Page 166 of Unforgettable

With a grin, he said, “Hey, sis. Kind of funny, right? I’m the one rescuing you for once.”

FIFTY-FIVE

Amanda

I struggledto comprehend what was happening. In a matter of minutes, I’d gone from being fearful for my brother’s life and terrified for my boyfriend’s to being relieved to see a gun pressed to CJ’s cheek. My heart was pounding furiously, and I couldn’t seem to take a full breath. Each was greedily stolen by my blind panic.

“What are you—” I couldn’t even get the entire question out before CJ was fuming.

“What thefuckdo you think you’re doing? I thought you couldn’t get any dumber.” Even with Adam’s gun pressed into his skin, CJ reached for his own. I flinched back, and Reed threw a protective arm in front of me.

Without hesitation, Adam wrapped his hand around CJ’s gun before he had the opportunity to. Freeing it from his waistband, Adam kept his own gun trained on him while he set CJ’s on the ground and kicked it back and away from us all.

“It’s not smart to talk shit when you’re not the one holding the gun.”

Those were the last words I heard before the room burst into chaos. The first man that charged in, holding a gun of his own, ordered Adam to drop the weapon and get the fuck back. Thankfully, Adam did as he was told and handed the gun over to the officer. Several more men and women, all dressed in various uniforms, badges dangling from their necks and pinned to their shirts, hurried into the room and secured the scene.

I pressed my back into Reed’s front, and he wrapped his arm around my chest.

The room descended into mayhem, and I almost missed CJ being slammed to the ground by two officers that were even larger than him. The snap of the cuffs could barely be heard over the chatter and movement but was nonetheless satisfying.

When they hauled him up, dirty-blond hair a mess and his jacket torn, his calm facade was back in place. Like it’d never slipped at all.

We all had our breaking points—I guess CJ’s was figuring out that his extortion plan was falling apart.

While the men, and a few women, surveyed my classroom and hauled CJ out into the hall, Adam weaved through them all to me and Reed.

“Hey, guys. Glad that’s over,” he said with a smile that I nearly slapped off his damn face.

“What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?” I asked and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting impatiently for an answer. “I don’t hear from you all week. You ignore me for the past twenty-four hours, and yet here you are, being fucking Superman, swooping in to save the day.”

He gave an unimpressed look, squinting his eyes and tilting his head to the side slightly. “Superman, huh? I thought it was all a little more Batman even though neither of them uses guns, but—ouch!”

I slapped him, not in the face, but in the arm. Either way, I made sure it stung.

I appreciated a joke probably more than the next person, especially to cut the tension, but his humor felt like he was making light of the terrifying situation we were just in and his part in all of it. Because that was the real issue—his choices had affected the people around him. It wasn’t just his life he was playing with anymore. And the consequences weren’t just his own.

“Are you seriously sitting here cracking jokes when we could have died?” Angry tears threatened to fall, but my will was stronger than the flood of emotions. The relief was indescribable. Relief that no one was dead, that both my boyfriend and my brother were standing there with me, still breathing. And that relief felt so good, but the outrage was just as potent.

Adam swallowed and looked from me to Reed. If he thought Reed was going to be on his side or try to placate me, he was sorely mistaken. All he did was shift his hand up my back to my neck and give me a reassuring squeeze.

“I wasn’t going to let you die.No onewas going to let you die, and no one was going to let Reed give him any money,” he sighed and glanced around the room. Only a few of the officers and what I recognized as DEA agents were left. “You know I made a deal, right? Help them nab Calvin and a few of the other top guys in exchange for a lesser punishment.”

I nodded and leaned farther into Reed for the added support.

“That’s what I’ve been doing for the past week. I knew CJ had reached his limit and he couldn’t wait any longer to get the money. He took me to one of his safe houses and was prepared to hand me over to them when he got a better idea. The guy I was stuck in the safe house with was an undercover DEA agent. After Calvin left, he called our team up and we hauled ass to follow him. They were taking forever, standing in the parking lot talking about letting y’all come out before we barged in because they didn’t want a hostage situation on their hands. But I was done waiting.”

“How’d he know?” I seethed, and Adam looked confused. “How did he know to find Reed? That he would have enough money?”

He didn’t answer—his terrified, dumbfounded expression gave him away.

“You told him,” I supplied quietly. He told CJ that Reed was loaded. He told him that we were both at the school. In one of the rambling messages I’d left for Adam, I’d told him that we were probably going to be at the school for a while. My own brother had sold us out.

“It was—it was completely unintentional. I—”

“Allan!” one of the officers called from across the room, probably louder than necessary. Both Adam and I jerked our attention to him, and he clarified, “Adam, we gotta talk.”

Adam closed his eyes and shook his head, turning back to me. “I couldn’t be more sorry. I’m sorry to both of you. But I may or may not have stolen his gun when I decided to come in here. Not sure what that will mean for me, but…” He trailed off but peered down at me with a never-ending sadness in his eyes.

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