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I do it immediately, and he cuts the binds on my wrists, then hands the knife to me. I cut through the zip ties holding his wrists together, and he plucks the knife from my hand, replacing it with the gun.
“Stay here,” he tells me, glancing toward the doorway. “If anybody but one of us comes through that door, shoot them.”
“Where are you going?” I whisper, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm in my chest.
“I’m gonna go find my brothers and help them.”
“I’m coming with you!”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Then take the gun.”
I try to press it into his hands, but he won’t take it, stepping back. “Not a chance, angel. You need it.”
He leans in to press a hard kiss to my lips, and before I can even find my voice to protest again, he’s gone, slipping out the door into the rest of the building.
I wrap my fingers around the grip of the gun, my hands shaking. I can still hear the distant sounds of a fight, so I know it isn’t over yet. I’m glad Ransom is going to help Malice and Vic, who may still be bound at the wrists and unarmed, trying to take down or evade Olivia’s guards at a huge disadvantage. But I hate being stuck in this room by myself. It’s terrifying and unsettling, and even though I know he wanted to keep me safe, it feels wrong to be here.
“Fuck,” I mutter, my gaze darting toward the doorway.
The shouts in the distance increase in volume, growing more urgent—and it snaps something inside me. Pressing to my feet, I creep toward the door, the gun held tightly in both hands.
The floodlight has either been shot out or unplugged in the scuffle, because the space is darker now. I can still see, but every shadow seems to loom like a threat, and my heart thuds wildly against my ribs as I move toward the sound of the fight.
“Fuck, Ransom, watch out!”
That’s Malice’s voice, and it makes it clear that Ransom found them. There’s a scuffling sound, a deep grunt, and then Ransom curses.
“On your left!”
More noises, a heavy thud, and a gunshot. I pick up my pace, fear curling in my gut as Ransom calls out, “We’ve got this one. Malice, he’s trying to get Olivia out of here! Stop him!”
I turn a corner just in time to see one of Olivia’s bodyguards shove her behind him several yards away, moving her toward an exit. Ransom and Victor are working together to take down her other man as Malice—whose wrists are still bound—hurls a bucket of tools toward the guard trying to evacuate her. The guard ducks, and Malice moves, barreling toward him.
Then two things happen at once, so fast that I almost can’t track them both.
Victor wraps his zip tied wrists around the neck of the guard he and Ransom are fighting, yanking backward as Ransom darts in and jams his knife between the man’s ribs. On the other side of the room, Malice hits Olivia’s remaining guard in the face with both fists just as the guard swings his gun to pistol whip Malice.
Both blows connect, but Malice’s is harder. The guard’s head snaps to the side, and he goes down… but as Malice reels from the blow to his head, Olivia darts forward. She has a gun of her own, and she jams it up beneath his chin, standing behind Malice to use him as a shield.
“Stop!” she shrieks, and there’s nothing even remotely like the calm, cool woman I’ve seen at fancy parties in her now. She looks disheveled, almost crazed, her expensive clothes torn and stained, and her hair pulled out of its neat updo. “I’ll kill him! I will!”
As if to prove her point, she half curls her finger on the trigger, making my heart leap in my throat. Malice stiffens, and Victor and Ransom, who are standing over the body of her other fallen guard, go still.
“That’s right.” She bares her teeth, breathing hard. “I’m gonna walk out of here, and if you try anything, if you move a single goddamned muscle, I’ll blow his brains out!”
She’s smaller than Malice, but with his hands bound and the gun where it is, she’s got an advantage that makes up for her size. She gives a tug, urging him to move, and he takes a few slow steps backward as she digs the barrel of the gun harder into his skin.
Ransom and Vic are watching Malice and my grandmother, clearly looking for any kind of opening, but Malice’s gaze darts around quickly—and lands on me in the shadows.
Our eyes lock, and surprise registers on his face for a split second. Then his gaze drops to the gun in my hand, and he gives the tiniest, almost imperceptible nod.
Fear floods me, making my entire body go cold all over.
I never emerged into the room, so no one knows I’m here. No one but Malice.
And he wants me to shoot Olivia.
