Total pages in book: 217
Estimated words: 207224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1036(@200wpm)___ 829(@250wpm)___ 691(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1036(@200wpm)___ 829(@250wpm)___ 691(@300wpm)
My eyes land on hers, just as she delivers a belter of a slap across my cheek, snapping my head to the side. “You promised to look after Amber?” she seethes.
I close my eyes and roll my jaw. It grinds, cracks, aches. “Now is not the time for your temper, Rose.”
I peek up at James. I’ve found mine. She’s fuming, but at least she’s safe and well. He gets in the car, his way of communicating we should leave, and I dare to look at Rose again. Her cheeks are stained with streaks, her eye makeup is smudged, her lashes sticking together.
“Don’t cry, baby,” I whisper. “It doesn’t suit you.”
Her shoulders jerk, she lets out a ragged breath, and I haul her back into me, cuddling her, holding her, making a mental vow to never let her out of my sight ever again. It’s wishful thinking, I know that. “Get in,” I order, opening the back door and helping her. She shifts across the seat, and I slide in next to her.
James pulls away immediately, glancing up at me in the mirror. I nod, turning to Rose and taking her hands. “Talk to me, baby. Tell me what happened.”
She looks at James and reaches forward resting a hand on his shoulder. “She loves you.”
He looks away, his face pained. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
I see his nostrils flare, watch his knuckles go white around the steering wheel. “Please talk, Rose, before I smash this town up,” James says so calmly, it’s pretty fucking terrifying. The Enigma. I’m seeing more of him recently than in all the time I’ve known James.
“We went to Amber’s,” Rose starts hastily, releasing her hand from his shoulder, probably from being burned by the sheer temperature of his body. “She was at the apartment that Beau’s dad said he would buy for her. Hiding out, I think.”
I flick my eyes to James. “Go on,” I say, taking her hand as James takes a right and pulls up at the side of the road, turning in his seat to give Rose his full attention too.
“We couldn’t get into the elevator, but Beau figured out the code. It was the date of her mom’s memorial.”
What the fuck?
The looks flying around this car are non-stop, and I have a feeling they’re only going to increase.
“Amber was there.” Rose looks at me with a smidge of resentment that is really fucking misplaced right now. “She said some pretty awful things to Beau.”
“Like?”
“Goading her. About her dad, about the money. I tried to get Beau to leave.”
Something tells me she didn’t succeed. At least, not before . . . I can’t think it. “And?”
“And then she called me your latest whore.”
“And?” I ask, leaning back.
Rose’s lip trembles as she chews it nervously. “And I shot her.”
“Oh Jesus.” I rake a hand through my hair, slumping back in the seat.
“You shot Amber?” James asks.
“Yes.” Her voice wobbles. “I don’t know what happened. One minute I was cooling down, talking myself out of killing her, then I opened my eyes and my hand lifted. I couldn’t stop it. I shot her.”
“So where’s the fucking body?” James asks.
My brain slowly gets over the shock and catches up. I turn my attention to Rose. She’s frowning. “We left it—”
“Rose, baby, we’ve just come from that penthouse. There was no body.”
“But it was there on the rug! We left it and ran because—” She stops, the lines on her forehead multiplying. James and I both wait for her to find the next words, words I’m pretty fucking certain we’re not going to like. “Because Beau’s ex-fiancé showed up.”
“What?” James blurts. “Burrows?”
“Yes,” Rose whispers. “We left. He came after us.”
“Fuck!” He slams his fist into the dashboard and starts his Range, pulling off fast.
38
JAMES
“Talk to me,” I demand, sweating fucking fury.
“She’s at Mid Bank,” Otto says down the line, sounding grave.
“What the fuck is she doing there?” The bank where her mother’s safety deposit box was held? The empty safety deposit box. Empty because The Bear found it before we did with a little help from the bent manager Spittle. I hang up on Otto and look at Danny in the rearview mirror. “We should never have let that prick go.”
“The key,” Rose says out of nowhere.
The words have me losing concentration on the road for a split second, making Danny yell and me swerve. “Fucking hell,” he breathes as I miss a man on a bike by a whisker.
“A key?” I say, splitting my attention between Rose and the road, heading for Mid Bank.
“Amber had a key. Beau took it.” Her eyes dart, as if she’s struggling to piece together the events.
“Think hard, Rose,” I say as softly as I can.
“Come on, baby,” Danny says, soothingly. “We need details.”
“Amber pulled a key out. Asked if that is why we were there. I was trying to get Beau to leave. I could see she was going to snap. But then I saw Ollie on the surveillance screens in the office. I was distracted. Amber barged me to the floor and got my gun.”