Page 39 of Cruel Hearts

My steps falter. I convinced myself he’d be gone. What is there to be gained by working together?

He spots me standing under the hospital’s main entrance canopy. He wouldn’t stop me if I turned in the opposite direction and walked away, but what would I do? Hide at the warehouse, wait for Quinn, and disappear? It sounds tempting, but then Zarah’s blank face pushes away my selfishness. She needs me. No one is going to help her except me.

Ash is trapping her there, and he brainwashed Zane into letting him. Her engagement ring sits heavy in my purse. She looked so awed staring at her bare finger, like shackles had suddenly come undone.

The Blacks have gotten away with too much, and if there’s anything I want, anything I need to do before I disappear forever, is prove to Zane that Ash and his father killed Kagan and Lark.

Zane took Maryanne from me. How much will it hurt him to find out all his best friend’s crimes against his sister and the woman he claimed to love?

I’d like to be around to watch. Then I can leave Zane with nothing.

The way he left me.

I walk across the parking lot with new resolve. Ash can’t go unpunished. He deserves to lose parts of his life, too, the way he’s taken years from Zarah and me.

“You look better,” Denton says as I approach.

“She’s alive. The shooter hit her shoulder, not her heart like I thought.”

“That’s good news.”

“Yeah.”

“Where to?” he asks over the hood of his car.

I climb in and buckle my seatbelt. “I have a few things at Quinn’s.” Worrying my bottom lip between my teeth, I stare out the window as he settles behind the wheel and navigates the car out of the large parking lot. “I have people after me, and you know that. If you want to split up, I won’t blame you.”

“No. There’s strength in numbers.”

There’s wisdom in that, and I don’t argue. I still don’t trust him completely, but I relax a bit knowing I’m not alone. Keeping my eyes on the sideview mirror and searching for anyone who may be following us, I direct him to the industrial park. I’ll tell Luis where his car is, give him his keys, and grab the things I managed to take with me from Ash’s. Then Denton and I will find a place to regroup.

We need a plan.

That plan might have to include figuring out what Zane did with the flash drive. If he’s not going to do anything with the information, I will. I wonder how Denton will take the news Ihad evidence in my hands and threw it away giving it to Zane. I might as well have flushed it down the toilet for all the good it did me.

Denton parks in front of the warehouse and he waits outside, squinting against the sun.

Luis meets me at the door and helps me find the room I slept in. My bag is still shoved under the bed, and I pull it out and adjust one of the straps over my shoulder.

In the office, he finds Quinn’s charger, and I trade Quinn’s gun and the keys to his car for it. I offer him a ride to the parking garage, but he declines.

“You’re in a load of shit,” he says, and I don’t disagree.

I swallow back a sob. “I’m scared for her, Luis.”

“Quinn can take care of herself.” He pats my back, his body odor drifting to me, his shirt straining over his large gut. “How do you think she made it as far as she has? Those fuckers caught her off-guard. It won’t happen again.”

“I hope not.”

“Where’re you going, girl? You sure you don’t want to stay here?”

Leaving the warehouse isn’t something I’ll do lightly. I’m safe here. Luis has the place secure—for obvious reasons—but I can’t go underground. It defeats the purpose of staying in the city.

“If things get too hot, we might have to come back.”

“You’re welcome to stay as a friend of Quinn’s.”

“Thanks.”

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