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I’m not going anywhere without her, not anymore.
TWENTY
aria
I come downfrom my surprise orgasm, my body wrapped around Devan and quivering with the aftershocks. He keeps his hands on me until he’s sure—I’msure—that I’m able to keep myself upright without him.
A cool breeze winds through my unmentionable places as I straighten, the rest of reality slamming back down on me like a bucket of cold water. There are voices on the street and three dead bodies cooling around our feet, their blood puddles ready to ice over.
Devan slides himself back into his pants, zipping them closed and shielding me with his body again. “We need to get out of here before someone sees us.”
“I think it’s a little too late. There are a billion people on the street, and I’m not exactly quiet.” One of my many talents and one I hope Devan appreciates.
I’d needed him so desperately that I hadn’t been able to think. To logic this out. The men were clearly waiting for us, and the shooter on the streets had herded us into this alley where the others lurked. Who figured me out?
My core throbs from Devan’s intrusion, and I have to hustle to set my clothing to rights before he uses his fingers on the small of my back to guide me down the alley. As though we hadn’t fucked in the alley like a couple of bloodthirsty teenagers.
“I’ll send Naomi a message and let her know what’s going on here. Better than her stumbling on our mess by surprise. She already knows something has happened.”
“Our DNA is all over the scene.” I bite down on my lip. “Isn’t that a bad thing?”
I’m breathless, chilled, and on fire at the same time.
“It’s goddamn terrible, but without a cleanup crew…even then, I’m not sure anything we do will help. Closing this case is the only way we’ll fix this.” Devan is stern, his gaze fixated on the street ahead.
The look of a man who lets nothing pass him by.
His hands are on me in a completely different way from before. Helping, guiding. Steadying me when it’s hard to do it on my own. He curves his body around me quickly when the noise on the street increases and sneakers skid nearby.
“Hey, mister. You okay?”
A young voice, boy from the sounds of it, but Devan’s body blocks the speaker from sight.
“Go on. Run,” he tells the boy. “Get out of here.”
“We’re not safe,” I whisper. “Broderick is going to make another pick up somewhere. We haven’t even stopped him today, only delayed.”
And I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve botched this beyond repair. Somehow, in my probing, I must have alerted one of the programs I helped create, and Broderick used it to get the jump on me. With the men dead, it’s only a matter of time before he puts the rest of the pieces together.
He might not have knownIwould be here today, but he expected someone.
Devan has already started walking out toward the street, farther away from the dead men. As surely they’d been scoping out the area for their pick up for longer than we had.
“Where are we going?” I murmur.
Devan slides his hand down my blood-covered arm, lacing his fingers with mine to keep me close. “The car, and then back to Bill’s place. It’s the safest space I know for now.”
“I don’t want anyone else to go down with me,” I insist.
He glances at me, his gaze hard and molten, and his scruff adding an air of danger to the entire facade. “They won’t, Aria. We’ve got to do our jobs.”
“Seems to me like your job involves a lot of running around.”
“Right now? Yeah. It’s called leg work.”
“Ah, you mean what I just did with you.”
He swallows over a grin. “Sure. You’re a master with your legs. And the rest of you.”
