Chapter 16 #2
My eyes narrow in on him. “How well do you know Commission Sedgwick?” I spit back at him.
He raises a brow, his hold on me tightening.
“Not very. She hasn’t been in town long.
Jagger got to know her to help when Sloane was…
having some issues, and that’s about it.
From what I’ve heard, she can be pretty brutal when she wants to be, but she was sweet to Sloane when she found out she was her niece and gave her a ton of money.
” He shrugs. “She looks like a raging bitch to me.”
“Yeah, she comes off like that.” I turn my angry glare back on her.
But then something occurs to me. She would have to be tough as nails for her job, or she never would have gotten to the top in a male-dominated career.
But when I look at her, I see something else.
There is a tremble to her hands, and her mascara is all smudged under her eyes, and back at the bar when I was watching her get in her car, it looked like she was crying.
“Do you think she’s the type of girl to cry over some case when things might not be going her way?
Some case involving a girl she doesn’t even know? ”
“Probably not,” he agrees with me, his gaze drifting down her body as if he’s looking for clues.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought so either. Do you think it’s over Jagger?”
“Most girls don’t cry over him when shit goes south, they celebrate.” Cruz laughs.
Olivia looks nervously over to the car and locks her eyes with me, and it’s like Medusa has just turned me into stone. I freeze. “Hand her over to me,” she growls up at him, stomping her foot, but there is no strength in her voice.
“Over. My. Dead. Body,” Jagger seethes back, rage vibrating off him.
“You know what would make a person cry and visibly tremble like that?” I whisper, sudden sickness taking over as I motion toward her.
Cruz looks me over, finally getting with the program. “Fear. You think your brother or Leone have gotten to her?”
“I’m ninety-five percent sure of it. That’s why she didn’t turn up at The Precinct until it was too late.
And you guys didn’t hear any rumors about what happened last night at the morgue.
She’s been keeping secrets for someone, keeping you guys in the dark, because this way they have the advantage.
The only reason you felt safe to bring me out today was because we believe my brother was on a flight back to Italy, right?
” I glance over my shoulder, a sinking feeling coming over me.
“The longer we stay here talking shit with her, the worse this could be getting for us. We need to get the hell out of here. She could be bait.”
Cruz bangs on the window, throwing a look Jagger’s way. “Got to go, bro.”
Olivia looks behind her quickly, then her angry gaze flicks back to Jagger and Asher, her hand flying to Jagger’s bicep. “You don’t hand her over, I’m arresting the fucking lot of you.” With her other hand, she pulls her gun and aims it at Jagger’s chest.
Cruz winds his window down. “She’s stalling you on purpose, fucker, get in the fucking car,” Cruz calls more desperately. And I thank whoever will listen, that he’s hearing me.
Jagger’s brow furrows, but he doesn’t take his eyes off her. Instead, he produces his gun, not bothered that her shaky hand is still positioned so close to him that she could kill him with one pull of the trigger. “Get back in your car, Olivia.” His voice is dark and commanding, confident as hell.
She stares up at him, her bottom lip trembling as much as her finger on the trigger. “No. Hand over the girl.” A stray tear slips down her cheek as she mutters the words.
He fires a couple of quick shots at her tires. “Get in the fucking car, Olivia, or you’re next.”
“He’s going to get himself killed,” I cry, covering my mouth with my hand.
Cruz pulls me closer to him. “He knows how to handle her.”
“You’re going to pay for that,” she sneers, but her voice is weak, and she makes no attempt to shoot him or Asher.
He gives her a little nod, his eyes never wavering from her for a second. And even though she still has her gun drawn, she slowly backs toward her car.
Asher moves into the driver’s seat of our car and kicks the engine into overdrive.
Jagger keeps his gun aimed at her as he slithers back into our car, taking quick backwards steps around to the passenger side. “Go,” is all he says, and Asher takes off up the road right as two Army-style black Jeeps come into view behind us.
“We have company,” Cruz calls. “Fuck, darlin’, you were right.” He sounds surprised, even though he backed me up.
My heart races so damn hard I can hear it. This is what I was afraid of. “I know my brother. Blackmail is his specialty, learned that shit from my papa. They have something over her, that’s why she’s pressing so hard for you to hand me over to her. You do and she will give me straight to them.”
“No one is handing you over,” Asher says, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Whatever it is must be bad.”
“She has a fucked-up past. If it gets out, she’ll lose her job,” Jagger grumbles. “I don’t know how they worked it out, but she always knew she was living on borrowed time if the information got into the wrong hands.”
“Why did she tell you?”
I don’t have to see his glare, I can feel it. “She trusted me.”
I don’t ask why. Maybe the reality of that answer is more than I can handle because I know for her to have trusted Jagger with information like that, what they had was more serious than he ever let on.
It also makes me feel sick because I saw the way he treated her.
It was jarring. Will he do the same to me when he’s sick of me?
Asher drives like a crazy person, swerving around cars and jumping in and out of lanes, but it doesn’t seem to matter what he does, the two four-wheelers rapidly close in on us.
“Get down, flower,” Jagger warns as he winds down his window.
I duck my head right as Cruz opens his window as well.
From their position, they aim shots toward the cars, the air thick with the smell of gunpowder and adrenaline.
The deafening sound of shattering glass pierces my ears, and instinctively, my hands fly up to cover them, praying that we get out of this okay.
I peer up at Cruz, watching his powerful arms flex as he takes shot after shot.
The screech of tires is followed by a deafening explosion, which sounds like a car has collided with something solid like a tree.
“One down, baby, one more to go.” Cruz chuckles playfully.
Anyone watching him would have thought he was immersed in a video game, not experiencing this in the real world.
For a split second, I wish I was more like him.
Carefree and so alive it didn’t matter what life threw at me or how fucked up my situation got.
But this is life and death, and we might not survive.
My body trembles as I stare at him. From my position lying down, I can’t make out anything else. All I have is Cruz to keep me here in the present when my body threatens to pass the hell out. But I suck in breaths and watch his confidence.
All of a sudden there is the crunch of metal on metal, and our car is propelled forward. Both Jagger and Cruz duck inside the car again, gripping on tightly as we spin and Asher tries to regain control. They must have hit us from behind.
“Now, Asher,” Jagger calls to him.
Asher abruptly pulls the handbrake, and the car does a one-eighty.
Nausea churns, and my heart lurches out of my chest as I grip onto the seat, my nails digging into the leather.
With a roar, our car surges forward, and Jagger and Cruz resume their posts by the windows, unleashing a torrent of gunfire on the now oncoming vehicle.
More shattering glass as our front windshield shatters, a scream of pure terror rips from me. I glance up right as we pass the black Jeep, and Cruz fires his gun at the driver. His head explodes as the car veers off the road, hits a tree, and bursts into flames.
“Two down. Woo-hoo!” Cruz cheers, and he plops back down into his seat. “Sweet driving, bro. Loved the one-eighty.”
Asher holds out a hand, and the two of them high-five. “I got your back.”
Cruz wastes no time in pulling me into his arms, cradling me like a child.
“We could have died,” I mutter, trying to catch my breath as I grip onto him.
“Yeah, but we didn’t, so it’s time to celebrate.”
Jagger rakes his fingers through his hair. “Not yet, brother, we have a rogue cop to deal with.”
Asher glances at him. “Do we really have to go back for her? She made her bed,” he snips unimpressed.
“If you want answers then yes, before she fucks us over again. We need to know what we’re up against,” Jagger growls, but his anger isn’t directed at his brother. I wouldn’t want to be Olivia when we get back to her car.
Asher continues off down the road, and we move past the first car they shot down.
It’s off to the side of the road in a fiery mess, with the tree behind it also now up in flames.
I know I shouldn’t care, but sickness overwhelms me thinking of who might have been in that car.
The thought that my brother might actually be dead is too horrible to imagine, even after what he did to me.
“You’re all going to get killed because of me,” I whisper, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.
They might be okay with car chases and getting shot at, but they’re not going to escape this shit forever.
Eventually they will make a wrong move and then…
I can’t even think of then. They can’t get hurt because of me, I won’t let them.
Cruz’s arm snakes around my shoulders, and he pulls me into his solid chest, kissing my forehead. “No one’s going to die.”
“They won’t give up till they have me, and you will get caught in the crossfire. You can’t win every time,” I cry back, wishing they would listen to me. I know my family, they won’t stop.
The car goes deadly silent, not even Cruz has a comeback for me. They all know it’s true. And that makes me want to cry even more.
Asher pulls up to Olivia’s car. She’s in the driver’s seat staring out the windshield.
My blood goes icy when I see why. There’s a bullet hole between her eyes and a trickle of blood running over her pretty face. I cover my mouth as my stomach rolls.
“Motherfucker.” Jagger smashes his fist into the dashboard. “Get us out of here.”