Page 113 of Chasin’s Surrender

“Text me the address and I’ll meet you in twenty minutes.”

“’Bout fuckin’ time you start listening.”

Whatever. His words no longer bothered me.

“See you soon, Bent.”

“That you will, darlin’,” he cooed. “We’ll be home soon and we can put all of this behind us. Just you and me.”

“Just you and me,” I repeated, and bile crept up.

I lowered my phone, stabbed the red icon to disconnect, and stood frozen.

“He’s gonna text an address,” I told Holden.

“I heard, Viv. Stay strong, honey.”

“He said if I’m not there he’ll finish her off if she doesn’t bleed out first.”

“That’s not gonna happen.”

“He’s gonna blow Chasin’s head off.”

“That is beyond the realm of possibility.”

No, it wasn’t. Bent had eyes on Chasin. He’d left Bobby somewhere bleeding and near-dead. Nothing was beyond the realm of possibility.

Then I remembered McKenna beaten. Jameson having to breathe life back into Kennedy. Something had happened to Silver and Macy, too. That was four-for-four times Gemini Group had lucked out.

I figured every winning streak had to come to an end, so thinking about those women being saved didn’t make me feel better. It made my chest clench and fear invade.

Someone is always a loser. And I had the worst luck of anyone.

My phone beeped with a text and I handed it to Holden. I didn’t even want to look. The address meant nothing to me—Bobby wasn’t there and I was not going to go meet Bent. No way was I going anywhere with him. But the clock on my best friend’s life had already started to count down, I’d already known it. I didn’t need Bent to confirm it, but now he’d given us a deadline.

Holden was on his phone. I wasn’t sure which of the guys he was talking to. They were talking about strategy and my mind wandered to Bobby. All the way back to when I first met her at the bar where she and I worked. I immediately liked her. She was feisty, fun, outgoing, and was always smiling. We’d been inseparable since. She’d stood by my side and cheered me on.

When I got signed, the first thing I did was hire Bobby as my assistant. I didn’t really need one, I just wanted Bobby to be with me and she needed money to live. Melissa had thought it was stupid, she’d been against it from the beginning and said if I wanted an assistant, she’d find me someone who had experience in the music industry. Leslie, on the other hand, had always liked Bobby and told me it was a good idea keeping her close so she could keep me grounded. I had to admit, in the beginning, Leslie had been good to me. She helped me navigate the industry and opened up doors that had been closed. Maybe she’d just gotten lost along the way, too.

“Viv?” Holden called. My gaze went to him to see him holding his phone out to me. “Chasin wants to talk to you.”

With more force than was necessary, I snatched the phone.

“Chasin?”

“Evie, baby. You okay?”

“No.”

“Keep holding on, we’ll have Bobby soon.”

“Bent said he was finishing her off in twenty minutes.”

“Not gonna happen,” Chasin repeated what Holden had told me.

It felt no better hearing it from Chasin.

“He said—”