Striding out to the change room, I checked my phone, but the screen was blank. I shot her a quick text and began unwinding the wraps around my hands. Once I was done, I checked the phone again despite it being silent the whole time. Fuck.

“Rebel.”

I glanced up at Max as he appeared beside me. He had a grimace on his face, and instantly, my blood began to run cold. There was no reason he’d seek me out unless—

“What?” I asked, slamming the locker closed.

“Your girl—”

“Charlie?”

“She’s a cop.”

My expression fell even further. If he knew…

“What have you done to her?” I asked, getting up in his face. I’d crack his fucking skull open if he’d touched her. I’d kill him with my bare hands.

“I haven’t done anything,” he replied, staring me down. “But Simon has.”

“Simon?”

“You know, Simon, the whiny bastard in charge of bribing the entire police force?”

“I know who Simon fucking is,” I snapped.

“He’s making a play for The Underground,” Max said, ignoring me. “He’s using your girl as an example.”

I knew it. I fucking knew it. I’d told Ryan the other day I’d suspected as much. He’d told me to keep my fingers outta it, but if Charlie had gotten herself mixed up in it, I had to get involved. My hand had been forced.

Flexing my fingers, I asked, “Where is the bastard?”

“Let’s make one thing clear, Rebel,” Max said. “I want The Underground. I want Simon out. I’m prepared to overlook your girl being a cop—”

“You need my help,” I snapped. “Charlie for The Underground.”

Max narrowed his eyes. “We go now, we might get her back before it’s too late.”

Turning, I grabbed my keys and phone from my locker before slamming it closed. “Lead the way, but I’m driving.”

I’d been through a lot of fucked up shit in my life. A lot of fucked up criminal activity, but nothing got to me more than the drive to find Charlie. Maybe she was already hurt or worse…dead.

I’d only just found her.

“Here,” Max said, pointing to a house up ahead.

It looked deserted, or at least it did from the facade. The garden was overgrown, the veranda rotting, and the house itself looked like a squatters den. It was wreathed in a darkness so complete it even gave me the chills.

“What is this place?” I asked, pulling the car up a few houses back and killing the engine.

“Simon used to use it to sell drugs back when he was a dealer.”

Fuck, I knew the guy was a piece of work but drugs were the worst. Drugs were what killed my parents in a roundabout way. The driver of that semitrailer had been loaded, had careened into our car… I shook my head and unclipped my seatbelt.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Rebel,” Max said, following suit. “Follow my lead, and we’ll get her out.”

“I know you’re using me,” I said. “You get what you want, and that means I get her. I’m not a fucking idiot.”

“Then I was right to trust you.”

Glancing at him, I rolled my eyes. “Get out of the car.”

Sliding out, I closed the door behind me, waiting for Max to take the lead. I was the brawn on this operation, and he’d made himself clear. I was the backup incase he needed me to beat the fucker senseless.

The front door was open—the door itself was falling off its hinges—the wood brown, and the paintwork was peeling off in flakes. Inside, the place felt like ice and stunk like rotting wood and damp, the floorboards creaking underfoot. Typical drug den, a squatter’s delight. Fucking filthy.

There was a thud from further back in the house, and Max strode forward through the darkness with purpose. Simon was still here, so maybe it wasn’t too late. As we approached the rear, a murky artificial light began to break the darkness. Someone was home alright.

Max stepped into the room first, and it wasn’t until I’d followed him in that I realized the extent to which things had blown up. Simon was standing in the center of the room, a gun in his hand. A dangerous man with his finger on the trigger, the barrel pointing right at my girl.

My gaze landed on Charlie, and my breath caught. She was sitting on a chair, her hands behind her back—probably bound—her eyes bright and wild. There was a red mark on her cheek, marring her perfect, creamy skin. She’d been hit. Bastard.

“What the fuck, Simon?” Max exclaimed. “You tryin’ to fuck us all up?”

“She’s a cop,” he snarled.

“I know,” he replied.

Simon shook his head in disbelief. “You know?” he roared. “You know where I found her? With her fingers in our files, gathering evidence.”

I glanced at Charlie, and her gaze was fixed on mine. I could see the truth echoed in them as clear as fucking day. She’d been using me to get into The Underground. She’d said she’d play the game until I got out. Was that a lie?

“Charlie,” I said, shaking my head.

“No,” she pleaded. “Don’t even think it.”

“Shut up!” Simon roared.

“Put the gun down,” Max said calmly. “Last thing we need is to put a girl in the ground.”

“She’s not a girl, she’s a fucking pig, and we need to make an example out of her.”

“Stop fucking around,” Max snapped. “You and I both know that this is your play, Simon. It’s been a long time coming, right?” He edged forward. “You want the entire pie for yourself. The whole fucking Underground. You want to be king.”

“Fucking right,” he spat. “You and Graham are running that place into the ground.”

“That’s bullshit,” I hissed.

“Stay out this, Rebel,” Max said, holding his hand out to silence me. “This is between us.”

“Not with a gun pointed at my woman’s head, it isn’t.” Turning my attention onto Charlie, she shook her head. I could read her thoughts and they said, don’t try anything stupid.

“Simon, you know you’re fucked,” Max said. “You kill a cop and you’ll bring everything down. Everything.”

Simon’s eyes flashed, and he pressed the gun against Charlie’s temple. “Not if they don’t find her…or you.”

I tensed, my muscles coiling, and I readied myself to lunge for her. Push her outta the way and take the bullet for her. I didn’t give a shit about her motives for being at The Underground. I didn’t give two fucking shits because I saw something between us that was worth saving. Worth taking a bullet for. She saw through my bullshit, through my past, and she saw the real me. That was worth risking my life.

She pulled her hands free and her blue eyes fixed onto Simon. With one swift movement, she was up out of the chair and going for his gun.

Fuck, no!

I let out a roar as Simon tensed, his finger squeezing against the trigger. The rest happened like a slow motion sequence in a movie. Her right hand shot up and grasped his wrist, shoving the gun upward. There was a deafening bang as it went off, the roof shattering as the bullet passed through the plaster. For a sickening moment, I thought she’d been hit, but Charlie was in full flight, her left hand slamming down onto the ditch of Simon’s elbow. As he buckled forward, her knee slammed into his groin, and his grip dislodged from around the gun.

It clattered to the ground, and Max scooped it up as Charlie brought her knee down…then back up into Simon’s face.

Holy fucking shit. She hadn’t needed me at all.

Simon fell to the ground in surprise, blood streaming from his nose, and Max stepped forward, aiming the gun directly at the guy’s head.

“Get out of here,” Max snapped at us. “This is between us.”

Charlie glanced at me, then to Max. “But—”

“This is your free pass,” he snapped at her. “We will have a little chat later, you and I. For now, get out of here, and be thankful you have your life.”

I held out my hand for Charlie, and she stumbled backward, obviously torn considering her job. She wanted to call it in.