Frankie shoved Evie toward Aaron, then stalked off, flipping the bird as he went. Aaron’s eyes lifted to mine for the briefest moment as he pushed on Evie’s shoulder and guided her to sit in the chair. It took everything in me not to run after Frankie. Not to take him by surprise and make him sorry for every finger he’d ever laid on Evie. The only thing that held me glued to this spot was Evie herself. I wasn’t leaving her alone. I couldn’t.
“Now,” Max’s voice cut in, “I’m going to ask you one more time where the rest of the evidence is. Or you get to watch while she gets a bullet put through that pretty little head.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I watched with horror as Aaron took a gun from the waistband of his jeans and pressed it against Evie’s head. Her eyes went wide then, frantic, as she stared at me. She was breathing rapidly, her chest heaving as she tried to pull in deep breaths through her nose. A million things danced in her eyes, a thousand unasked questions, and I didn’t have any answers. I didn’t know a fucking thing. Nothing was going according to plan, nothing was how we’d talked about it, and now her life was on the line. Now she was in danger, and I wasn’t going to be able to do a damn thing to help her. Again.
Every time she’d ever needed me, needed someone there to help her, I’d failed her, and this was no different.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” I said, trying to soothe her, trying to keep my voice even and calm, but by the fearful gleam that still shone in her eyes, I wasn’t successful in convincing her.
Max laughed again. “Aww, that’s sweet. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but nothing is going to be okay until you tell me where the rest of the evidence is.”
Swallowing my fear, I leveled my voice and spoke to Max, though I kept my eyes on Evie, on the point of the gun nestled in her hair, on the finger Aaron had wrapped around the trigger. “It’s too late. Everything’s already been put into place. If Evie and I don’t come out of here, evidence gets mailed off to every major news outlet and to Chicago’s finest.”
I heard the creak of his office chair and caught movement out of the corner of my eye as he leaned forward. “Well, that’s not the answer I was hoping for, Kid. Seems we’ve got a bit of a problem. Because I’m not letting either of you walk out of here. And it would be very bad for business if anyone got wind of the twelve-million-dollar nest egg I’m sitting on, courtesy of Chicago’s favorite businessman, Blaine Pruitt. I’ve been doing this for six goddamn years, and if you think I’m going to let you two lackeys fuck this up for me, you haven’t learned a damn thing from me.”
“I don’t think they’re the ones who are going to fuck this up for you, Max. I think you did that all on your own.” The voice came from the doorway, and I slid my gaze from Evie for a split second to watch as three guys filled the frame of the door. The one in front was dressed impeccably in a well-tailored suit, the two guys flanking him at the back in dark shirts and jeans, much like Aaron, their bulk blocking out the light from the open warehouse behind them.
It took me a minute to place the guy in front, but as I stared at his dark hair peppered with gray, his aristocratic nose and clean-shaven face, a spark of recognition flared, and this was either the best possible outcome or the worst, because it seemed that Blaine had decided to pay Max a visit.
“Hope that piece of garbage at the front wasn’t anyone important,” he said as he walked farther into the room, glancing to the left at where Evie sat in the chair in front of Aaron, then to the gun pointed at her head. When he turned to look at me, his eyes settled on my face for a couple of seconds before he turned to Max. He unbuttoned his suit coat and tucked his hand into the front pocket of his pants, casual as you please. “This is quite the shit hole you have here. You’d think with twelve million and some change you’d be able to afford a nicer headquarters for your crew.”
Max’s face turned red with rage as he stood from his chair, leaning over his desk. “You fucking bitch! You sold me out.”
Though her mouth was covered, Evie’s eyes sparkled like she was smiling, and then she moved the arms from behind her back, sliding her hands free of the rope and letting it fall to her feet, and reached up to peel the tape from her mouth. “I didn’t, but I sure as hell wish I had.”
“What the fuck…” Max breathed. And then before I could move, before I could blink, before I could even really consider how Evie’d been able to get out of her restraints, I watched in horror as Max reached under his desk and pulled out a gun, pointing it right at her. “Should’ve done this myself five years ago.”
I didn’t think before I dove toward her a split second before a shot rang out.
EVIE
It all happened so fast. The blink of an eye, really. One minute Aaron had his gun pointed at me, and the next he was using the distraction of Blaine to loosen my ropes enough so I was able to slip free of them. Then there was shouting, the angry look Max fixed on me as he pointed a gun straight at my chest. Riley crashed into me from the side, knocking me off the chair and onto the floor at the same time the earsplitting sound of a gunshot rang in the small room, followed almost immediately by another. His full weight settled harshly on top of me as I slammed into the cool concrete floor, the force of which knocked the wind out of me.
There was so much commotion, so many voices, none of which I could focus on. All I could do was stare at the ceiling and wonder why Riley hadn’t gotten off me yet. And then I felt the wetness at my shoulder a moment before Aaron was above us, rolling Riley to the side as Riley’s loud groan filled my ear.
“Jesus, Kid,” Aaron said, kneeling next to us, his focus on Riley. “Can you hear me?”
Was he asking that because the shots had been so loud in the tiny room? My ears were ringing, but I could still make out everything he was saying, could still hear movement from elsewhere in the room, other voices, too. Once again noticing the wetness seeping through my sweater onto my skin, I reached up to press my fingers to it. Red-stained fingertips met my gaze when I brought my hand in front of my face.
“Is Evie okay?” Riley asked, his voice frantic and strained. “Did she get hit?”
Even as I heard Aaron say, “She’s fine, man. You did good,” I still took stock of my body, thinking I’d somehow gotten shot in the commotion, that my body had gone numb from the shock. But Aaron was leaning over Riley, all his focus on him, and everything clicked into place. The gunshot. Riley knocking into me from the side. The bloodstain on my shirt.
It wasn’t my blood. It was his.
“No…” I breathed, scrambling up on my knees to look down at Riley. Dark red pooled under his shoulder, the stain spreading. Someone was calling my name, but I couldn’t focus on anything but the sight of Riley lying in front of me and his bloodstained shirt.
I reached out, running my hands over his face, over as much of his body as I could reach, making sure he was okay. His eyes were focused on me, blinking up at me, and I wanted to drown in them. I didn’t realize I was crying until Riley reached up with his good arm and wiped the flow of tears with his thumb.
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” he said.
“Evie!” Aaron snapped, shaking my shoulder to finally get my attention. “I need you to put pressure on the wound so I can help him sit up. Can you do that?” He grabbed my hands and placed them on either side of Riley’s shoulder, then used both of his to apply pressure to mine, showing me what to do.
I nodded and looked over at him, realizing that he’d stripped off his shirt at some point, the warm cotton material now under my hands and helping to stop the blood flow from Riley’s bullet wound.