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I’d worked with Rory from the time I went undercover. He was there the day Belle came into the club and we’d kissed for the first time. He’d seen her, I had no doubt of that. So using him like this would mean she was safe. Rory was still working for the cartel, trying to keep their operation running on a smaller scale while Garza was locked up. But I knew he was looking for me. There was a hit out on me, and the first person to kill me would get the reward.
Brody hadn’t liked the idea when I’d first put it to him, but the fact of the matter was, the cartel wasn’t backing off. We’d told Belle she was safe now, and she was…kind of. But she was still a person of interest, as long as I was alive anyway, which meant there was only one way to make sure nothing could touch her…
I had to be dead.
I stared out of the window and watched the front door to Belle’s dorm building. I was back in the area to make myself known to Rory, but I couldn’t resist one last look at Belle. I knew her schedule inside out, which meant she’d be leaving any second now.
My cell beeped, and I didn’t need to look down at it to know it was a message from Brody. They were at the location, making sure Rory was there and ready to step in if anything went south. But they had to wait. I needed to see her one last time before I went away.
The doors opened, and I spotted her head of brown hair. Her head was down as she gripped the straps of her backpack, and I didn’t have to look at her face to know how she was feeling because I felt exactly the same—lost. She pushed some hair behind her ear, and finally looked up. Her face was pale, and her lips were in a straight line.
I’d regretted leaving her dorm room the way I had last week, but after the meeting with Brody and the plan ahead, I was relieved I had. She’d be safe now. Safer than ever.
She looked left and right, and for a second, I thought she’d seen me, but she turned and headed into the main part of campus, her movements slow. I waited for a couple of minutes, trying to get my frame of mind in the right place.
“You came to see me?” Belle asked, her pitch high. She sat up a little, using the headboard to lean her shoulder against.
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me? Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because I knew what I had to do, Belle.” I let out a breath and let my head dip back. “I knew if I went to you, I wouldn’t be able to walk away again.”
I pulled up at the curb, shooting a message off to Brody, telling him I’d be radio silent. Everything had already been put into place, and as soon as I left here, I wouldn’t see him again. Not for a while anyway.
Rory was standing outside the club, shooting the shit with a security guard. The sun shone high in the sky, but I knew that wouldn’t matter to Rory. He’d still grab his gun and shoot because he’d want the money that came from it.
Taking a breath, I prepared myself for what would happen and adjusted the bulletproof vest I was wearing underneath my T-shirt. I pushed open my door and rolled my shoulders back. I hadn’t even made it to the sidewalk before I called his name.
His head whipped around, his eyes widened briefly. “Hey,” I greeted. “Long time no see.”
He growled, actually growled, and ran toward me. I wasn’t sure whether he was going to hit me, tackle me, or what. But when he was a few feet away, he pulled his gun and shot off three rounds, right into my chest. The fake blood he’d hit came squiring out, wetting my dark T-shirt enough to where it looked real.
My body hit the ground, my eyes wide, stunned at how fast he’d gone for me. The bullets that hit the vest had knocked the breath out of me, so I didn’t have to fake trying to breathe as he stood over me, his gun still pointed in my direction.
“Filthy fuckin’ pig," he ground out before unleashing another two bullets in my chest.
I stared up at him, seeing the fire in his eyes, but there was something else. Something that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen him. His pupils were dilated, a sign of him being high, and I knew then that he’d succumbed to the product he was around all the time. And I wondered how many other people were using now that Garza wasn’t around to keep them in line.
He lifted his leg, and normally, I would have rolled to the side, but I couldn’t, not when I pretending to be dying. His boot slammed onto the side of my face and on my head several times, and the world started to spin. “Have fun in hell, you piece of shit,” Rory ground out, cackling out a laugh, and then he stomped on my head one last time, and the world went dark.
“Holy shit.” Belle gasped, her hand covering her mouth as she stared at me. Her eye was only half swollen shut now, but I imagined if it wasn’t, her eyes would have been wide in shock. “He knocked you out?”
“Yep.” I moved my legs up onto the bed. “I had a raging headache for a week.”
“What happened after that, though?”
I shrugged. “Your dad arranged for an ambulance to come, and then for all intents and purposes, I was dead. I went underground with Lottie and stayed away for five months.” I turned my head to face her. “I only came back just over a month ago.”
“Really?” She blinked, her shoulders drooping. “So, you didn’t look for me?”
“I couldn’t.” I moved closer to her. “I told the guys everything I knew, and Ryan checked Curtis out.” I gritted my teeth. I’d never have told anyone what I was about to say, but Belle was different. “He didn’t check him out enough. All he did was got his name and where he’d worked. I’d already told him that shit.”
Belle nodded, but I wasn’t sure what she was agreeing with. “I have a feeling even if Ryan had, he wouldn’t have found us.” Her hand moved to her stomach. “I thought I was covering my tracks by taking my burner cell apart, but I hadn’t for one second thought Curtis was trying to hide us. But I realize now that was what he was doing.” She paused and moved her feet closer to Lottie. “We were basically in the middle of nowhere. The cabin was a little way from the main town, but even that was tiny. And we were surrounded by woods.” She shook her head. “I was so consumed with grief. I couldn’t see what was happening right under my nose.”
“You couldn’t have known,” I told her. “I’d been around the guy, and I hadn’t thought he’d do something like that. People are good at hiding things, Baby Belle.”
“I hate secrets,” she ground out. “He killed Stella and Justin.”
