I open my mouth to speak. To tell them to let her go, to do something, when one curses and the second turns his weapon toward me.
“Get out of here,” he snaps at me in French. “Get the fuck out.”
I can’t move. I open my mouth to speak, but I’m staring down the barrel of a pistol.
Let her go,I scream in my head.Let her go!
But I can’t talk.
“You have three seconds,” he growls. I don’t know what to do. I feel as if I’ve been frozen into ice by a magic wand. I hear the click of his gun.
I’m going to die. I’m not going to save her, and I’m going to die, right along with her.
I wish I’d told Nicolette I loved her before she left. Why didn’t I tell her I loved her?
“Drop your weapon!”
They’re looking over my shoulder. I’m afraid to even turn around.
My heart beats so fast I feel dizzy. I stifle a whimper.
The problem is, neither of the armed men make a move to drop their weapon. The woman begins to sob and shake as a uniformed officer, dressed in the trademark dark blue ofla Police Nationale, steps around me with his weapon drawn.
It happens so fast I don’t have time to blink.
One of the men curses. The other pulls the trigger. The woman screams against her gag as the officer crumples to the ground.
My intuition screams at me.
Run.
A bullet pings and ricochets off a metal dumpster as I run as far away from here as I can get.
“Go get her!” one of the men shouts to the other. “Kill her!”
I have to think fast. He’ll expect me to keep running until he catches me. I’m faster than the lumbering idiot chasing me, so when I turn a corner, I’m out of his line of sight. I duck down a narrow passageway and into a doorway. I flatten myself against the door, completely covered in shadow. I hold my breath while he races past me. I wait until I hear no more footsteps.
Then I wait some more.
I stand in place until the night becomes an inky blanket of black velvet and my feet fall asleep.
My phone is dead. I have no idea where I am.
And I’ve just witnessed a murder.
I wish I could call my sister.
I want to cry.
CHAPTER TWO
Thayer
“Thayer, you here?”Lyam yells.
I stretch and stand, my muscles aching from sitting too damn long at the desk. I shut off my computer, put the pens back in the penholder, and straighten the calendar.
Fabien says I have a hair across my ass. Asshole.
