Chapter Four
Jayla
The first bullet shattered my studio window.
Malachi grabbed me around the waist and pulled me behind the worktable before the second one tore through the wall where my head had been.
Glass rained across the floor.
My framed photographs fell from the wall. One landed facedown, cracking directly across my grandmother’s smiling face.
“No!” I screamed.
I reached for it, but Malachi pushed my head down.
“Stay still.”
“That’s my grandmother.”
“That picture won’t matter if you’re dead.”
More gunshots ripped through Bennett Originals.
Paint bottles burst against the shelves, sending color down the walls. Red mixed with blue. Gold dripped across the floor. Months of work, my clients’ orders, and everything Grandma Evelyn had helped me build were being destroyed in seconds.
Malachi fired twice toward the front of the studio.
A man outside dropped behind the sedan.
“Rear exit,” Malachi ordered.
“Your friend already used it.”
“Kenzie is not my friend.”
“She was twenty minutes ago.”
“I was clearly misinformed.”
He glanced at me.
Something moved near the broken window.
Malachi fired again without looking away from me.
“Can you run?”
“I came into this world with two working legs.”
“Tonight would be an excellent time to use them.”
He pulled a second gun from beneath his coat and pressed it into my hand.
I nearly dropped it.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Point and squeeze.”
“That’s your lesson?”
“Do you need a demonstration?”
“I need the police!”
“The men shooting at us arrived in a vehicle registered to an NYPD evidence warehouse.”
Of course they did.
Why couldn’t I ever have normal problems?
I wanted late bills, bad dates, and clients who disappeared after requesting complicated designs. I didn’t want dirty police officers, encrypted keys, or tattooed men shooting up my studio.
Malachi crossed toward the rear door.
His movements were controlled, almost too calm for the bullets flying around us.
He looked outside before motioning to me.
“Come.”
I remained behind the table.
“You could be working with them.”
“If I were, I would have let the first bullet solve my problem.”
“What problem?”
“You.”
My mouth fell open.
He grabbed my arm, then immediately released me when I flinched.
His eyes dropped toward the place he had touched.
Something shifted in his expression.
Not guilt exactly. Awareness.
“Follow me,” he said. “I won’t grab you again unless I have to keep you alive.”
I didn’t know what unsettled me more—the fact that he had noticed my reaction or that he respected it without making me explain.
He went through the rear door.
I followed because staying behind would mean being alone with whoever was shooting.
The alley was dark and wet from an earlier rainstorm. Malachi moved ahead of me, his body blocking mine as we ran toward a black SUV.
A man stepped from behind a dumpster.
I froze.
Malachi fired.
The man fell before I could scream.
“Keep moving.”
“You killed him.”
“He was pointing a gun at you.”
“He could’ve missed.”
“I don’t leave that to chance.”
The rear door of the SUV opened.
A broad man with a beard leaned over from the driver’s seat.
“Get in!”
Malachi checked the alley behind us.
“Jayla, get inside.”
I didn’t move.
The metal object Kenzie had given me cut into my palm. Malachi’s gaze dropped toward my closed fist.
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
“Bishop’s men will kill you for it.”
“And what will you do?”
“Ask twice.”
“You already asked twice.”
“Then you understand how serious this is.”
A bullet struck the brick wall beside us.
That was enough serious for me.
I climbed inside.
Malachi followed and pulled the door closed. The driver sped away before either of us had fastened a seat belt.
I stared through the back window.
Smoke poured from Bennett Originals. Flames had caught near the front entrance, spreading across the curtains and wooden displays.
“My studio is burning.”
Malachi spoke into his phone.
“Fire department. Now.”
The bearded man glanced at us through the mirror.
“They’re already coming.”
“Have somebody remain there. Nothing gets removed without my permission.”
“That is my business,” I snapped. “You don’t give permission.”
Malachi looked at me.
“Bishop will send someone to finish searching it.”
“For what?”
“The cipher.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“You painted it on the shoes.”
“I painted the design Kenzie sent me.”
“Where is the original?”
“My tablet.”
“Where’s the tablet?”
“In the studio.”
The windows exploded behind us.
I turned and watched flames consume the front room.
“My entire life is in there.”
“No,” Malachi said. “Your work is in there. Your life is sitting in this car.”
His voice held no softness, but the words still reached me.
I hated that they did.
My phone rang.
Imani.
I answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Jayla, there are strange men outside the house.”
My heart stopped.
“Take Zo? upstairs and lock yourselves in Grandma’s room.”
“We’re not at home.”
“What?”
“Some woman named Simone came with private security. She said you sent her.”
I looked at Malachi.
He didn’t react.
“Where did they take you?”
“A hotel in Manhattan. Jay, what is going on?”
“Is Zo? with you?”
“She’s right here.”
“Auntie Jay!” Zo? shouted. “Our room has two bathrooms!”
I closed my eyes.
Hearing her voice almost broke me.
“Stay with your mom, okay?”
“Are you bringing my seashell?”
“I’m going to bring you a whole beach if you listen to her.”
Imani took the phone.
“Who are these people?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Malachi extended his hand.
I pulled the phone away.
“You are not talking to her.”
“She needs to know the security instructions.”
“She needs to hear them from me.”
“Then tell her not to use the hotel phone, open the door, or contact anyone outside the family.”
I repeated his instructions.
Imani became quiet.
“What have you gotten us into, Jayla?”
The shame hit instantly.
“I’m going to fix it.”
“You always say that after something is already broken.”
She ended the call.
I lowered the phone.
Malachi watched me.
“You moved my family without asking.”
“They were being watched.”
“So you decided to take them?”
“I gave your cousin a choice. She accepted after the first man approached Zo?’s school.”
Cold spread through me.
“Somebody went near my niece?”
“He never reached her.”
“Because of you?”
“Because I had people watching the house.”
“Why were you watching my house?”
“I knew about the commission yesterday.”
“You have been following me?”
“Protecting an asset.”
“I am not an asset.”
“No. You’re a complication.”
“You really know how to make a woman feel special.”
“I wasn’t trying to.”
The driver covered a laugh with a cough.
Malachi’s eyes moved toward the mirror.
The man immediately became interested in the road.
“What’s his name?” I asked.
“Dorian.”
“You let him speak?”
“When he has something useful to say.”
Dorian shook his head.
“This is my oldest friend,” Malachi added. “He forgets I can fire him.”
“You can’t fire somebody who doesn’t work for you,” Dorian said.
“I can shoot you.”
“Then you’ll have to drive.”
Malachi didn’t respond.
For the first time, I saw the faintest hint of amusement in his face.
Then it disappeared.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“My estate.”
“I’m not going to your house.”
“You can stay with your cousin at the hotel.”
“Good.”
“Bishop knows where it is.”
I glared at him.
“Then why did you take my family there?”
“To see who followed.”
“You used them as bait?”
“The hotel is owned by me. Nobody enters the floor without my men knowing.”
“You could have led with that.”
“You had already decided to be angry.”
“You kidnapped my family and insulted me.”
“Relocated.”
“Don’t play with me.”
His gaze settled on my closed hand again.
“The key, Jayla.”
I slowly opened my fingers.
The thin black object rested against my palm. A tiny gold symbol was etched into one side—the same symbol I had begun painting near the heel of the sneakers.
Malachi reached toward it.
I closed my hand.
“You can look without touching.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“You don’t trust me.”
“I met you fifteen minutes ago, and you killed somebody before introducing yourself.”
“He was rude.”
“He pointed a gun at me.”
“Exactly.”
I should not have found that answer funny.
I turned toward the window before my mouth betrayed me.
“Tell me what this opens.”
“An archive containing information people have murdered for.”
“About your father?”
“And your grandmother.”
I looked back at him.
“You leave Grandma Evelyn out of this.”
“I wish I could.”
“What did she do?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“It’s all I have.”
The SUV passed through iron gates surrounding a massive stone estate. Security guards closed them behind us.
Malachi removed the magazine from his weapon and checked it before placing the gun beside him.
“Inside this house, nobody will touch you without warning. Nobody enters your room without permission. You may call your family whenever you want.”
“What’s the catch?”
“You stay until I know why Bishop wants you.”
“That isn’t a catch. That’s imprisonment.”
“You can leave.”
I reached for the door.
“The men behind us will probably catch you before you reach the gate.”
I snatched my hand back.
Malachi opened his door.
“Welcome to my home, Jayla.”
I remained in the car.
“I hate you.”
He looked over his shoulder.
“You don’t know me well enough yet.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“It’s a warning.”
He walked toward the house.
Dorian looked at me through the mirror.
“He likes you.”
“He threatened to leave me outside to die.”
“For him, that was practically flirting.”
I looked at the mansion, the armed guards, and the dangerous man waiting beside the entrance.
Kenzie had brought this madness into my life.
When I found her, I was going to kill her.
Assuming Malachi Devereaux didn’t drive me crazy first.