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“To scare me?” I ask. “He did it to intimidate me?”
“Everything they do from now, till it’s over, will be to intimidate you.” Drake closes the door with a thud, eliciting another nervous jump where I sit. “They want to silence you, Aurora. They’ll kill you when they get the chance. But for as long as you’re in police custody and safe, their next best plan is to scare you into shutting your mouth.”
“Detective Banks,” Malone growls. “Are you done?”
“They’re gonna take the shot,” he continues, coming to crouch by my chair so our eyes are almost on the same level. “The first chance they get, they’re gonna take the shot. And yeah, you’re gonna be scared to talk. Whoever pulled the trigger on Lombardo this week is powerful enough, Buchanan got himself arrested, just so he could pass on a message.”
“S-so what do we do?” My hands shake. My fingers quiver. My entire body jolts so the pain bites at my aching hips and legs. “A man justwillfullywalked toward a lifetime of prison, purely to upset me. That’s not a small deal. What the hell do we do about it?”
“We stay alive.” He pushes up to stand but grabs me under the arm and brings me up with him. “We stay hidden. We stay strong.” He wraps my hand around the handle of the cane and looks at Archer. “We’re gonna need somewhere safe to go.”
Panic lances through my blood. “Is the hotel not safe?” I look from him to Archer. From Archer to Fletcher. “Why isn’t the hotel safe?”
“It’s notnotsafe,” Drake answers gently. His lips curl into a small, friendly smile. “But it’s still a risk. We slept last night because no one knew where we were. But that won’t last long, especially in a public establishment.”
“I have a place.” Archer leans back and takes out his chirping phone. He reads the screen for a beat, and swipes to answer, but he brings his eyes back to me. “I’m gonna put you up somewhere that’s as safe as any in the city.”
“She should be movedoutof the city,” Drake snarls. “This shit is all over Copeland. Get her out and hide her in the middle of the Appalachian fucking Mountains.”
“Appalachian?” I jerk under Drake’s hold and sneer when his eyes come to me. “I’mnotleaving my mom. I’m not leaving this city.”
“Feds are gonna try to take her soon,” Archer inserts. “And Vallejo’s men are gonna expect her to end up in the mountains. Stay here, and we control the situation.” He lifts his finger, as though to tell us to wait, then he brings the phone to his ear and rumbles, “Mayet. What’s wrong?”
“You shouldn’t stay in the city.” Drake grabs my chin and forces my eyes up to his. “Vallejo’s army only stretches so far. Right now, you’re in the belly of the beast and at the most risk. But if we move you even a few hundred miles away, you’re still close enough to get back in a pinch, but Vallejo’s guns are far less likely to reach you.”
“I’m putting her up in a safe house,” Archer tells his caller. “I’m not saying where over the phone.” He stops to listen, his jaw clicking with tension before he nods. “Yeah. It’s gonna take months before this goes to trial, and we still don’t have our shooter, anyway.”
“I can’t sit in hiding for months,” I mumble.To myself? Maybe to Drake.
He hears me anyway, bending to meet my eyes. “You don’t have a choice.”
“But I do. Life is all about choices, right? I can choose not to participate in this bullshit.”
“You could try,” he grits out. “You could even pinkie promise Vallejo you’ll keep your mouth shut and not tell a soul. But he’ll still kill you the second you’re exposed. If you think these people work within fairness and trust, then you’re being naïve as fuck, Aurora. You’re involved now. From here to the end.”
“I don’twantto be involved!” I explode. “I want to see my mom. To go to school. To write my damn paper and forget this week ever happened.”
“And I want you not to be at the end of another man’s scope,” he counters. “Right now, neither of us is getting what we want.”
“I’m choosing to be out.” I fist the handle of my cane and step around his broad form to head toward the door. “We’re only a block from the hospital, so I’m walking there to make sure my mom is okay. You guys have Buchanan in custody, and according to Google, Vallejo is dead. I’d say that pretty much takes care of—”
A squeal of surprise rushes from my mouth as a muscular arm wraps around my stomach and lifts me from my feet. But more shocking to me is the fact I don’t scream in fear, which is ironic, considering I’ve never been in a more dangerous situation in my life. “Let me go!”
“If you walk out of here alone, you’re dead.” Drake crushes me close, his breath scorching my neck with every word he speaks. “That’s not me trying to scare you, Aurora. I’m not trying to spook you into compliance. I’m telling you: your life will be snuffed out. Just like that. That fuckin’ easily.” He sets me on my feet, but he remains wrapped around me while the other two watch in stunned silence. “I’m not trying to intimidate you. And I’m not trying to control you. The one thing you want most right now isn’t to annoy the cops. And it’s not to study or go home. You want to see your mom.”
“I haven’t made that a secret!” I snap. “I need to see her.”
“And if you walk out of here alone and you get dead anyway, how do you think your mom will feel when she finds out?”
Drake
WELL, AIN’T THAT IRONIC?
“The old Malone house?” I cover Rory’s back as we exit the car and make our way toward a four-story mini-mansion in the hills of Copeland City. “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Malone?”
“It sits here empty.” He walks ahead of us and unlocks a massive wrought-iron gate that shields the front door. Only ten-feet stand between the gate and the door. Expensive Spanish tiles make a pathway, dusty from misuse and chipped in some corners by what I fucking swear are ancient bullet holes. “We need a place to put her.” He unlocks the heavy front door and swings it wide to reveal a home drafty with cold and stale. The house is dark. Windows are covered, and furniture fills the space but is draped in fabric to keep the dust away. “She doesn’t want to leave the city, and I don’t think sending her away will solve anything, anyway. To keep her close is to keep her safe.”
“Sounds more like,I don’t want to leave my wife, so I’m gonna put my witness in danger to serve my own issues. But it’s cool, because I’ll let her use an old fuckin’ kingpin drug dealer’s house to assuage my own guilt.”
