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“Are we standing around, or are we fucking shit up?” he says with a grin, revving the engine of the Ford. “I used to love pushing the shit out of these babies when I first got my licence. The Puma was the one, though. I fucking loved that car.”
“I need you to stop talking,” I tell him, getting in the passenger seat.
“You need to clear your head and think like a soldier instead of getting pent up like this.”
“I’m not pent up.” He gives me a knowing look, cocking his brow in challenge. “I’m not pent up, I’m fed up. I want to fix this shit before more people get hurt.”
“People or Eve?” he asks, using a blank pass to exit the car park.
“Where’d you get that?”
“I told you, I have resources.” He grins. “Answer my question.”
Eve. I want to protect Eve. Because if Chapman came for my father and Alastair for one girl, he’s not just coming for me after I’ve taken out his mistress, his sister, and his wife. He’s going to come for the people I care about if I don’t take him out first.
“Does it matter?” I ask him.
“People in general don’t have the added pressure of people we care about.” Ryan zooms down the quiet street like we’re on a joyride. “Pressure makes mess. We don’t have time to be dealing with more mess than you already have on your hands.”
“Chapman will come for Eve, and I can’t say that he won’t go as far as Jess or George.”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” he says. “I won’t let anything happen to Jess or George.”
“You’re in love with her.” It’s written all over his face, and the same anger that’s coursing through my veins is pounding through his too. I can smell the rage on him and in every one of his heavy breaths.
“No,” he scoffs. “We’re friends.”
“Regardless of what’s what, my only choice is to take Chapman out. I’m going to watch him bleed the same way my father did.”
“This is why I’m not walking away. Ring or no ring, I’m going to watch that bastard bleed the same way my father bled. We have a saying at the security firm,” he says with a stern frown. “Blood for blood. A wound for a wound. A life for a life.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“You know how it goes,” Ryan continues as I check the coordinates on my phone for Catherine’s bail address. “When you’re banded together like we are on high-risk missions, you’re more than just a cadre or a team. You become a family, and if anything or anyone comes at one of us, it comes at all of us.”
I nod, trying to ignore the constant whir of worry. That nagging in my chest that Eve isn’t right here next to me. Every time she’s been out of my sight, I’ve had this goddamn relentless churning in my gut. Like a premonition that something is coming.
Turning a corner, Ryan pulls over into the back road where Catherine’s bail flat is located. It’s quiet, the streetlights are off, and everything is a moving shadow. My pulse is throbbing in my throat as I get out of the car.
“Make it quick,” Ryan tells me, looking around the street like we’re in a war zone.
“It won’t take me a minute,” I say, closing the car door and heading to the house with the blue door like Percival instructed.
The Brutalist buildings stacked on either side are all dark, as though they’ve been abandoned. The hammering of my heart picks up, beating faster when the shadow comes up ahead of me. A female form. It takes me a moment too long to recognise it.
“Mary?” Fuck.
My head boggles while she pauses beside a large bush. One side of her body seems weighed down and heavy. But in the dark, I can’t make out why.
“Your Grace,” she coos with a courtesy. “Not who you expected?”
No. I slip my hand into the pocket of my hoodie and grasp my Glock tightly. Slowly, I edge it out of my pocket.
“Richard said you wouldn’t see it coming.” Her voice trails off with a long breath. “Who knew? He was right.”
Fury roars in my chest with every step I take closer. Mary makes no attempt to move. I see it now. “The commissioner and his whore.”
“Something like that,” she laughs, stepping out from behind the dark bush as she tugs at a large shadow on the ground. A body. “Here. I took care of our problem.”
