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Motherfudger.
Actually. This called for proper swearing.
Mother. Fucker.
“Stay behind me at all times,” Maxim ordered her as they raised their hands.
She nodded as they headed into her apartment. Which had been trashed. It was like a tornado had gone through it.
Perhaps later, she’d get upset about that. But right now, she had more important things to worry about.
Like getting all of them out of this alive.
There was another man in the room, one who seemed vaguely familiar. He was standing behind her wrecked sofa with his arms over his chest.
“Bart, take care of them. Get the guns off them and tie their hands,” Gretchen ordered, nodding at Rocco and Levin.
They looked to Maxim, who nodded. They both got on their knees and put up with Bart, tying their hands behind their backs and taking their guns. This wasn’t looking good for them.
Bart moved to Maxim and patted him down, taking the gun from the small of his back. Then he turned to her, his grin evil.
A shiver ran through her.
“Touch her and die,” Maxim threatened.
“You’re not in charge here, asshole,” Bart snarled back. “I’ll touch her if I want to touch her. And I won’t do it nicely, seeing as I owe her for stabbing Frank.”
She sucked in a breath. “You were one of the men who attacked Maxim.”
“Finally, you get it,” Gretchen said drolly.
Bart grabbed her and Maxim pushed him back.
Oh God! Maxim couldn’t get into a fight when he was still injured. She stepped between them as Bart reached for his gun.
“Bart! Calm down! Just leave her, she won’t have a weapon. She’s too much of a goody-two-shoes for that.”
Bart stepped back with a snarl.
What was Gretchen thinking?
“Where are the kids?” she asked Eva, worried about the boys.
“D-daycare,” Eva whispered. “I p-put them in before calling you.”
Fuck. Fuck.
“Did you call Aston to find out when she was coming back?” Maxim asked sharply. “Did you tell Gretchen that she’d be here?”
“I had to! She threatened the boys. And I knew she meant it b-because she killed Dan!” Eva wailed.
Oh God! Gretchen had killed Dan? Aston was going to throw up. She just knew it.
Threatening children. Killing people. This was a nightmare.
Aston gaped at Gretchen. “Did I ever know you at all? I thought we were friends.”
“Friends? Of course we weren’t, you stupid bitch.”
“You asked me to go out with you.”
“Yes. At first, it was because I knew you’d make me look good,” Gretchen sneered. “I couldn’t take any of my other so-called friends. They would have one-upped me. Bitches.”
Right. So she didn’t have any real friends to take. Ouch. That still stung, though.
“And then it was a test. I was suspicious when I saw you getting into his car outside of work.” She pointed at Maxim. “I knew the Malones wouldn’t be happy with someone selling drugs in New Orleans. They don’t own the city. Fucking bullshit. So I asked you to go with me to Glory. I wanted to see if you’d mention knowing Maxim. But you didn’t.”
Shit.
“I also wanted to go because the guy who’d been selling Mixology at Glory had gone missing, and I needed someone else to sell there for me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get anything on any of the staff to use to pressure them.”
“You bitch,” Maxim spat out.
“Biggest catch in the state . . . what a joke,” she said, looking him up and down. “I mean, at one time, I thought about hooking up with you, but then I knew it would be too dangerous, getting that close to you and your family.”
Maxim reached back and squeezed her hand. She didn’t know why Gretchen hadn’t tied them up, but she was grateful.
Why was he squeezing her hand, though? Oh, did he want her to keep talking?
“You must have a magic pussy to keep him this long.”
“I love Maxim and he loves me.”
Gretchen snorted. “That’s a useless emotion. I loved my daddy. But when his time was up, it was up.”
“W-what are you trying to say?”
“He didn’t kill himself, did he?” Maxim asked. “You killed him.”
What?
Aston didn’t know how to feel about this. Relief? Sadness?
“I think he’d suspected what was going on for a while, but he was in denial that his darling daughter would use him like that. Then when your brother raided his worksite and took all the drugs and sent him that message, well, he knew for sure. He threatened to go to the cops and I shot him.”
“You’re a monster,” Aston accused her.
“You’d know about monsters, wouldn’t you?” Gretchen sneered.
“What does that mean?” she whispered.
Then the door to her bedroom opened and the biggest monster of them all stepped out.
Oh God. Oh no.
Her stomach dropped. She was going to be ill.
“Aston?” Maxim said urgently.
“Dad,” she whispered.
Maxim crowded against her as Eva continued to sob quietly, and her father walked farther into the room.
