“He didn’t deserve to be treated like that. He has Asperger’s. I just asked that you people give him a fair chance. What is it? He wouldn’t fuck you and Kane, so that was it? He was out?”
She slaps me again and again and then she leans in at my ear. “He created the perfect weapon. We leave for China tomorrow. Rip didn’t want it. Kane didn’t want it. But they want it. But you get it first.” She leans back, holds up what looks like an Advil, and smiles. “Say bye-bye.”
She maces me again, and this time she gets one of my eyes. She’s a horrible shot but it’s good enough. It burns and the burn is intense. I open my mouth with a gasp. She sticks the damn pill in. Desmond grabs my head to tilt it backward. There’s a gunshot and he falls backward. Somehow, I’ve shoved the pill into the side of my cheek but I can’t hold it long. My eyes. My throat. Marilyn moves, and I catch her legs with mine, roll with her, and then I’m on top, and at least for the moment, I’ve pinned one of her arms under her back and the other with my shoulder. With my hands tied, that won’t last long. And I still have the pill in my mouth and I need it gone. Now. I need it gone now. But it’s stuck to the side of my cheek. And this bitch won’t stop squirming. She’s going to make me swallow the damn thing. And even if I do spit it out, my hands are tied. I have no weapon. Right now, I can barely see and I don’t even know if I have help. That gunshot could have been meant for me.
Actually, I realize, I do have a weapon, but just one shot to use it.
But it’s my only chance of surviving.
I lean down and press my mouth to Marilyn’s, and puff hard over and over until the pill dislodges and flies into her mouth. She gasps in shock and sucks it down her throat. Her throat rips open a moment later. Two birds, one stone. The pill is gone. She’s dead. I roll off of her, preparing to keep rolling for cover, only to hear Kane say, “Lilah. Lilah.”
I blink through the burn to find a hazy Kane kneeling over me and I don’t know how he has water, but he starts flushing my eyes. When the pain eases enough to be bearable, I sit up, he unties me, and I catch the ground with my free hands—trying to gain my equilibrium and to put everything that just happened together. “You shot Desmond and saved me again, didn’t you?”
“The bastard didn’t want to die. He came at me after I shot him. But he’s down now. And you’re alive. I told you, you’re not getting out of the wedding this time.”
I laugh and glance over at Marilyn, my vision getting clearer by the moment. Kane does the same. “Now you can say you kissed a girl and liked it.”
“That was my kind of bad joke.”
“You’re rubbing off on me.”
“I didn’t use a knife this time. Well, I tried and failed. But you don’t have to bury the body. My hands were tied and she was trying to kill me. Had I rolled off of her, I’d probably be dead right now.”
It’s only then that the sirens even register and I jolt with awareness. “There was a gunshot. Oh God. Jay and Enrique.” I pop to a squatting position and Kane, still squatting as well, catches my arm. “Jay was shot.”
My heart races. “Please tell me he’s not dead.”
“It’s bad. I called an ambulance and Enrique and Kit were trying to stop the bleeding when I came after you.”
“Who shot him?”
“We’re not sure. He’s in custody, though, so we'll know soon enough.”
My world spins and I stand up, launching into a full run toward the house. I get there as they wheel Jay to the ambulance.
“How is he?” I demand of the EMS techs.
“He needs blood. Now.”
“That’s all they say before they shut the doors.”
Me, Kane, Enrique, and Kit staring after it.
“Where are the other men?” I ask.
“Dead,” Kane replies. “Desmond killed them.”
And before this is over, Jay may be dead, too.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
“That damn red bracelet doesn’t work worth a shit,” I say standing at the back of the SUV with Kane as I pull off my mace-covered shirt and pull on one of Kane’s T-shirts. It hangs to my knees. A really great look with my high-heeled boots, but I don’t care. I just want to get to the hospital.
“He’s alive.”
“He’s fired. He’s not doing this anymore. Anyone this unlucky needs to do something else.”
When we finally get to the ER, Jay is in surgery. Per the doctor, the bullet went into his chest but missed his heart. He has a good chance of surviving.