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But I don’t dial her number. I dial Tim’s.
He answers on the first ring.
“What the fuck happened?” I snap.
“Felix is here.” He’s moving too. Heavy breath. Grunted movements. “Felix was in my fucking bar!”
“He’s got Minka.”
“What?” An icy chill settles across our call. “What do you mean he has Minka?”
“I mean she fucking texted me and said she needs help on a crime scene! To the bay,” I tell Fletch. “She doesn’t need help working, Tim. And if she wanted a consult, she’d fucking ask for one. He’s got her.”
“He killed Anne.”
Three words. One complete sentence. And my world falls away.
“What?”
“He slit her fucking throat!” he roars. “Inside my bar, he slit her throat and left her for dead. And now Aubree knows.”
“Aub—” I shake my head as Fletch speeds across the city. “What about Aubree?”
“She came here looking for me! She let herself in, walked in while I was sleeping, and she found a dead fucking body inside my safe. She’s witness to a mafia hit, Archer! Now she knows what we are. All this time I’ve tried to protect her? It was for nothing!”
“It’s not… It’s…” I press the heel of my hand to my temple. “Where is she?”
“Right here with me.”
The sound of closing car doors echoes through the line. The swish of seatbelts and then theclickas my brother and the woman he pretends not to love back lock them in.
“She’s broken, Arch. She’s not speaking. She’s not doing anything. She’s a fucking robot, because I couldn’t protect her from the family we come from. It was all for nothing.”
“Where are you going right now?”
“The bay!” he booms. “I’m going where you’re going. I’m going to end this shit, because until we do, this is gonna keep coming back for us.”
“You shoulda left Aubree at your place!” I reach up to the handle above the door when Fletch tears around a corner. “You didn’t have to bring her. Did you call in a cleaner for Felix’s mess?”
“Yeah. And he has Minka. Are you telling menotto bring the only doctor we know right now who could help?”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” I close my eyes and groan. “Fuck, Tim! They only have to shove her on her ass to cause damage. Forget gunshots and knives, they just have to hit her once before she’s at risk of bleeding out.” My stomach churns with painful shots of adrenaline. “We have to end this.”
“Five minutes out,” Fletch murmurs. “We’ll be there in five.”
“We’re about ten minutes away,” Tim says. “Wait for me.”
“I’m not waiting.”
Hanging up, I jump back to Minka’s texts and stare. Stare.Stare, as Fletch rockets us toward the bay.
Minka’s GPS shows exactly where we have to go, so I let him know, and once I do, I close my eyes and picture the area she’s being held. The bridge not far away. The water even closer. I think of her beautiful face and her sassy mouth.
What will she say when she meets Felix? Will she save herself? Will she spout off the way she does to me and Tim? And, fuck, will Felix tolerate it long enough for me to get there? Long enough to switch places and give him what he wants?
“What the—”
My eyes shoot open at Fletcher’s strangled words and search for the cause. My heart thunders and my hands shake. But then I lock on to the little girl sitting on the side of the road. The tiny body, wrapped in an oversized coat and wearing an ugly blue beanie on her head.
