Page 50 of Trouble

“I’ll be there in twenty. Don’t open your door for anyone else, got it? And if they try to force their way in, you call me immediately. Not the police—me.”

I was already moving toward my bedroom when the calldisconnected.

“What’s going on?” Liam called after me just as I closed my hand around the gun I kept stashed in my underwear drawer. His voice carried the sick dread currently roiling in the pit of mystomach.

“Fucking Perkinson’s put a tail on her,” I growled as I stormed out of my bedroom and headed for the front door. “Someone followed herhome.”

“Bloody hell.”I didn’t have to look behind me to know he was following as I headed down the stairs to the parking garage. Seemed making sure our girl was safe was one thing we could still work togetheron.

* * *

“Idon’t see anyone,”I mumbled to Liam as I slid out of the Jeep’s driverside.

“Let’s check ‘round back,” he said, waving me along as he snuck up to the side of thebuilding.

We moved soundlessly along the side of Audrey’s high-rise, making it to the communal area between it and another building. The space was covered in darkness, and I squinted into the shadows, searching for aclue.

“There,” Liam hissed, nodding his chin in the direction of some shrubbery. One of the shadows broke free from the bushes and I saw the outline and first one man, then another. They’d spotted us,too.

“Oy!” Liam shouted, breaking into a run. I was right behind him, the weight of the gun in my hand a solid comfort. I’d always hated shooting people, but knowing these pricks were hanging around Audrey’s made me feel a hell of lot calmer about the prospect than usual. Whatever they were here for, it wasn’t anythinggood.

The two by the bushes didn’t wait for us to catch up to them. They turned around and sprinted off into thenight.

We took up pursuit, but they had too much of a lead. They made it to a white van parked up on the side of the pavement and drove off with screeching tires before we could catch up tothem.

“Fuck!” Liam pulled the fingers of both hands through his hair as he stared after them.“Fuck!I should never have let her alone when I fuckingknewPerkinson would look intoher!”

Neither of us mentioned the other option—that it was our dad’s men scouting her out, still. As bad as it was that our supposed ally was spying on our girl, it would be infinitely worse if Dad hadn’t bought our fib about her just being a bit ofarse.

I didn’t respond, just turned around and walked with long strides to the entrance to Audrey’s building. She answered the door phone after a few moments, her voice shakier thannormal.

“Yes?”

“It’s me, love. And Liam. Let usin.”

The lock buzzed open, and I followed my twin up the stairs. Audrey opened her door as soon as we knocked, but with the chain on. Smart girl—even if that wouldn’t have stopped a made man determined enough to make her an insurancepolicy.

Her wide, brown eyes flickered from Liam’s face to mine before she closed the door again. We could hear the chain rattling, and then she opened it again. There was so much doubt and pain on her face at the sight of us, but right then, it didn’t matter. Not when we didn’t know if those men were gonna return withreinforcements.

“Grab your toothbrush, love.” Liam pushed in past her and cast a look around the flat—and instinctive reassurance that her home was safe enough for now. “You’re coming withus.”

26

Audrey

Of course,Irefused.

All the way down the stairs and while one of the twins basically lifted me into the backseat of their parked Jeep. I still came with them—the two men who’d ripped my heart out not a week ago, whom I’d sworn I’d never call again when I curled up to cry late at night in my lonelybed.

But Ihadcalled them when I was scared and didn’t have anyone else to turn to. And they’d come. Both ofthem.

So I followed them when their faces told me things were so much worse than I feared, even as they refused to answer any of my questions and only kept repeating that it would beokay.

“You know who they were, don’t you?” I asked as the twin behind the wheel pulled away from my building. It was the only explanation I could find to the way they were acting—that they somehow knew who had been following me, even if it made nosense.

“We have a pretty strong suspicion,” the non-driving twin said from the front passenger seat. His voice was as grim as I’d ever heard either ofthem.

“You don’t have to worry, Audrey,” the other redhead said. “We’ll sortit.”

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