Prescott.
And so I sat there, surging forward, warmed by the heated leather seats and the comfort of being surrounded by men who, quite literally, would kill to protect me. As the landscape blurred by on either side, I realized it was the first time in forever that I wasn’t alone. I was falling forward. Falling into danger.
My gaze shifted over them, one by one. It lingered upon shoulders and arms. On chiseled jawlines and bulgingbiceps and strong, capable hands.
And in that moment; a deliciously unsettling truth settled over me.
I might not just be falling into danger.
But also, intothem.
