The whole point of this stupid kidnapping plan was to get it donequietlyand without drawing too much attention. Xavier embodied the word attention. Attention should have been his middle name.
Xavier owned a very significant number of luxury car dealerships in the southern part of Florida. He was filthy rich, involved in all kinds of shady shit, and indeed, had no head on his shoulders.
Amazing turn of events. This is why you should always stay in your lane—just do what you know. We knew how to steal cars; we had no fucking clue how to steal people.
"Well, this isn’t great,” Andrei murmured in Russian. “We really should’ve done more research before taking her.”
Yeah, man. We both knew that, but we fucking didn’t. Wedidn’t.
“Why is Xavier calling you non-stop?” I turned to her, looking so small on the couch.
Jade stared right past me, zero emotions on her face. “He wants to get back together. But I’d rather die before that happens. So maybe you can just kill me now and we can all move on.”
There was something about Jade that got under my skin. The way she threw words around and the way she didn’t give afuck.The way she handled this whole situation. I’d imagined she’d be crying, begging, pleading, sitting quietly in a corner, but no. She was talking back, talkingshit,and talking a big game.
So I did something reckless and stupid—the Moretti girl was fucking rubbing off on me. I reached back and withdrew myhandgun, the reward to my actions being her loud gasp. There it was—her shock, jaw on the floor, her wide eyes locked with mine.
“Yeah? You want to die?” I stepped toward her and she scrambled up the couch, regretting her words.Finally.“Do you ever think before you open your mouth, Jade?” I pointed the barrel at the floor, but Jade kept her eyes on it.
This wasn’t about her. Not really. The safety was on and the weight of the gun was meant to remind me that I was still in control of this clusterfuck. Because the pressure in my head was unbearable and this was meant to diffuse it. Because everything was spiraling into the abyss and I had no way to catch it. Because Jade was untamable and Ineededher to fit the stereotype in my head.
But instead, she stood on the couch, calm and eerily composed. She gulped before delivering the words that crashed all my thoughts into dust.
“Thendo it.Pull the trigger,” she said, voice low but steady—certain of her vile words.
I stared at her, not processing it right away. Not her words, not her audacity, not the fact that she had the upper hand again.
Such a pretty girl. Such venom inside.
But before I could figure out my next step, that buzzing interrupted again. I turned to the phone, the idea blazing up in my head. I was going to pick it up.
I stepped toward it, three seconds away from sliding that accept call button, when something smashed into my hip. White pajamas flew in front of my eyes, and as if in slow motion, I watched Jade launch herself through the air and fall onto the coffee table. She shoved the phone off the edge of the table and it skittered loudly across the entire house until it smacked into the sliding doors with a dull thud.
The buzzing stopped and so did we all. Jade was half slumped over the coffee table, and Andrei was on his feet, standing beside me like we were both deer in headlights.
The Moretti girl wasn’t scared of a bullet. She wasn’t scared of me blowing her brains out—she taunted me with the prospect. But she was petrified of a phone call from her ex.
There were no words. No thoughts, no more goals in my head after I’d just witnessedthat.There was only one way forward: we had to leave and not get involved with her any further. Forget calling Moretti. Forget thiswholething—we’d just play it all differently.
“Let’s go,” I addressed Andrei in Russian and sidestepped Jade, collecting the phone.
We headed for the door and that was the best course of action. It was best she just stayed here, alone and locked up, until we could collect our thoughts.
“Wait, um…”
Of course.
Of course she had more to say. My shoulders tensed, knowing that her uncomfortable tone meant she was about to request something. “I…I need to go to a drugstore and…and can you at least give me some of my clothes? I-I only have these pajamas and last night's dress."
"He'll take you." Andrei suddenly pointed toward me. What?! I wasn’t fucking taking her!
"Wait," I commanded Jade, pushing Andrei outside and closing the front door.
"I'm not fucking taking her anywhere! I'm not her goddamn babysitter!" I spoke in a loud whisper right outside the front door.
"You know you're taking her. Now that fucking Knox’s in the picture, we have to be extra careful." Andrei put on his sunglasses, speaking so calmly. "Whatever the fuck that was inthere? She’s obviously scared of the guy and if he’s stalking her, as she said, we can’t risk it.” Andrei motioned toward the door and checked his watch. “I have to go or else I'll be late. You know how those soccer moms are; vicious when you're late to your three-year-old's soccer game."
This day was rewiring my brain chemistry. What on earth was happening? Andrei was always the anxious one, always the one calculating all the problems, but he wasn’t perturbed bywhatever the fuck that was in there,while I was still reeling.
