Page 124 of The Twilight Theft

I took a half-step toward them, but Enzo aimed at me.

“Tell me you’re working with her,” he snarled. “Give me a reason to kill you both.”

Jayce steadied herself in a kneel, head wrenched back. “Rav should have left you to die, you asshole.”

“How did you know to find us here?” Enzo yanked harder on her ponytail and her veil of bravado collapsed.

“I was looking for intel on Wyatt.” She whimpered, adjusting her right leg underneath herself. What was hurting her more? Him practically ripping her hair out, or the forced movement on her bad leg? “I didn’t think anyone would be here.”

I stood frozen, torn between intervening and maintaining the thin cover I had. She’d given a perfect excuse, and I had to do the same.Get control. “I’m not working with her, Enzo. But the more noise she makes, the more likely someone comes to investigate.”

“He’s right,” said Craig. “She’s clearly hurt. What’s she going to do?”

Craig knew Jayce was planning to recover the huma bird statue. But he wasn’t asking her where it was or about Vanessa. Why? Did he already know something? Even if he didn’t, he didn’t want unnecessary bloodshed, and that was important.

“She snuck in. How hurt can she be?” Enzo jabbed the gun to her head again and pulled upward, hauling her to her feet. “Maybe we should have a little fun with her.”

The ice on my spine shifted to fire.Calm down, Drew.I released the fist I’d instinctively curled and unclenched my jaw. If he touched her any more than he already was…

But he had a gun.

At her head.

He’d be too fast. There had to be some way to distract him or get the gun away from him. But if I did, would Craig back me up? Or side with Enzo?

The elevator dinged and everyone looked to the door of Wyatt’s office.

Two sets of footsteps came down the hallway this time.

A male voice called out, “Craig? Enzo? Are you here?”

“In here, Noah.” Enzo didn’t release his grip on Jayce or holster the gun. “And we have a snoop.”

A handsome blond man in his early thirties walked in, the same Noah the Reynolds team had sent me a photo of. Was this about to make things better or worse? They didn’t want him to know they were after the bird. Had he been the one who gave the Reynolds team the tip about its location?

But it was the woman behind him that nearly made me gasp out loud.

Liana Tremaine.

What the hell was going on?

Chapter 46

Jayce

“Fifteenminutes,Jayce,”saidEmmett over my earpiece. “Just hold out for fifteen minutes.”

Pain screamed up my leg and through every follicle on my head. I’d had guns pointed at me before but never by someone as unhinged as Enzo. He’d kidnapped for Fenix, beaten people with wild abandon, and pushed old women into rivers. Was he a killer, though?

Probably.

“You idiot,” growled Noah. He marched over to Enzo and swiped the gun away. “Have you never listened to anything I’ve told you?”

“Che cazzo fai?”

“Let go of her.” Noah shoved the gun flat against Enzo’s chest, the scarred Italian releasing me and taking hold of his weapon. My former teammate, the liar of all liars, reached for my ear and snatched my earpiece. Next, he pulled my phone from my forearm and ripped off my watch. He whispered into the phone, his tone menacing, “Brie, all her tech is about to be dropped out of a window. You may want to trigger their destruction. And just a warning—if you send anyone in here, Jayce is dead.”

My team knew where I was and that I was in trouble. That was the important part.

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