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Gabe didn’t answer. He’d dropped his phone. He couldn’t just wait for the police to arrive. Not when Pru was inside the tour bus, alone, with Lydia. He needed to get her out of there.
He waved to Zach’s guys—Justice and Eric—who had been told to take a break nearby and quickly filled them in on the situation. They were on the same page as he was—try to get Pru out of there before the police arrived, and the whole thing got a hell of a lot more complicated.
Gabe headed to the side entrance of the tour bus, the one that would lead into the living room space, while the others made their way to the back of the bus, toward the sleeping quarters. Justice and Eric were two of Zach’s best men, but Gabe’s world still slowed to a crawl as he opened the door to the bus.
* * *
PJ knew at some point she’d come clean with Lydia; tell her they’d focused on her for part of the investigation into who was blackmailing her, and who had killed Jimmy.
As they sat in the tour bus going through the schedule of added interviews she would do in response to all that had happened in the last week, guilt gnawed at her stomach. She felt she should confess that they’d gone so far as to try to pinpoint her location during the time of the murder.
Gabe and Chad would probably tell her she shouldn’t feel any guilt because they needed to find out who was trying to hurt her. At the time, they’d had to do whatever it took to keep her safe. But, now that she and Lydia were spending more time together, now that Lydia seemed to be turning more toward PJ in her grief over Ellis’s death, PJ felt almost like she’d betrayed her friend.
True, the betrayal had happened before the friendship truly grew, but she’d known Lydia since they were kids. PJ should have been more loyal and sure of her.
But, look at where her loyalty toward Ellis had got her. That loyalty had apparently been completely misplaced.
PJ opened her mouth to speak, to say what she felt she needed to so they could put it behind them, but the door to the bus opened before she could say a word. Gabe stood in the doorway, taking in the two of them as they sat side by side on the couch.
“Hey, ladies. Peej, you got a minute?” he asked, his eyes glancing from Lydia to PJ and back again.
Why was he calling her Peej? He never did that.
And, that’s when PJ felt it. Not just the crackle of tension that somehow seemed to fill the air. Not thewhooshof her own breath leaving her, or the ever-so-slight shift in Lydia from friend to threat that happened in the blink of an eye.
It was the sharp jab in her ribs she felt most acutely….
The other things all seemed to follow immediately thereafter, as the world slowed down. Lydia’s voice came to her as though she were speaking in a tunnel, echoing and slower than it should have been.
“No, Gabe,” Lydia said with a sick smile crossing her face. “She doesn’t have a minute. She’s not going anywhere.”
Gabe lost the smile as his eyes narrowed on Lydia. He stepped further into the bus, hands held out at his waist, showing he wasn’t a threat.
“Stop there,” Lydia said, and PJ looked down at her side to confirm what she felt.
The barrel of a gun dug into her ribcage.
Gabe stood in the doorway to the living area. PJ was closest to him, but with the gun right at her side, there was no way she could move, no way could she get away from Lydia.
And, with PJ between him and Lydia, there was no way for him to tackle Lydia or do anything to help her. They were both utterly at a disadvantage.
“What––?” she started, but Lydia twisted and jabbed at her ribs, causing her to stop.
“Your boyfriend isn’t very good at hiding his emotions, is he?”
Lydia laughed but there wasn’t any humor in the sound. There was just anger and hatred, the kind that only came with a twisted soul.
“It’s just like you, PJ,” she practically spat out. “Just like you to walk away from all of this with the world thinking you’re some kind of saint for being brave enough to give up your child; you get to go right back to your career,andyou get the man. Good god,” she laughed bitterly. “You’re walking out of this with everything you came into it with, and a gorgeous billionaire who fucking loves you.”
PJ shook her head, but Lydia sneered at her and continued. “You and Ellis are just alike. Always doted on. Always loved. Always having every damned thing you want handed to you as though you’re somehow better than the world around you.”
“I don’t think Ellis had anything handed to him,” PJ said, unable to stop the honest assessment from coming out of her mouth. “He had a horrible life in foster care before he came to your family.”
Ellis of all people had never asked the world for anything. All PJ had ever seen him do was give and care and love the people around him, even Lydia.
The gun dug into her again sharply and PJ sucked in a breath.
“No!” screamed Lydia, making PJ jump. “He used that, used his history to manipulateeveryoneinto loving him, doting on him. It was all part of the show he put on for the world. The poor Ellis White show he’d perfected over the years.”
