“No,” he says. “They won’t.”
Outside, a car pulls up.
“Cal, come with me. We don’t?—”
“We do. If I go, they’ll chase us and you’ll never be safe. Go. My friend will help.”
There are words I want to say. Words that make no sense and hold the bones of truth. Words of love.
I’ve fallen for him.
It took an instant. The moment I met his eyes a lifetime ago and now…
And now, he steps away, walking from the room and my life.
Forever.
10
QUINN
“Thanks,” I say to Mercer. He owes me but something tells me after this, I’ll be owing him.
He’s been out longer than me and he dresses like a different man. A suit with an air of a mission about him. But the deadliness, the control, the drive and carefully meted out hunger is the same.
If anyone can get her to safety and give her a chance at a new life, it’s him.
“No problem, Quinn.” His gaze flicks to the new car where an unmoving Hellie sits. “It’ll be like she died.”
“Thanks.”
“You know, you could be a fucking martyr and take that car you drove her in, or…”
I look at him. “They won’t stop looking for her if I go.”
He sighs. “I’m a prick, and this will mean you owe me big. But right now, I can use favors like that.”
Everything in me stills.
“Remember that asshole in prison who died?”
I frown and he smiles slowly.
“It’s easy if you know how. You deal in death and destruction differently to me. I like a more subtle approach, the right weapon. I can make it like that. Like you got into trouble, orchestrate a situation where you both are incinerated in that car, with the phones. Take the car in a different direction, make it that the remains found are close to yours, and the rest? Dental records? I can make it all go away.”
“It’s not a guarantee?—”
“It’s close. But…your decision. There’s more risk if you go with the girl, but…” He shrugs. “You have to decide if the risk is worth it.”
11
HELLIE
I’m not going to look. I’m not. He’s sacrificing a chance of us for me.
His friend is just as dangerous as him, just as good looking and he leaves me cold.
What I want, what I ache for is a future. One with Cal, as crazy as it seems, but?—
