The sun hadn’t even begun to rise in the morning sky when the Uber arrived. I stared out the window as he drove me across town, away from Ayden’s beautiful, expensive house, back to the side of the town where my small, one-bedroom apartment awaited me. It was like waking the morning after the ball and realizing that you’d forgotten the rules, and had crashed back to reality in your old threadbare clothes and a missing shoe. Last night I had lived the dream but the morning after was a true walk of shame.

  What the hell had I been thinking of? I closed my eyes.

  I needed to call Kai, ask him if he’d received the files from Ayden’s computer and tell him what Ayden had said about Roman Pierce. And then I needed to beg him to get me out of here. Things had gone too far. I could blame it on the wine, but I knew that wasn’t it. Not really. I slept with him because I was stupid, because I’d let my body dictate my mind. I had made a mistake and I didn’t know how to walk it back. How did you walk back a mistake like?

  “We’re here, ma’am.”

  I opened my eyes as the car pulled into my parking lot. My old Ford was parked in a spot in front of the building, but my Prius was back at the office. I’d have to call another Uber to get to work in less than an hour. That was really good planning!

  I got out, using my phone to give the driver a tip. I was slipping it back into my pocket when someone grabbed me from behind, covering my mouth with a gloved hand. I slammed my elbow back, but he was expecting that move and jerked me over so that I couldn’t connect. His other arm came around my waist and he picked me up, physically carrying me around the side of the building.

  “Don’t fight me, bitch!” he said in a low voice as he half carried me down a narrow alley between buildings. I ignored his advice and struggled, moving as much as I could to force him to stop and readjust his hold. The moment my feet hit the ground, I kicked back, slamming my heel into his shin. He grunted, cursing under his breath. I hit him again, another kick on the shin and then an elbow in the ribs. I wriggled free, turning and slamming the side of my hand into the angle of his jaw. He had his jacket hood up and his face was covered, but I could see that he was tall, slender, and he was strong. The narrow alley made it difficult to move around in.

  I had to get the upper hand as quickly as possible.

  I slammed my fist into his belly multiple times, forcing him backward. But then he got a good shot at my jaw that rocked my head back violently wrenching my neck. Pain and anger cut through me, shaking off the vestiges of exhaustion that had been clinging to me from the emotions of the night before. I moved forward, trying to stay as close as possible, aware that his longer arms required more space to get a good blow in. We struggled for a moment, both throwing punches and attempting kicks, but neither doing much damage. He tried to grab my wrists again, but I kept them out of his reach, finally going for that one move that all girls should know, and kneed him in the crotch.

  He immediately doubled over and lost his balance, cursing me as he went down.

  I jerked back his hood and pulled the scarf from his face. And then saw his face. “You? What the fuck...” I was so surprised, I nearly lost my advantage. He tried to get up but I kicked him down again and grabbed the gun Kai had given me from my bag. There was no point in pretending any longer.

  “You’re one of them?” I let him sit up against the wall, but held the gun on him. Toby shrugged.

  “What better cover than a homosexual salesman? The boy with a crush on the boss.” He smirked. “You’re such a smartass aren’t you? You didn’t even think of protecting your phone did you? Did you really think we wouldn’t be keeping tabs on all of Vaughn Motors’ employees?”

  My heart sank as I pictured Toby standing in my office, my cellphone in his hands. Just looking at your screensaver. Gorgeous flowers! I’d dismissed it, assuming the salesman was doing exactly what he said he was doing, checking out my screen. If I had been able to hack into Ayden’s computer, they would as easily have been able to hack my phone. I cursed myself for my sheer stupidity. Why the hell, hadn’t I been more careful? Kai had warned me, and I had ignored him.

  “Does Ayden know who you are?”

  “Of course not.” He tried to pull himself upright. “Come on”, he said looking as innocent as a shark, “let’s get to the office, we can sort something out”. He put out his hand.

  I pretended to pull him up and then hit him hard in the center of his throat. He immediately began to gasp for breath and fell back. Grabbing his hood I jerked him backward and slammed his head against the brick wall. It made a sickening sound and he slumped to the ground. I checked his pulse. He was still alive, but he’d be unconscious for a while. I immediately ran for the parking lot, wondering if he’d been alone, or if there was a waiting partner. If he had a partner, I had only seconds before I’d be right back where I’d started.

  I sent up a silent prayer that the keys to the Ford were still in a little magnetic box I kept under the front fender. I bent quickly and felt for it. I pulled it free and ran for the door. As I pulled out of the space and slammed the car into drive, a man dressed in jogging clothes came running out of the alley between the buildings. He stopped and stared right at me, his eyes dark with something more sinister than curiosity.

  I pressed the gas pedal to the floor and pushed the Ford as hard as it would go.

  Ayden was still sound asleep when I burst back into the bedroom. I bent over him and shook his shoulder, anxiously calling his name.

  “Ayden! Get up!”

  He opened his eyes, and then smiled as they began to close again. “A little more sleep, then I’ll be happy to—”

  I slapped his cheek lightly. “Wake up, for crying out loud! We need to get out of here.”

  “What?”

  “Something’s happened. We have to go.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  A loud siren began to scream throughout the house. Ayden immediately got up and went to a panel on the wall, staring at a keyboard that sat below a small screen. I moved up behind him and watched as three men walked around the perimeter of the house.

  “Did you turn on the alarm?”

  “Yeah, when I came in. We need to get out of here.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Black Jacket.”

  “Who?”

  I went to the closet and grabbed a pair of slacks and shirt, tossing them at him. “Get dressed! We have to get out of here before they find us.”

  I went out into the hall, moving to the head of the stairs to listen. They hadn’t gotten into the house yet. I’d left the front door unlocked when I left earlier, not even noticing the alarm control panel by the door. But when I came back, I’d been careful to flip the deadbolt. That’s when I saw the control panel and pushed the button that I assumed by the label armed everything. Once you use one alarm system, you can usually figure them all out. This was a little more elaborate than the ones we sometimes dealt with at Barracuda, but it worked.

  I headed downstairs, moving as silently as my trainers would allow, pausing at the bottom to look for signs of trouble. There was movement outside the back doors, but the line of sight was skewed enough that I was pretty sure I could get across the foyer without being seen. In my hurry to get to Ayden, I had dropped my bag, just inside the door. I grabbed it and reached inside for the little pistol.

  It wasn’t the 9mm I was used to, but it would do.

  “You have a gun?”

  Ayden stood halfway down the staircase, staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

  “Quiet!”

  But it was too late. The glass in the back door shattered, the sound of gunfire echoed through the house. The alarm began to sound again at the same time, creating an earsplitting a cacophony that that I hoped would work in our favor. I gestured for Ayden to follow me. He came down the stairs, pausing to glance into the living room. Two men were clearing the glass from the broken door in order to make entry into the house. I fired a single shot at them, grabbing Ayden’s arm to pull him into the dining room. An answering shot ricocheted off the archway as we ran past.

  “Your car keys?”

  “The garage.”

  I pushed him, and he ran through the dining room and burst through the kitchen doors. He slid a little as his shoes hit the slick ceramic floors, but he managed to stay on his feet. Another ricochet hit the door, and pain suddenly burned my upper arm. I kept going, without looking behind me. I knew they were close.

  Ayden reached the connecting door between the kitchen and the garage. I gestured for him to go through. “Start it. I’ll be there in a second.”

  He hesitated, but I didn’t wait to see if he went through. I turned around to head off the two guys coming through the dining room. I fired at the first sight of movement, hitting the first guy in the shoulder. He cried out, dropping his gun as he backed up and disappeared into the dining room again. The other guy, however, wasn’t that shy. He came through the door firing, his 35 blazing. I ducked down behind the island in the center of the room and moved around the back of it to the opposite side, taking a shot at his legs. He fired back, barely missing my head as I jerked back. And then there was another shot, but I didn’t feel the concussion of it hitting the island. Had his shot gone wild?

  “Come on,” Ayden said, suddenly appearing beside me, the first shooter’s gun in his hand. “Let’s get out of here before that third guy shows up.”

  I got up and raced with him to the garage. The car was running and I jumped behind the wheel while Ayden dove into the backseat and opened a window enough to fire from. I threw the car into reverse and punched the accelerator. We burst through the garage door, dragging part of it out into the driveway with us. The third intruder was on the front porch, coming through the main door. Behind him was the guy I’d gotten in the shoulder, a new gun in his hands. They fired at us as we tore down the driveway, but we were already out of reach and none of the bullets hit the car.

  “Sorry about the door,” I said as we raced through the residential streets on an early Monday morning. I had to watch for kids coming out to catch school buses. I was terrified of hurting some innocent, but I was equally afraid to slow down. I hadn’t seen cars in the driveway, so Black Jacket’s people had to have parked somewhere along the back of the property, close enough to catch up with us before we got too far away. I went as fast as I dared until we hit the interstate and joined the traffic rush.

  Ayden climbed over the seats and settled beside me, setting the gun in the console before fastening his seatbelt. He ran his fingers through his blond hair, and looked over at me, expressionless.

  “What the hell is all this about?”

  I shook my head. “Trouble.”

  “I get that. But what kind of trouble?”

  “Your kind of trouble”; I said briefly. But I didn’t want to elaborate because a part of me still didn’t want to end the charade, to admit to him that I wasn’t who I’d said I was. But there was this other part of me that was damned glad the lies would soon be over. “I need to make a call.” I sat up a little straighter and dug in my pocket, looking for my cellphone. And then I remembered: it had been my hand when Toby grabbed me. I must have dropped it back there. “Shit!”

  “What?”

  “I don’t have my phone.”

  “I have mine.” He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me. I couldn’t remember Kai’s cell number, so I had to call Barracuda and I prayed he was in.

  Cady’s familiar voice filled my ear.

  “Hey, Cady! It’s Paxton.”

  “Paxton! We haven’t heard from you in a while.”

  “I know. I’ve been…” I glanced at Ayden. “I need to talk to Kai. Can you patch me to his cell, by any chance?”

  “Sure. You’re not in trouble, are you?”

  “It’s really important, Cady. I need to talk to him as quickly as possible.”

  “Of course.” The playfulness went out of Cady’s voice. “Just a second.”

  I had kept driving, but I had to slow down

  I pushed the accelerator, speeding past a slow moving car in front of us. I was still watching in the rearview mirror, ready to accelerate at the sign of any car that might be interested in us but there was nothing. And that made me wonder. Why not?

  “What’s up, Paxton?” Kai’s voice was tense, like he’d already gotten news he didn’t like.

  “They made me. I’ve got Vaughn and we’re headed out of town. I need to know where to go.”

  “They made you? How?”

  I glanced at Ayden. He was staring at me with an expression that was as easy to read as it was closed off. That part of me that had wanted last night to happen, the part that really wanted to believe he was an innocent, shriveled up inside, wishing this moment had never come.

  “They had someone in the office and he hacked my phone. He must have seen the stuff I sent you yesterday.”

  “Hell! I told you to be careful!”

  “I know. I didn’t suspect this guy, but I should have.”

  “That means they know what we know.”

  “And they know I’m involved.”

  Kai was quiet for a moment. “When did this go down?”

  “About an hour ago.”

  He remained quiet, making me a little anxious. “What should I do?” I demanded.

  “Come home. We’ll meet at the office.”

  “Okay.”

  “Be careful, Paxton. We’ve had a little activity here, too. It’s connected in some way.”

  “I will.”

  I disconnected the call and held the phone out to Ayden.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said, quietly.

  “What?”

  He held up his phone, showing me the small smear of blood on one corner of the pale blue cover. I looked at my hands, remembering the burn on my left shoulder. I tugged at my sleeve, coming away with a nice teaspoon of blood on each fingertip.

  “That’s great!”

  “You’ve got some bruising on your jaw, too.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll clean up when we get back to town.”

  “What town? Where are we going? What the hell happened?”

  I glanced at him, aware that I had to tell him something. It was a bit of a drive from Charlotte to Walnut Estates, nearly four hours. “Toby was waiting for me outside my apartment when I got there this morning.” I brushed at my face, the soreness of the forming bruise reminding me of that fight. “He’s one of them, one of the guys working for your friend.”

  “Toby? You’re kidding!”

  “Nope. He’s been watching you, just like Ms. Hastings. And everyone else, apparently. He hacked into my phone and found some things on there that tipped him off that I wasn’t just an accountant.”

  “What do you mean, not just an accountant?”

  I glanced at him. “I majored in accounting in college, but I only made it through five semesters before I dropped out. I’ve never held a job in that profession.”

  “Never?”

  “Not until you hired me.”

  “But you had all these references, these other jobs in New Orleans!”

  “I lived in New Orleans for eight months seven years ago. I was born in Germany and lived most of my childhood in Korea, Australia, and the UK. My father was a Marine and we moved where he moved, lived where he lived. Until my mother died.”

  “You lied.”

  “My resume was a fabrication with documentation that would have held up if you’d investigated. It was probably good that you didn’t, though.”

  “Why? Why did you want a job with me?”

  I glanced at him. I knew he was smarter than that. He was just struggling because of the number of lies I’d had to tell him.

  “It wasn’t meant to go the way it did. I was just going to search your office, find proof of what you were up to. But you keep such a damn clean office! And you were a bit of a flirt.”

  “A flirt?”

  “I just needed you to invite me to your house. I never thought…” It sounded weak, even to my ears. “It got out of hand.”

  “Who do you work for?”

  I gripped the wheel, the pain in my arm flaring. I glanced at it, but I couldn’t see anything but the blood causing my shirt to stick to my arm. “You wouldn’t know him.”

  “Who do you work for?” he repeated, his voice lowering into something like a growl.

  “I’m a private security operative. I work for a firm called Barracuda Security in Walnut Estates, down by the coast.”

  “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “We’re a small firm. Just four of us, really.”

  “Your boss?”

  “Kai Gabriel.”

  Ayden tautened; his whole body seemed as tight as a string on a bow. I glanced at him. “You know the name?”

  He shook his head. But he didn’t ask any other questions—didn’t speak another word. It was a very tense four-hour drive. My body hurt all over when we finally drove past the city limits. There was no sign of Black Jacket’s men behind us, which confused me even as it relieved me. If I had been them, I would have jumped right into a car and followed, run us off the road before we’d gone just a few miles. They didn’t do that. Why not?

  Something was wrong here and it was making me damn nervous.

  “I need to stop at my place first. Is that OK with you?”

  He refused to acknowledge me, or my question. It had been a lot to take in, I knew. By now he must have realized that I’d betrayed him. He must also have been wondering if the cops would be waiting for him at Barracuda’s offices. I’d been wondering the same thing.

  I drove through the small downtown area, past the cluster of fast food restaurants and the small office buildings, past the tourist shops that began miles from the beach and grew in population the closer one got to the waves. My place was tucked away in a mid-range residential area—houses owned by restaurant managers and tourist shop owners—a respectable, but unassuming neighborhood, but a far cry from the residences of big business owners and the wealthy seasonal inhabitants who kept summer homes here, but made their lives elsewhere.

  I turned into my driveway, feeling a sense of relief at the sight of the small clapboard structure that was the first thing of substance I’d ever purchased completely on my own. I was proud of my little house. It wasn’t an antebellum statement, but it was all mine.

 

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