Page 68 of Wicked Riddles & Bitter Heartbeats

“I left my phone at the gas station down the street.”

He makes a sound of approval. “So, you’re smarter than I thought.”

There are more footsteps. Both sets. It’s not easy to keep my feet from moving, knowing he’s walking toward her, and she doesn’t want him to.

“No, that’s too close,” she says, the footsteps getting closer to me. “No!” she shouts, and I grit my teeth, ready to jump. I will not put her in harm’s way, but if we don’t play this right, it could go very wrong.

She runs through the door, right past me, and the second I see the flash of someone coming after her, I lunge. The rope goes around his neck, and I pull as I whirl behind him. He grunts, body jerking back like I just clotheslined him, hands going to the rope to pull it off. I hold tighter, his back slamming against my chest. He’s putting up a good fight, and I don’t want to kill him like this. I could crush his throat, but he deserves more.

“Lilah!” I shout when I see her just standing there, staring. She has a job to do. “Lilah, move!”

She shakes out of it, hurries to the bag to dig through it.

It’s taking all of my strength to hold Frank still. He’s a big guy. My height and maybe my weight too. There are only seconds leftbefore he snaps out of his shock and his training kicks in. If Lilah doesn’t hurry up, this will go south.

Lilah finds what she needs, which we purposely left in the side pocket, and hurries over. She doesn’t hesitate to shove the needle into his neck. His body relaxes after a few seconds, and he slumps to the ground.

Lilah and I are both panting. Before I deal with this asshole, I go to her.

“You are okay,” I tell her firmly. Her eyes are still on her uncle, who’s lying on the ground. “Lilah.” I say her name sternly, but her gaze stays on him. I reach for her, brushing my knuckles along her cheek. She jerks back, eyes frantic. I don’t move, letting her come back to reality.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around me.

“It’s okay. You’re okay. I’m going to take care of him.”

I hold her while she catches her breath, and when she pulls back, I give her a kiss and tell her how well she did.

It takes a lot of time and maneuvering, but we manage to get him into the chair. He’s handcuffed and chained to it. We can’t risk him getting out.

“Hopefully it’ll hold up,” I comment.

“You paid enough money for it.”

I nod, staring at him slumped over in the chair. It was expensive, but it was sturdy and so I thought it would do the job. Seems good so far, but he hasn’t woken up and started trying to get out yet.

“I’m sorry,” Lilah whispers.

I shake my head, turning to face her and holding out my arms. She walks to me, resting her face against my chest.

“No need, Kitten. You did perfectly.” I kiss the top of her head.

“I… hesitated. You could have gotten hurt.”

“I’m fine, and so are you. This is all going to work out.”

I turn us to face the window. My brother should be here any minute.

I’m not sure what makes him come alone. He very well could have brought the entire squad, and it’s possible there is some kind of plan in place to catch me. It just doesn’t feel right. That isn’t how this plays out. That isn’t how this ends.

He makes his way up the stairs faster than Frank did, and when he spots me, he stops.

Along with the address and time of when he should be here, I sent some directions. One of them was to make sure he had his gun on him. I need it for the plan. Though it’s likely he would have had it anyway, I had to be sure.

His hand is on the handle, ready to pull it out.

“No need,” I say casually. “I just want to talk.”

“Who are you?” he asks in a nicer tone than when he nearly ran me down.

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