Page 38 of Whatever It Takes

I shriek against Calder’s palm.

The bullet lands, embedding in the wall across from me and Calder.

My ears echo from the loud explosion, but a second later, a terrible crunching sound fills the air.

Keir follows the rotation of his kick, spinning back toward the doorway.

I stretch forward, fighting against Calder’s hold.

Jameson lands with a thump against the runner of carpet just inside the door.

If I had to take a guess, I’d say his neck is broken, but I can’t believe Keir could accomplish that with a kick.

“He always wears a smartwatch,” Calder says, releasing his hold on my mouth. “You need to get that off now. If anyone subpoenas his phone records, his health information could be stored in the cloud.”

“Got it,” Keir says, falling to a crouch.

Easton steps in the door, allowing it to close loudly behind him. His chest heaves as he shoves his long, dark hair back from his forehead. His head swivels, and he looks at me. “I really wanted to slit his throat, but I know you were exposed to a lotof blood during that farce of a ceremony you were forced to endure.” He shrugs. “And I did promise to break his neck. I do my best to always keep my word.” He gestures to Jameson, and all I can manage to do is slow blink.

Calder runs his hand over my stomach as I lean against him for support.

My pulse pounds in my ears, and I barely choke out, “What do we do now? Does this count as self-defense?”

Easton’s face goes blank. “I have no plans to deal with the police today.”

Oh, God.

I really did escape a life of violence just to stumble right into equally dangerous men.

Easton sends Calder up to handle fixing anything that could be caught on the security cameras before calling in one of the teams. He helps Keir roll Jameson up in the runner of carpet, and they shove his body into the maintenance closet.

“Wait for Leo and Shaw.” Easton nods at Keir. “Then call Charles. Tell him to get his team over here. I want the entire floor and all the Sheetrock pulled out by morning. Don’t forget Jameson’s vehicle.”

“Understood,” Keir agrees, studying me like he’s concerned, but he sure doesn’t stop Easton from dragging me toward the elevator.

“You really are the king, huh? You murder someone, and everyone else cleans up the evidence?” I ask as he slams the button to go up.The doors open immediately, and I scurry inside. “Must be nice.”

Easton follows me in. He doesn’t give me space, instead stopping directly in front of me. I brace myself to keep from backing into the panel where you select your floor. “I know what you’re doing.”

My head tilts.

Well, that makes one of us, because I have no idea why I’m trying to push his buttons. It’s almost like I lost my self-preservation skills when I met him.

“You’re testing me.” He brings a hand up, running his thumb over my lower lip. “Do you expect me to blame you for Jameson’s actions? That altercation lies on my shoulders. I should have handled him yesterday when he put his hands on you.”

My stomach twists. It’s a weird feeling that I can’t really describe. He looks so earnest that everything in me wants to believe the explosion isn’t coming.

I think he’s right, though.

My system knows what comes next, and I’d rather get it out of the way than to have to wonder how bad it’s going to be if it continues to build up.

My father once killed a homeless man that my mother was fond of simply because he gave her a rose. She regularly snuck him money when we were out on walks to the park.

Only, my father found out and made it a teachable moment for both of us.

And that was my fault.

The chatty eight-year-old version of me got that man killed, all because I didn’t know when to keep my mouth shut.

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