She winced as he forced her to comply, revealing that he had the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of her head. The redhead was crying as she mouthed the wordsI’m sorry.
She couldn’t have known any of this was going to happen. Blaize couldn’t blame her for trying to survive and make a better life for her child.
A desperate person took desperation actions.
“Give us the baby and walk away,” Silus said.
“The woman with me needs medical care, or she’s going to die,” Blaize said. “If she dies, that makes you a murderer.”
“Hand over the baby,” Silus said, his voice reaching an almost hysterical pitch. The man was agitated.
Sharon subtly shook her head and mouthed the wordno.
“Do as I say, or I’ll shoot you both,” Silus demanded.
“How should we do this?” Blaize asked.
“Get her out of my car and step away,” he said. “I’ll take it from there.”
“How do you plan to get out of this, Silus? What comes next?” Blaize realized the man wouldn’t want to leave witnesses. There were four, with himself and Carys being the wild cards in the equation. “This hasn’t gone so far that you can’t walk away. Let me get her inside and stop the bleeding before it’s too late.”
“Once you step away from the vehicle, you can do anything you want. Now, do what I said or I’ll start shooting beginning with Sharon.”
“You don’t want to shoot the mother of your child,” Blaize warned. If he did as Silus asked, the man could disappear with Sharon and the baby into his criminal network. The two might not surface for years, if they did at all. He would likely shoot Rosie if he took her along for the ride. Dump the body somewhere it might never be found.
Silus was known for pressuring business owners into paying protection money. He had enough ties to thugs to hide behind them for ages. He could skip across the border, run his business from there. Force Sharon to live in horror with the threat of taking her daughter away.
No wonder she disappeared, changed her name, and then tried to fake her death. At some point, CPS would have linked Stephanie to Sharon, Rue would be in safe hands—his!—and then Sharon could have come back to retrieve her daughter once the dust settled. She could have started a new life in another place.
“I said now!” Silus was growing more desperate.
This wasn’t good.
“Okay, just give me a minute to get her out of the car safely,” he said, stalling for time. Once Silus got everyone into the car, it would be much easier to slip away and disappear. The law didn’t have a great track record of shutting the man’s business down. No, Silus had figured out how to get around the legal system. He knew how to fly under the radar, using others to do the heavy lifting for him.
At this point, Sharon would likely testify under oath that she wanted to go with Silus of her own free will. The shooting could be chalked up to accidents. Who the hell knew what this man was capable of pulling off.
Slowly, carefully, he wrapped arms around Carys and gently pulled her from the vehicle.
Her eyes opened for a few seconds, locking onto his. Was she conscious?
He could have sworn she winked at him, but he was probably just seeing what he wanted to instead of the reality that he was losing her with every second that ticked by.
Silus knocked Sharon forward another step. Rosie gasped.
“Shut the hell up, woman, or I’ll shoot every last one of you.” The threat rang hollow to Blaize. Silus couldn’t afford to shoot everyone, but Rosie panicked. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth and tried to step away.
He pistol-whipped her across the cheek. The older woman let out a pitiful yelp.
“Don’t hurt her,” Sharon said, panicked. “I’ll do whatever you want, but leave Rosie out of this.”
“That woman kept you from me while you were carrying my child,” Silus bit out through clenched teeth. “She doesn’t deserve to—”
“Please, Silus,” Sharon begged. “She didn’t know that I was your girl.”
Those last two words were fingernails on a chalkboard to Blaize. First of all, Sharon was not a girl, she was a grown woman. And secondly, she didn’t belong to anyone except herself.
The trio moved toward them. Silus kept the gun firmly pointed to the back of Sharon’s head. Based on the panic in her eyes, he would shoot if pushed too far.
