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“Okay, thanks.”
Chantelle had a strange look on her face. “No worries.”
Was it Brooks? But he was in class. Maybe a friend? Getting up, she grabbed her phone and headed out to the front of Pinkies.
She’d been back at work for a few days now. Things were going so well between her, Grady and Steele. They were going to move all of her stuff this weekend into their house.
Although maybe she needed to dump most of it.
Steele was in a meeting off-site and Grady had gone to check on something at one of Steele’s other businesses.
She texted Brooks to make sure he was all right, but got nothing back.
Standing in the parking lot, she couldn’t see anyone.
Suddenly, a car sped toward her from the street. She stepped back, getting a funny feeling. The window dropped open, and was that . . . was that a gun?
She froze, hearing the crack of a gun firing just as someone raced toward her.
“Effie! Down!” She ducked just as she swore she felt a bullet coming past her face. She knew that was ridiculous. But her imagination was in overdrive.
The person who had been running toward her, grabbed her and dragged her behind a car as another bullet came at her.
Breathing heavily, she stared up at the man who’d helped her as he peered over the car.
“All right, they’re gone. Let’s go.”
There was a commotion behind them, people coming out of Pinkies and yelling.
“Get back inside!” the man yelled as he wrapped his arm around her and half-carried her into the building.
“Effie? Effie!” Her girls were suddenly there, surrounding her. She clung to them, her body trembling. She felt better inside Pinkies, but she knew she wouldn’t feel safe until she had her men with her.
Where were they? She needed them.
“I . . . I n-need . . . I . . .”
Why was it so hard to breathe?
The room around her was spinning. Where were Grady and Steele?
“She’s having a panic attack! Effie, look at me. Breathe in slow. Then out.”
She peered up into the man’s face. She knew him.
“You . . . banged into . . . pharmacy.”
“Yeah. I’ve been, uh, watching you,” he confessed. “I wanted to use you to get to Steele. Then I saw that asshole speeding up as you came out of Pinkies and I knew it wasn’t good. Knew it really wasn’t good when you were just standing there, frozen.” He placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Any idea why someone would want to kill you?”
* * *
Steele tappedhis fingers on his thigh as Raul raced them to Pinkies, trying to keep the panic from engulfing him.
He’d just gotten off the phone with Lex.
Someone tried to kill Effie.
