by Brynne Asher
I do as she says and fight the paralysis, craning my neck at the same time.
My normally sweet—even if somewhat anxious—assistant, doesn’t look either right now. Her face is hard, her movements harsh, and her demeanor callous. She’s kicked off her shoes and is pacing the dirty floor, yelling into her phone.
“Why?” I whisper, but Ellie gives me a squeeze and shakes her head to shut me up.
My body aches as my muscles stir and Ellie leans into my ear again. “She’s been ranting on the phone about us. I have no clue what’s going on, but we need to get out of here before someone else comes. The two of us together—we might be able to get away, but we have to act fast.”
The small windows at the top of the room are inky. I don’t know how long I’ve been out but the building feels mustier and gloomier after sunset, not to mention the menace lurking in the air. Our only exit is the door we entered.
Callie turns to us as I push up to my ass and kick off my shoes. She doesn’t even sound like herself when she warns, “Don’t fucking move. I swear, I’ll hit you again and this time I’ll double up. You’ll be out ‘til next week.”
*****
Eli
“Baby, where are you? I’m hungry and dinner’s getting cold. I get you had a busy week, but you were supposed to be home half-an-hour ago. Call me.”
I’ve texted and called. Jen working late isn’t rare but it is for her not to check in. I pull up the app to track her to see if she’s on her way.
She’s not at work or on the road. She’s at her sister’s new building. I toss the phone on the counter. I can’t expect her to tell me where she is every moment of the day, but after all that’s gone on, it makes me uneasy. I’m going to have to get over that because Bree is in jail with no chance for bail.
I flip open the to-go container and toss a steak fry in my mouth. There’s nothing satisfying about it. Instead, my stomach turns as I watch the minutes click by on her kitchen clock.
*****
Jen
Ellie grabs my hand. I thought I knew my assistant well, but I had no clue. I do know I need to do everything I can to keep her talking until we figure out how to get out of here.
Ellie’s grip on me tightens and I lean against the wall next to her. Bringing my hand up to my head, I have to squint when I mutter, “Why are you doing this?”
“Shut up! I’m so fucking tired of taking orders from you.” She turns her attention back to her phone. “We’re in the back room. Just follow the light, but hurry. I can’t move them on my own.”
“Who are you talking to?” I keep on.
She disconnects her call and her normally kind, yellow-brown eyes are now glaring at me with nothing but disdain. “You’re done. I did everything I could—everything he told me to—but then that damned FBI agent fucked-up and you got off scot-free. I might as well’ve hand fed the information to the feds and she still found a way to screw it up. But I’m done waiting.” She turns her eyes on Ellie. “And I’ve fucking had it with you.”
Ellie cringes next to me and the pain in my head is staggering when I frown.
“You.” My possessed assistant takes a couple staggering steps toward us and doesn’t take her eyes off my sister. “You don’t deserve him. I’ve waited too long and, after hearing you rant about another man today, I couldn’t take it. You don’t even deserve to be the mother to his child.”
“What?” Ellie breathes and I, all of a sudden, don’t feel any pain. Griffin. Does she have Griff, too? Ellie comes to life at the mention of her son and scrambles to her feet. “You bitch! Don’t you dare touch my son!”
I don’t know where my strength comes from, but I grab Ellie’s arm to hold her down because Callie is white-knuckling another syringe like a dagger. We have nothing to fight back with besides our lethargically-drugged selves.
A sneer spreads across Callie’s face—a look I’ve never seen on her and one that scares me more than anything that’s happened so far. “You mean, my son. Today took a turn. Robert and I weren’t planning to get rid of both of you at the same time—it’s a bonus I wasn’t planning for.”
Oh, fuck.
Robert.
Ellie screams and writhes next to me and it’s all I can do to hold onto her.
“What?” Callie eggs her on. “The rich and almighty Montgomery sisters aren’t so powerful now, are they? You’re going to lose your husband, your son, your house, and your fucking life so we don’t have to deal with you. Robert and I won’t have to share custody, either. How does it feel to end up with nothing?”
“You have no fucking clue,” Ellie cries.
“What do you want?” I demand. It’s either the nervous energy or my body really is coming back to me. I push to my feet and Ellie follows but I keep us pressed against the wall. “There’s no way Robert will hurt the mother of his child.”
“Think again.” Callie smiles and it makes my stomach roil because, at this point, I’m afraid she might be right.
“What the fuck?”
All three of us turn to the doorway and there he is. The controller of MI and my motherfucking brother-in-law.
“You son-of-a-bitch!” Ellie screams and I hold her back again but this time she almost pulls out of my grasp. “Where is he, Robert? What have you done with Griffin?”
Robert looks from Callie to his wife and back to Callie. “What have you done?”
Callie exhales and her grip on the damn syringe loosens. She almost coos as she speaks to him and everything becomes clear. “I know this isn’t what we planned. But, baby, you didn’t hear the way she talked about you. Your wife,” she doesn’t take her eyes off Robert but points to Ellie, “she was disrespecting you—talking about another man. I would never do that to you. I know we didn’t talk about this, but she needs to go. They both do. It can be just you and me and Griffin.”
“No!” Ellie sobs.
“Robert, please,” I beg. “If there’s something you want, it’s yours. Whatever you’re doing, this is the wrong way—"
Callie turns and screams at me. “Shut up!”
“Dammit.” Robert rakes a hand through his hair, as if what’s playing out in front of him is more of an irritable rash than the nightmare it is. “Callie, you’ve really fucked things up.”
Callie starts to move toward him but he holds up an irritated hand, halting her in place.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. But this will be better.” Her voice rises. “They’ll both be out of the way, not just Jen. You can take the CFO spot, we can get married, and Griffin will be ours. It will still work out, just not the way we planned—but better, now that we won’t have to share custody.”
“I told you, I don’t give a shit about custody.” He reaches behind him, under his suit jacket. Ellie screams and I gasp when he produces a gun. “Told you I could’ve gotten a divorce and not been strapped with raising a kid.”
“Robert, no,” Ellie sobs. “Please don’t do this. I’ll do anything.”
Robert shakes his head and raises his gun. He’s five feet from us, but I know from target practice at the ranch, he’s a shit-shot unless he has about a month to line it up. Ellie screams and I push her behind me, ready to duck and charge because it’s our only chance, until he shifts his eyes, his gun following the same path…
*****
Eli
Fuck, there are three cars parked out front—Jen’s, her sister’s, and a Jag I don’t recognize.
There was no way I could sit there any longer. Waiting and wondering. My woman practically has her phone attached to her hand because of work. She doesn’t always answer right away, but she does answer soon enough that I know radio silence from her is not normal.
When I pass Jen’s Rover, I see both cells sitting in the console with her bag and purse in the passenger seat. No way would she leave that shit out in plain view. I go to the door and the moment I open it, a gunshot rings through the building, followed with blood-curdling screams.
I stoop to pull m
y weapon out of my ankle holster and head down the dark hall.
*****
Jen
“That was not the way it was supposed to go down.” Robert shrugs and I don’t take my eyes off his, not even to glance at my former assistant who obviously hid the fact she was bat-shit crazy and did it well. But not anymore. Now, she’s lying on the floor with her brain splattered all over the wall. Robert looks to his wife. “I swear, Ellie, I was only using her to plant the files to frame your sister.”
Ellie plasters herself to my side, her face in my neck as she whimpers, “He’s going to kill us.”
I don’t answer and I don’t take my eyes off Robert. He’s holding his gun at his side where it’s dangling from his hand. I wrap Ellie in my arms and she does the same to me. “You can have what you want, I swear. You want my job? Take it. You want money? It’s yours. Just let Ellie go back to Griffin. Please don’t be so cold-hearted as to take his mother away from him. Whatever you do, don’t do that.”
He sighs and shakes his head. “We’re a little past that, don’t you think? Hell, I wasn’t planning on any of this. I just know you don’t deserve the job you were given because of your fucking last name. I had my sights set on this company the day I met Ellie and she told me she was one of the three beneficiaries of MI. You spend so much money on the EPA shit, you’ll run it into the ground eventually. Now you’ve got your old man buying into it just because the Montgomerys have more money than sense.”
“It was you?” I always knew Robert was an ass, but never in my wildest dreams would I imagine he was capable of this. “You thought if I was rotting away in federal prison for insider trading and SEC violations, our father would just let you take over? You’re insane.”
“He would eventually. It was easy. Callie planted the documents in your files, opened the shell corps, and even installed a camera in your office so I could keep an eye on you and that federal agent you sweet-talked into your bed. She even sent a tip to the SEC. The crooked FBI agent was pure luck—her playing into my hand like that was a gift. That couldn’t have worked out better had I orchestrated it myself. Callie did all the dirty work and all I had to do was bed her and make some empty promises.” He throws a glance at the dead woman lying on the cold, hard floor and sighs. “She was even more enthusiastic about the project than I was.”
“This doesn’t have to end this way. Please,” I beg and my voice hitches. “Let Ellie go and you and I can work this out.”
“You just saw me kill a woman.” He huffs a sarcastic laugh. “You think we can all walk away from this and live happily ever after?” He shakes his head. “There’s no other way.”
I blink.
Oh, thank God. He’s not a hallucination—it’s him. My eyes well in an instant and I pull Ellie’s face into me so she doesn’t give him away and put my lips to the side of her head as she shakes and I whisper, “It’s going to be okay.”
Robert hitches a brow. “Whatever makes you feel better, Jen.”
Robert is standing between Eli and us and, through my tears, I see my love put a finger up to his lips and then point to the ground.
Okay.
Fuck.
I think I can do this.
“Not the way I wanted this to go,” Robert almost apologizes for what he’s about to do.
There have been many times of my life where I’ve held my baby sister. So many memories where we’ve laughed and others where she has hurt so badly, I could feel it in my bones.
But none of those instants has anything on this one.
I nod and grab hold of my sister tighter than I ever have, because all those moments up until now don’t matter.
Robert minutely lifts his arm.
I fall—taking Ellie with me.
When we hit the already blood-splattered floor, I hear a gunshot.
*****
With Ellie tucked beneath me, I feel alive. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more alive than right now.
Still, I’m afraid to look.
Until I feel a hand on my ass. A touch that’s so familiar—warm and possessive—I never want it to leave my body. Not for the rest of my life.
“Baby. Look at me.”
His voice hits me soft. Compared to the hard floor, the cold space, and what just happened, it’s a caress to my soul. I lift my head but don’t let go of my shaking sister.
Eli has his phone to his ear as he as his eyes gaze into mine. “It’s over. It’s all over.”
Chapter 31
Your Hands
Eli
Jen climbs into bed with me in the guest room at her sister’s house. Ellie refused to go to the ranch. Jen refused to leave Ellie. And there was no way I was not sleeping under the same roof as Jen tonight.
Or for any other night in the future, if I have anything to do with it.
So here we are in Ellie’s big-ass house situated in her gated community. At least the gates are keeping the press at bay. Still, her house is ridiculous. If I were her, I’d sell this thing tomorrow.
I thought Jen and Ellie were close, but close doesn’t begin to describe it. They’re thicker than thieves.
I got them out of the carnage-filled room as fast as I could after taking Robert down. They were both transported to the hospital and checked out after being tranquilized. Ellie is fine other than being shaken but Jen has a concussion from when she fell and hit her head. She said she won’t have to worry about staying up all night between checking on Ellie and coming back to me. It wasn’t easy for Ellie to come back to her house and she refuses to sleep in her own bed. The only reason she’s here is because of her son. She’s sleeping in Griffin’s room and refuses to leave his side.
I had the police go to her house right away to check on Griffin. He was fine but the sitter freaked when the police showed and stayed until we got here.
Jen’s parents just left, as did the babysitter, who, I’m pretty sure will never return.
I’ve been slapped with a second OPR investigation, but this one is routine since I was involved in a shooting.
Whatever. I don’t give a shit.
“Ellie okay?” I ask.
Jen pulls the covers back to settle in. “I don’t know. How can anyone be okay after what happened tonight? She’s angry and bitter at Robert—she even feels guilty for bringing him into our family.” She shakes her head. “She hasn’t been okay for a long time and it hurts my heart.”
I pull her gently to me. She tangles her legs with mine but winces as she lays her head on the pillow.
“How’s your head?”
“Not bad. I took what they gave me at the hospital. I’ll lie low this weekend and maybe I can work on Monday.” She closes her eyes and sighs. “Things are a mess. We just lost Patrick and now I’m down a controller, not to mention the drama and public scrutiny. My dad is about to have a come-apart over everything. He’s the one who hired Robert and is carrying his own guilt. Now he’s worried about my mom, too, since she just had a heart attack. It was a mild one, but she’s so worried about Ellie, she’s stressed. I just got off the phone with Cam who’s beyond angry. He wants to see for himself that we’re okay. Paige is so sweet—she wants Ellie and Griffin to go to Omaha while this dies down. I told Cam that might not be a bad idea. We’ll see what she does.”
I put my hand to her ass and slide my thigh between her legs. “It’ll calm down. Ellie has you and, from the sound of it, her marriage was shit. The whole thing is over and that’s all that matters.”
Her eyes fill with moisture and that mask she puts on for everyone else disintegrates in a way I’m getting used to when it’s just her and me. She’s been strong for her sister, her family, even her company. Hell, for herself. She didn’t panic and, when the time came, she did what she needed to do to keep herself and her sister alive.
“Thank you for tracking me.” She shakes her head and her voice hitches. “Had you not come when you did…”
I lean in to kiss her, if for no other reason than to shut her up
. I got there in time and there’s no reason to visit the what-ifs. “You did everything you could and you were brave doing it. You kept yourself alive until I could get to you. You know what this means though, right?”
Her brow crinkles. “What?”
I’m serious as shit when I say, “There’ll never be a day that I don’t track you.”
Tears escape her eyes even as a smile breaks across her beautiful face. “I’ll be happy for you to creep on me. Forever.”
I kiss her again, feeling her hand slide down my pec and abs, but I catch her wrist before it lands on my cock that’s still encased in my boxers. I shake my head. “Close your eyes. I’ll wake you in an hour.”
She wipes her tears and feigns a put-out disposition. “So you can keep your hand on my ass unconditionally but I can’t feel you up?”
I squeeze. “Pretty much.”
She shuts her eyes and mutters, “Not fair.”
“I’ll let you use and abuse my body when you don’t have a concussion.”
She yawns and pulls the covers up. “Holding you to that.”
“Love you, baby.”
“Love you, too.” She reaches back and rests her hand over mine that’s covering most of her ass. “Love your hands on me, too.”
I smile through the darkened room, only a few inches separating the space between our noses. So close, I can feel and hear her breath even. And I tell her what I’ve known to be the truth since the moment I took her in my arms that night in Deep Ellum on a makeshift dance floor. “I know you do.”
Chapter 32
Offers
Three months later…
Jen
“Ms. Montgomery. We weren’t expecting you.”
I smile. “Please, call me Jen. And I’m sorry. I don’t have an appointment. Is Mr. Barrett in?”
