“He used to be a policeman.”

I shook my head, bringing the car to a stop at the red light.

“He never stopped being a policeman.”

I noticed a black-tinted SUV with no number plate pulled up in front of my car. Maybe I was a little paranoid, but being born in a world as dark as ours taught me to be extra observant. You only need to be careless once and you could turn up as the next corpse in a coffin with a bullet in your head.

“What?” She raised her brows, obviously confused.

“We didn’t know he worked for the police when we accepted him into The Circle,” I explained. After she had gone away, I’d dug up every resourceful information I could on Eric West.

“He was sent to The Circle to spy on the organization by the higher-ups in NYPD, and he ended up getting caught.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. “So, you did kill him?”

“I…” I trailed off when a man slid out from the SUV in front of us, with a gun in his hand.

“Shit.”

As he pointed the gun toward our car, one hand flew to the steering wheel,my other arm stretched across Rosanne to shield her from the bullets. “Get down!”

I slammed my foot on the accelerator, served into another lane, and ran through the red light.

“What is happening?” Bullets shattered the air, the sharp cracks piercing through Rosanne’s scream.

My heart picked up an unsteady rhythm, fear slithering through my chest that Rosanne would get hurt. “Stay down.” I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck and pushed her down. “I’ll explain later.”

I served in and out of the lanes to avoid the bullets splattering on the windshield and windows and sped down the street until I found an exit through some alleyways which led to a busy road.

Fortunately, the attackers didn’t chase us. Nevertheless, I kept the car in motion for another few minutes, only pulling over when I was sure no one was following us anymore.

Once the car stopped by the pavement, Rosanne got out, clutching her chest, and muttering to herself to breathe.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not!” She breathed heavily. “What the fuck was this all about? What is going on?”

I stepped out of the car and grabbed her wrist. “Get back in the car, it’s not safe for you to be out here.”

She pulled her wrist from my grip. “No.”

“Rosanne…”

“I’m not stepping a foot in the car unless you tell me what the hell just happened.” She ran her finger through her hair. “This was a hit on you, wasn’t it? I mean, there’s no way someone would just attack us out of nowhere. Right?”

“You’re right, someone was trying to kill me.”

“I’ll tell you everything, but first, get back into the fucking car.”

She glanced back and forth between me and the car for a moment, then she let out a sigh before she reluctantly got back into the passenger seat.

“This has to do with your brother’s death.”

I was about to tell her everything she needed to know before the ambush happened. Now that she’d seen the dangers involved, it was time for her to know the truth.

“I didn’t kill your brother, Rosanne.”

Chapter Twelve