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“She stole from me.” Emrick pointed an accusing finger at her, his arm shaking. “She stole information on my venues, and they’ve been taking them down one by one.”
“Maddie? Is this true?”
“Why do you care, Cara? How deep are you in with this guy?”
“I’m not—”
“Whatever. Yes, I stole from him. I was offered ahugesum of money to get information on all his venues, the security systems, the people who work there, everything. So, I broke into his office and took it. Only a little bit at a time so he wouldn’t notice.”
“Why not take copies?”
Emrick flashed me a warning glare at the question I asked, and Maddie rolled her eyes.
“God, how can you be so naïve? To plant distrust. If things are not only being destroyed, butgoing missing, then how can his workers trust him?”
“You’re trying to tear me down from the inside?” Emrick grunted.
“Not me, I’m only in it for the money.”
“Who?” he barked.
Maddie shrugged as much as she could in her restraints. “I don’t know. I just get the calls, the money, and do the dirty work.”
“Maddie,why?”I groaned, running my hands down my face.
“Why do you think? Themoney.You think you’re the only one who wants to get out of this city?”
A loud slam from a drawer closing gained our attention as Emrick came back toward us, his gaze fixed hard on Maddie as her eyes widened in fear, and she began to struggle anew against the leather cuffs. Emrick slid a single bullet into the chamber of the revolver, snapping it shut and spinning it before placing the barrel of the gun against Maddie’s head.
“Who do you work for?” he pushed out through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
Click.
Maddie moaned with fear as he spun the chamber again before placing the gun back against her temple. “How long do you think you have until your luck runs out?”
“Emrick,please… don’t do this.” He froze at my plea but didn’t remove the gun from Maddie’s head. “You don’t have to do this. She’s not a bad person. She only did it for the money.”
The gun fell to the floor with a clatter, and Emrick’s head turned to survey me over his shoulder. Moving slowly, like a cat stalking its prey, he approached me, and that was somehow more terrifying than the way he could cross a room in a heartbeat, his stride eating the floor beneath him.
I tilted my chin up as his fingers wrapped around my throat.
“What do you know of what I have to do?” he pushed out through gritted teeth.
“Do it,” I whispered, holding contact with his dark eyes as his grip tightened, his palm pressing painfully against my throat. “Do it. If you can.” His lip lifted in a growl, and I reached between us, placing a hand on his cheek, trying not to picture him as a wild animal that might bite me. “I believe there’s good in you.”
With a roar, he dropped his hands from my throat, scooping up the gun and aiming it at Maddie. With a shot that had me covering my ears with my hands, too late to stop the ringing, I dared not look up after he had fired the gun.
EMRICK
Maddie’s head hung over her chest, her hair damp from sweat from my previous ruthless attentions and covering her face.
“Emrick,” Cara whispered, the word obscured as her hands covered her mouth.
“Don’t say a fucking thing,” I hissed at her.
Maddie groaned, lifting her head to reveal the tears streaming down her face as I paused, listening for a break in the music after the gunshot. As expected, there was none. The DJ, like the others who worked here, knew better than to investigate any sounds from this office, even if there was now a hole through the wall over my desk. Cara rushed forward to Maddie, undoing the restraints on her ankles and wrists.
