Her head picked up and she looked at me, terror in her eyes.
Yeah, she knew exactly who I was and who my brother was. And what he was going to do to her. Why hadn't that stopped her from raising a gun in my presence?
If I was as scared as she seemed to be now, I wouldn't have done it. No matter how much I got paid.
Was it that simple though? Probably not. It usually wasn't. She could have a family member being held somewhere to ensure her obedience. A sibling or maybe a child. If not that, they might have something on her that forced her to act.
People who hired other people to kill for them, there was nothing they wouldn't do to get what they wanted. No low they wouldn't reach if they felt they had to. They wouldn't lose any sleep over it either. This was exactly why I tried to stay away from this lifestyle. I didn't want to become a monster like that. Cold and unfeeling. Numb.
"It's not too late to speak," I told her. If she really was forced to do this, we might go easier on her.
She dropped her head and sagged against Storm's shoulder.
"Seems she'd rather deal with your brother than with whoever put her up to shooting Sierra," Atlas mused. "I'm guessing she knows she's dead either way."
"Not necessarily," I said, knowing she was listening. "She might open up later and be allowed to get back to her life. You know my brother doesn't kill innocent people. She could have been paid to try to scare us and things got out of hand.”
Her head picked up again. "That's exactly what happened. I've never used a gun before. I didn't know how to. I thought it wasn't loaded, or it was locked or something. Hell, it could have been a toy for all I knew. I didn't know anyone would die."
"Of course you didn't," I said, although I didn't believe a word that came out of her mouth. "I know you didn't mean to kill Sierra. It was a terrible accident."
Milly nodded vigourously. "Exactly. So, if this big oaf would put me down, I can get out of here. Before someone else tries to pin this on me." Her voice rose higher and higher as she spoke. She was trying to look like she wasn't going to lose it, but she was starting to freak out around the edges. I would be too if I was her.
"I don't think so." I frowned. "No doubt my brother will have questions for you. He'd be very disappointed if I didn't give him a chance to get answers."
I wasn't saying that to scare her. Hewouldwant to see her. There was a chance he'd know who she was and who she was working for, even if Ramsey didn't.
Not to mention the trouble we'd be in if we let her go and she proved to be someone important or useful. That was a call I wasn't willing to make. And Ramsey didn't seem inclined to make it either. He was as quiet as ever, turning the gun around and around in his hands, his eyes on it like he was trying to figure something out. What, I had no idea. Whatever it was, he was deep in thought about it.
The fact he didn't use the gun on Milly was something to be grateful for. I'd seen enough bloodshed for one night. For now at least.
Milly dropped her head again and sighed. She'd probably stick to the story I'd given her, but she knew we weren't going to let her go that easily.
Ialmostfelt sorry for her. If I thought she really was innocent, I would have. But I didn't. She was in this up to her eyeballs. I suspected it was her who was working with India, not Sierra. By suspecting the wrong person, I might have caused an innocent woman to lose her life. For that, I'd always feel like shit.
I took a long look back at Sierra before following the guys out. "I'm sorry," I told her corpse.
I sent a message off to my brother to let him know we were coming and to request someone come and clean in here. It was the least I could do for Sienna and Divina. I wished I could do more, but I needed to be there to talk to Milly. I wanted to hear what she had to say, Besides, sometimes a woman was needed to make another woman open up. I desperately needed to understand why she did what she did.
Was she really aiming at me? If she was, I owed Jay my life. If he hadn't seen her when he had, things would have turned out very different.
"Chelsea?" Dallas slipped an arm around me and held me close to his body. He was still trembling, but it lessened a fraction.
"I'm coming," I said. "I feel so bad for Sierra. She couldn't have gotten out of the way of the bullet in time. She probably didn't even see the gun. One minute she was talking to us, and the next minute…" A knot of emotion filled my throat. My eyes prickled with tears.
"When I heard the gunshot, I thought it hit you," he whispered. "I thought another one might come. All I could do was hold you and try to put myself between it and you. I don't care if I could have died as long as you didn't."
"I would have been devastated if you died." I leaned against him and buried my face in his shoulder. "If any of you died."
I was starting to think we should go home and stay there forever. We could have food and whatever else we needed delivered and never have to see anyone but each other, right? We might go crazy, but at least we'd be alive.
"I don't hate that idea," he admitted. "We could stay in bed all day."
"We need to get out of here first," Atlas said from behind us. "We can work out a plan later. For the record, I think people would notice if we didn't turn up to training or to games. Sooner or later, they'd come looking for us. ‘They’ being the press and team management."
I grimaced. The last thing we needed was a contingent of paparazzi camped outside our gates, wondering what the hell we were up to.
"Fine, we'll be normal for a while longer." I untangled myself from Dallas, but kept my arms around him, walking with him to the corridor and down to the door that led out of the club.
