None of this made any sense.
Then I heard a door opening, and a man walked in. I couldn't see his features, but he was tall and lean, and walked like a guy, so I figured that was a safe bet. Cleo hurried to him, leaning up like she expected a kiss, but he kept her at a distance.
Okay, that was interesting. Unless I was misreading things, this guy was in on whatever was going down, but whenever I thought of who'd want Booker out of the way, Georgie was the one who came to mind first. Except the guy wasn't Georgie, I could tell that for sure. Too tall and lean. I ran through the other gang members I knew, but couldn't figure it out.
I was praying that it wasn't Little Eddie or Force when the guy stepped close enough for me to recognize.
I'd only seen him once, but I'd never forget that face.
Julius Kaiser.
Booker's cousin, and the guy who'd accused me of stealing the drugs, both when I'd gotten shot and then later to Booker.
Fucking bastard.
My brains may have gotten a little scrambled when Cleo hit me, but I was starting to put things together that I wished weren’t true. Because if I was right, things were even worse than I thought.
“What the hell are those two still doing alive?” Julius snapped at Cleo. “I thought I told you to take care of things.”
Cleo pouted, a move she'd tried on me more than once. It didn't look like it had any more effect on him than it did on me.
“I wasn't sure how you wanted to do it,” she said. “You know, with her and him.”
“You stole the drugs from your supplier yourself, didn't you?” I interrupted.
Julius shot a glare my way, but I wasn't going to stop. I needed information as much as I needed to buy time. For what, I wasn't sure, but I hadn't given up yet. I wouldn't give up. Not until Allison was safe, or I was dead. Those were the only two acceptable options.
“You blamed me. You fucking shot me!”
“Actually, I shot you.” Cleo grinned at me. “Felt pretty good to do it too.”
I stared at her. I hadn't seen that coming. Cleo had been there that night. She was the one who pulled the trigger.
“What the hell, Cleo?”
“She wasn't supposed to shoot you then,” Julius muttered between gritted teeth. The look he gave her was anything but pleasant. “But I guess it worked as well as my plan. We just needed Booker to think that you were the thief.”
“Why didn't you just make a deal with him? He's your cousin.”
Julius shrugged. “I never really liked him that much.”
A chill went through me. Damn, that was cold.
“It was my idea to blame you,” Cleo piped up, looking rather pleased with herself.
I'd known she was a vindictive bitch, but this was above and beyond. “And killing Booker, was that part of your plan?”
Cleo scowled, but it was Julius who answered, “The idiot had to go kidnap some rich bitch from DC.”
“Excuse me?!” Allison spoke up from behind me.
For a moment, I thought Julius would shoot her, but he ignored her instead. I got the impression that wouldn’t be the case much longer though. Allison and I were both dead if I didn't figure out a way to get us out of here.
“I thought Booker would just kill you,” Julius said. “He takes you out, then gets sent away for murder thanks to some evidence Cleo would plant. Should have been easy.”
Shit.
I got it now. “You step in and take over the gang here, extending your business to this side of the river.”
“You're smarter than Booker ever gave you credit for,” Julius said. “Shame I can't convince you to come work for me.”
“You said he was going to be dead,” Cleo snapped. “He can't work for you if he's dead.”
Julius gave her a patronizing look. “Shut up.”
A hurt look flashed across her face, but anger immediately took its place. “I got Dax here. I shot Booker.”
I shifted as Julius turned on her. I needed to get myself between them and Allison. If things went in the direction I thought they were going, protection might be more plausible than escape.
Julius grabbed Cleo's arm, fingers digging in until she winced. “I don't give a damn what you did, you stupid bitch. You came to me, told me you'd give me an in. You wanted the boy here dead. I'm okay with that. I'm not okay with you running your mouth about what I should or shouldn't do.”
“All right, all right,” Cleo whined. “I'll keep my mouth shut.”
Julius grabbed her chin. “Do that. I don't want your mouth open again unless my cock's in it.”
The look on Cleo's face was nothing short of mutinous, but she took a step back. When Julius held out his hand, she gave him the gun, but when he turned back to me, I saw her hand go to her pocket. She usually carried at least one blade on her, but I figured it was harder to get accidentally stabbed than accidentally shot, so I didn't say anything.
“This is how it's going to work, Dax,” Julius said. “Booker's dead. Drugs have gone missing. I need to blame someone, and that someone is gonna be you. Unfortunately, that means the broad over there has to die too. I'll make it quick, so don't worry about that.”
Yeah, that wasn't exactly what I was worried about at the moment.
What I was worried about was the figure I saw sneaking toward us. While I mentally cursed everything under the sun, I tried not to look directly at her. I had to get Julius and Cleo to focus on me, had to get the situation under control before something horrible happened.
So I blurted out the first thing that came into my head. “I could confess.”
Julius looked more amused than genuinely curious, but I figured I'd go with it. Whatever kept him from seeing Bryne behind him.
“Think about it. If I'm dead, you'll have all sorts of evidence that could have the wrong people asking questions. But if I'm alive, and I confess that I killed Booker, it's open and shut.”
“Like I said, smart.”
“I could say Booker took my girlfriend's mom, I came here, shot him. You get to have the drugs since I don't know what happened to them, and you take over Booker's operations.”
Julius shook his head. “It's too bad I didn't come to you instead of Cleo coming to me. Things could've gone down a lot differently. But I'm a man of my word when it comes to making deals.”
He raised the gun, and I cursed.
“Freeze!”
I almost closed my eyes. Was she serious? Freeze? Who did she think she was? And why the hell was she here? She should've just stayed where she was safe.
“Let Dax and my mom go.”
Bryne's voice was steady, her expression serious. If I hadn't known her so well, I might not have seen the fear in her eyes.
Julius laughed, but it wasn't a nice laugh. It was the kind of laugh that made my testicles want to crawl up inside me.
“Leave, Bryne.” I knew I was begging but didn't care. I'd say anything if it meant keeping her safe. “Take your mom and get out of here.”
“I'm not leaving without both of you.”
Julius turned toward her. “I'm afraid it won’t be that easy.”
“I think it is,” Bryne countered. “The cops know where you are. They're right behind me. Let us walk out of here, and you'll be able to get out before they arrive.”
“Listen here, you stupid cun–”
The click of Bryne cocking the gun stopped the rest of what Cleo intended to say, which was good because I might've lost my temper.
Julius looked from Bryne to Cleo, then at me as I pushed myself to my feet. A hard look settled in his eyes. He had a gun, but he also knew Bryne was telling the truth. He took a step backward, then swung his gun toward Cleo when she started to follow.
“I think you're going to stay here,” he said. “At least until I'm gone.”
“Julius!” Cleo's voice shook with fury.
He ignored her, but I didn't really care about Julius or Cleo right now. I'd let the cops deal with them. Bryne lowered
her gun a few inches and took a step toward her mother.
Several things happened all at once.
Cleo screamed and lunged...toward Allison.
I jumped between them.
A shot rang out.
A sharp pain went through me, and for a moment, I thought Bryne had shot me. Then Cleo dropped in front of me, and I realized that she'd taken the bullet.
And I'd been stabbed.
Great.
Chapter Nine
Bryne
Dax's blood was on my hands.
It was on my clothes too, but it was the stuff on my hands that was freaking me out. I didn't like the fact that his blood was on me. It wasn't supposed to be on me. It should be in him.
And there was more on the floor. Too much more.
“Miss Dawkins. Miss Dawkins.”
My head snapped up. The freckle-faced cop who'd lost me was now taking my statement, and I had a feeling it was taking a lot for him to stay polite. I was also pretty sure that if my mom and my uncle weren't who they were, I would be on my way to the police station.
I shot someone.
In the shoulder. But still, I shot her. And I probably should've felt worse about it than I did. But Cleo had a role in kidnapping my mom, had shot Dax, tried to kill my mom, and stabbed Dax in the process.
So I didn't feel bad at all.
“After you ran out of the building, you took a cab here,” the officer repeated what I'd already told him. “How'd you know where to go?”
“I overheard Officer Dunne and Dena talking.” I hoped I didn't get either of them in trouble.
“So you got here, then what?”
“I walked around the building to figure out how to get inside. I didn't want to walk straight in.”
“Why not? You had a gun.”
I frowned. “I didn't have a gun.” Then I remembered. “Oh, yeah, I'm coming to that.”
“Get to it then.”
Okay, maybe he wasn't going to be nice to me, but that was fine. I planned on telling the whole truth about what happened, no matter what his attitude was like.
“I saw a window with a couple panes missing and climbed through. Almost as soon as I got inside, I saw a body. Big bald guy. Blood everywhere.” I closed my eyes, wishing that I could block out the memory. “There was a gun in his waistband.”
“That's the gun you used to shoot the girl?”
My eyes opened, then narrowed. “I picked up the gun because I had a gut feeling I’d need protection. The guy on the ground was dead, and he matched Dax's description of Booker North. That was bad. So I grabbed the gun.”
“Have you ever shot a gun before?”
I shook my head. “Not a real one. I went paintballing with a couple kids back home.”
“And where is home, Miss Dawkins?”
I opened my mouth to answer, then realized that the first thing that popped into my head wasn't Washington.
“I'm from DC, but I moved here at the beginning of the year.” I looked over as one of the ambulances pulled away. Who was in that one? My mom, Cleo, or Dax? Mom had insisted she was okay, but Gavin had made her get looked at.
“If we could get back to her statement about what happened,” Carrie spoke up, reminding me that I wasn't here alone. “Bryne wants to make sure her mom's okay.”
The look the cop shot at Carrie was anything but friendly, and I straightened, irritation at his attitude calming my nerves.
“After I picked up the gun, I heard a woman's voice, then a man's. The woman's I knew. I met her a couple times.” Met might not have been the exact right word, but it'd do for now. “So I went over...”
The words began to flow, relating everything that followed. How I'd pointed the gun at Julius and told him that I wanted Dax and my mom to leave with me. How Julius had decided to leave and how pissed Cleo had been. How she'd taken out a knife and decided to go after my mom.
My stomach churned as I remembered seeing Dax throw himself between Cleo and my mom. How I hadn't even hesitated to pull the trigger. I hadn't wanted to kill her, but I definitely wanted to stop her. I didn't, however, tell the officer that I'd fired as much to protect Dax as to protect my mother.
“Then you guys came in.” I started to run my hand over my face, then stopped. I still had Dax's blood on my hands. “Can I go see my mom now?”
“You said you'd met the girl you shot?” He ignored my question as he flipped back a couple pages in his notebook. “A Cleo Akeman?”
I nodded, then glanced at Carrie. “We've had a couple...encounters. Cleo used to...she and Dax used to be a thing. She didn't like that much.”
“Did she threaten you?”
There was a sharp intake of breath from beside me, then Carrie was stepping between the cop and me.
“We're done here, Officer.” Her voice was harsh. “She's given her statement, and Miss Akeman will live. Unless you have a damn good reason to keep her from going with me to the hospital right now, we’re leaving now.” She looked over at me, her voice softening. “Come on. Let's go see your mom.”
I followed Carrie out of the warehouse and over to one of their cars. Before we'd even gotten back on the road, she let out a string of curses. I stared at her until she finally looked over at me.
“That cop was being an asshole.”
“Mm-hm.”
She grabbed my hand. “But don't think for a moment that we're not going to talk about you sneaking out and putting yourself in danger.” Her fingers tightened around mine. “Just not right now.”
I nodded.
“I'm serious, Bryne.” Her voice was quiet. “You're family. We don't want to lose you.”
“I'm sorry.” I sniffled, tears burning my eyes. “I just couldn't lose them, Carrie. My mom...Dax. I couldn't.” I wiped at my cheeks. “The police, they cared about getting my mom back, but Dax...I couldn't take the chance that they thought he was expendable.”
The smile Carrie gave me was understanding. “I know, sweetie. I know.”
* * *
The first thing I had to do when I arrived at the hospital was go straight to the bathroom. I didn't have any clothes to change into, but I needed to wash my hands. After I was done, I went to my mom, but even as I was hugging her, I was worried about Dax. I pushed those thoughts aside as I sat next to her on the bed.
“You're sure you're okay?” I asked. She was in a hospital gown, but it didn't look like she'd been cleaned up much.
She nodded. “Tired, mostly. Some scrapes and bruises.” She smoothed back my hair. “Are you okay?”
“Me? I'm fine.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Sweetie, you do know that you may be a great actress, but you're not a very good liar.” She paused and then asked, “Does this have anything to do with that man? Dax, right?”
My composure cracked as I nodded. When she put her arms around me, I shattered. I buried my face in her shoulder as all the stress and emotion of the last month came pouring out. She didn't ask questions, didn't tell me that everything was going to be okay. She simply held me and let me cry.
It was Carrie who interrupted us.
“I have some clothes for you guys.” She smiled at us both. “Allison, I'm afraid you'll have to make due with some of mine for now.”
“Thank you,” Mom said. “I appreciate it.”
“It's the least I could do.”
I sat up, took a shaky breath, and stood. “Thank you.” I took the bag Carrie held out and headed back to the restroom. Behind me, I heard Carrie pulling the privacy curtain closed so Mom could change.
The bathroom was empty this time, the quiet startling after everything that'd happened. I felt strangely empty, like everything I'd been holding in had been scooped out, leaving nothing behind. Not like the sort of nothing that felt like a black hole, dragging down into depression, but more like a weightlessness.
When I was a kid, I'd had this gym teacher who'd had the class pick up two heavy buckets and hold them. Then, when she had us put them down
, our arms had a strange sort of light feeling to them. That was similar to how I felt now.
It wasn't peace or satisfaction, not a tranquility that came with knowing that everything was okay, but rather a lack of negative feeling. Almost a lack of any sort of feeling at all.
Shock, I supposed. My mind's way of protecting myself from the insanity of everything I’d just experienced. Or maybe a defense mechanism of another kind. The kind that didn't want me to think too hard about where Dax was or what he was going through.
The kind that didn't want me to consider the heartbreak that could possibly be coming my way.
I used paper towels to scrub the rest of the blood off of me, focusing on that alone, not letting my mind wander to all the things that could send me over the edge. I still didn't feel completely clean as I changed into the clothes Carrie brought, but I had a feeling that I'd have to spend a few hours in a scalding shower before I was totally rid of the feel of Dax's blood on me.
I put my ruined clothes into the bag Carrie had given me, checked my reflection again to make sure I hadn't missed anything before heading back out. The sight of myself in the mirror had been unsettling. My skin paler than usual. Dark circles under my eyes. Haggard seemed to be the most appropriate word.
I needed to sleep, let my body and mind recover from the past hours, from what I'd done. But I couldn't. Not yet.
When I stepped around the privacy curtain, two men in rumpled suits were standing next to the bed, talking to my mother. Carrie was there too, clearly protecting my mom the same way she had me. Not that my mom needed it. She'd been completely innocent in all of this. She didn't know anything about Booker or even Dax, and she hadn't shot anyone.
Carrie's eyes met mine, and she leaned down to say something in my mother's ear. Mom glanced at me, then the detectives turned.
“I'll be right back,” Carrie said with a smile at the two men. “If Allison feels comfortable talking while I'm gone, that's fine, but don't push her.”