I looked at her, truly looked at her, for the first time in a while. She was always so closed off, even when she wasn’t trying to be.
“I know.”
My words fell over the table. There was an awkward beat that was fixed when the waitress came with our food and a bunch of merch for Evie to sign. As her food cooled, she signed shirts, totes, and notebooks with her logo all over them.
“Thank you again, BCB. This is so cool.”
“Anytime.” Evie smiled kindly at the woman and even stood for a photo and hug. When she sat back down, the smile remained on her face.
After the waitress left, we started to eat, and I used the excitement Evie still showed on her face to bring back the conversation.
“So,ifwe make it out alive, what is your plan? Sell your business, then what?”
Evie lifted her drink and swirled the liquid around. “I don’t know. I kind of like doing this. It’s hard but also easy. When you do what you love, you know?”
“You love acting?” Excitement filled me. Ideas of movies we could audition for began flooding my mind as she blushed and looked away.
“Kind of. Is that bad?”
“No, I just…” Suddenly, I felt a bit exposed. “I’d love to do more movies with you.” I might as well have just thrown my heart on the table.
She stared at me for a beat and nodded. “Yeah, maybe,” she said vaguely. “We’ll see how all this goes. Whether I need to go on the run or not. It’d be nice to have time to sell the house if it’s not safe to stay here.”
She focused on the table, and the conversation died. Right as I was starting to change topics, Skye stood, catching my attention. I followed her with my eyes as she went to the bathroom. A moment later, Evie pulled out her phone. Her face turned grim as she read the screen.
“He wants to take her to one of his properties. This wasn’t the plan. Why is he leaving so fast?” she hissed. “We need to go now, before she’s alone with him. She shared her location. Let’s follow.” She started to scoot out of her seat, and I grabbed her wrist.
“No, we need to wait. Let them go, and in five minutes, we’ll leave.”
She wasn’t happy, but I paid for our meal and forced her to sit and fake small talk. Once I felt like we were enough of a distance apart, we took our leave.
“We barely got our food. How did they leave so fast?” she huffed when we got in the car.
“Maybe it was just drinks and appetizers. This place is notorious for being where you take your hookups.”
“Have you been there a lot?” She peered over.
I smirked. Was that jealousy in her eyes?
“Would it be worse to say that I rarely took my hookups out?”
She laughed and swatted me playfully. “Maybe. Is that them?” Evie had been watching Skye’s location on her phone. We drove past a large, unoccupied house with a truck in the driveway. A sign with Charles’s face stood proudly in the yard.
“Where are you going?” she hissed.
“I’m parking a block away,” I told her, slightly annoyed. For someone who was so insistent on going on a murder spree, she had no clue how to not get caught.
We parked and walked over to the house. Thankfully, it was already dark out, so it was easier to sneak right up to the front door, which had been left unlocked.
I opened the door and, making sure the coast was clear, stepped inside before letting Evie in. However, three steps in, there was a loud click, and something hard and cold was pressed to my shoulder blade.
“Beep beep, Ritchie.”
Chapter 46
Evie
The Backlot
