22
FIONA
Zeke kepthis eyes on me. They gleamed in a way that made me nervous. Was he going to do something crazy?
“Trust me,” he whispered.
“I do.”
He pressed a button on his watch. The movement was obvious. None of us missed it.
“What did you do?” Bergen demanded.
Zeke grinned at him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Bergen rushed over to us, grabbed Zeke’s arm, and looked at the face of his watch. I knew what he’d be seeing. No matter what parts of the technology were active, the front screen only ever displayed the time and a step count for the day. Zeke had designed it that way for exactly this reason, and every King’s Security employee wore one when they were in the field. My guess was that he’d pushed the button to summon Kade and his team to get us out of here. The only question was, why now as opposed to five minutes ago? And why had he been so obvious about it?
“Take it off,” Bergen ordered, pressing the muzzle of his gun against Zeke’s head. Zeke calmly removed the watch. Bergen snatched it off him, dropped it on the ground, and crunched it beneath his heel. It wouldn’t matter. If Zeke had sent out an alert, Kade’s team would be bursting through the doors at any minute.
“He could be psyching you out,” Patience said, but she sounded shaken.
“Or he could have sent for help.” Bergen circled Zeke, grabbed the gun hidden beneath his jacket, and slid it to Patience. “We can’t risk it. We have to get out of here.”
“Let’s take him with us,” Patience suggested. “We can use him as a hostage and negotiate to make sure no one gets in the way of the police arresting Fiona.”
Bergen grinned. “I love the way you think, darling.”
“No!” I cried out. I couldn’t let them take him, or he was as good as dead.
“Fi.” Zeke’s voice was soft. “It’s okay.”
I frowned, my emotions spinning out of control. “Don’t you dare sacrifice yourself for me.”
He mouthed, “Trust me.”
I wanted to fight. To scream and shout and throw punches at the people who’d made my life hell and were now trying to take away the one good thing that had come of it. I couldn’t lose the man I was falling for. I couldn’t. But he was asking me to trust him. Maybe he had a plan. He held my gaze, and I gave a slight nod.
He returned a small smile, and his mouth formed silent words. I couldn’t be certain, but it looked a lot like, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I whispered back, the words coming easier than I ever would have imagined.
“So tragic.” Bergen shoved Zeke, and he stumbled. “You’re going to walk out the back exit and to the left. Don’t make a fuss or I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
I swallowed a whimper as Zeke walked away with Bergen behind him. He didn’t even look over his shoulder.
“Patience, get the painting,” Bergen called.
Patience skirted around me, giving me a wide berth, and hefted the Monet. I considered charging at her, but she still held the gun with one hand, even if it wasn’t aimed at me, and anyway, if I did, it might throw off Zeke’s plan, so I let it happen. Everything in me screamed to dosomething, and I had to remind myself that I was.
I was trusting Zeke.
A moment later, Patience was gone, and the door shut behind her. I waited, hoping to hear the sound of a confrontation. Surely our backup couldn’t be far away. I raced to the door and pulled it, but it was locked. I searched for a mechanism to unlock it, but there was nothing. The door must only lock from the outside.
I ran to the other door, which used to be the shop entrance, but it was boarded up. I pried at the wood with my fingers, but it didn’t budge.
“Fuck,” I breathed.
The windows were boarded up too. Hold on a second. The ones out the front were, but what about the ones in the back?
