by Nana Malone
He bellowed. "Aargh. You son of a bitch."
"No, you shot me. I figure tit for tat. You shot me twice, I shot you twice. See how that goes?"
"Why did you come after us?”
I made it a point to dig my toe into his open wound. He yelled.
"You can yell all you want, but your friends aren't coming for you. Let me repeat myself. What do you want?"
"The girl."
"Willa?"
He hissed. "Fuck you."
"No thanks. I'm in love with someone else. Are you after Willa or Neela?"
He coughed and clawed at my foot. "The c-code breaker. It was Willa’s plan."
I glowered at him. “So, you took Mayzie, for what, revenge?"
"Insurance. It's Willa. I'm here for the money. Don’t trust her."
I stared down at him. "You are the worst kind of fucktard twat. You don't even give a shit about the baby."
"I didn't want a baby."
"Why is it that the biggest assholes get the best shit? So what, are you planning to rob some very bad people?"
"It was Willa. She wanted the big score. Vanhorn kept notes of all the transactions. All the dirty money, cartels, bankers, Wall Street, and politicians. His whole list of clients is in that ledger. His bank account codes. Everything. We were going to take over.”
“And you played Neela?”
He groaned. “I’m telling you it was Willa’s plan. Give the bitch what she's always wanted, you know, someone to care about her, love her, make her more malleable and susceptible to helping us. It worked too. I was supposed to take the baby to force her to help."
Oh, my brave Neela. She was refusing to help, so Willa had kidnapped her own daughter.
"Thank you very much. You've been very helpful. Now, if you stay still, there is a chance that you might not bleed out. But if you move around too much, you could bleed to death. Totally up to you. I'm going to have to take the baby now."
I ran into the backroom where I heard Mayzie crying.
I found her on a bed, precariously leaning over the edge, trying to reach Bunbun. "Oh, baby girl."
She gave me a mournful wail when she saw me.
"I know. I know. Bunbun is down there." I grabbed her bunny and gave it to her, and she smiled at me and then clapped.
"Da?"
"Yeah, I'm here. Let's go get your mummy."
She clapped. "Ma."
"Yeah, I know. I miss her too."
I carried her out of that house and refused to look back at any of them. Once I had Mayzie in the car, I called the police, let them know the address, and told them that I'd heard gun shots. Any luck and Satorini would still be alive and more than happy to spill the beans on Willa.
"Come on, Mayzie love. Let's go get your mama."
Nineteen
Neela…
Stall, stall.
I needed to stall for time. But now, Jax had woken up. If he was up, he’d have figured out what I’d done and called in the cavalry. And Ariel sure as shit would have asked Bex where I’d go.
“Jesus Christ, Willa. How did we end up here?”
“Look, I just always wanted more. I knew I was destined for more. There are people like you who are just happy to go along, but me, I knew I was supposed to be great. I knew how amazing I was supposed to be. And sometimes, money is an obstacle. So I removed that obstacle. You can’t judge me for it.”
“Why do you always think I’m desperate to judge you? I’m just trying to understand what you’re going through and why you make the decisions that you make.”
“You will never see me happy or satisfied with anything.”
“You’re always looking for the next thing. What you have is never enough. You were never happy. You always wanted what someone else had. I never understood that.”
“You wouldn’t understand. Why should I be happy with scraps? Why should I be happy with what someone gives me? I know how amazing I could be. Why should I settle for anything less?”
“You’re not settling well.”
“Look, who cares how I got here? It’s who I am, so deal with it.”
I don’t know what made me ask when I knew I wouldn’t like the answer, but I asked nonetheless.
“What will happen at the end of this Willa? You get those names and buy your freedom or their silence with them?”
She frowned at me. “I want to be able to not have to look over my shoulder all the time. It’s exhausting.”
“You say that like you didn’t do this to yourself.”
“There you go judging again.”
“Or you do damage to yourself. Your name is all over that ledger. Transactions, dates… this isn’t some key that will break you out of your prison. You were a despised partner.”
Her eyes went wide. “You deciphered it.”
“Not all of it, but most of it. And I find you and what you’ve done horrible and exhausting. God, you must be tired.”
Willa rubbed her arms. “You weren’t supposed to have deciphered it yet. It was supposed to take you longer.”
“Yeah well, chalk it up to me being a nerd with no friends, not even the ones you threw my way from your scraps. I spent a lot of time watching Star Trek.”
Willa frowned. “Do you mind telling me what that means?”
I shook my head. “Give me the rest of the cipher.”
She shook her head. “No, you’re going to give me the ledger, and then you’re going to tell me how to decipher it and what you’ve deciphered so far.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. We’re going to take it and forward it to the authorities.”
She laughed. “Are you kidding me? I’ll end up dead.”
“You will not. You should have gone to the authorities yourself.”
“Neela, if you do this, you will never see Mayzie again.”
I wasn’t dealing with her threats. She’d been threatening me since we were kids. “We’re doing this my way. I’m not helping you with the damn thing. You’re going to give me that cipher, and I’m going to give you to the police.”
“Are you insane?” Willa’s hands shook.
“Willa, this is really unnecessary.”
“I’m sorry. This is not how this works. How this works is you’ll give me the ledger, and then I’ll use the cipher here to decode the rest of it. And then I’ll leave. I already have bidders for the list of names. Then I’ll grab my kid, and we’ll ghost. Our properties are all over the world. I’ll never have to worry about what I’ll do for money.”
“Oh, I see you’re still delusional. No. The answer is no.”
With a screech, Willa raised her arms as if she was going to club me with the gun. I slid my hands quickly up to the front of my face and deflected her arms. She shouted, “I want what’s mine.”
“Well, unless you’re going to use nice words, it’s not coming. It’s not happening for you.”
She disengaged the safety. “If you fuck with me, you’re going to end up dead. Now, where is the goddamn ledger?”
“If you kill me, you’re never going to find out. So, we’re just at a stalemate, right?”
“I hate you. I have always hated you.”
Just hearing her say the words and know I’d been right didn’t bring me comfort. But at least I knew I hadn’t made it up in my mind. Over the years she had truly hated me. “Well, that’s nice to know.”
She tried to hit me again. This time, I took the brunt on my jaw and my head snapped to the side. I fought my darkening vision and stayed upright. “I don’t know what I ever did to make you hate me so much.”
“You came from a goddamn perfect family. Yeah, your mom died. But your dad, he loved you. He taught you things and spent time with you. All you ever did was whine about how your mother died. And then your father died. I was so jealous of you.”
“I don’t know why you were jealous of me.”
Willa raised her arms again, and this time, I ducked to avoid her. “You, come here.”
“You hitting me
isn’t going to get you what you want.”
“No, but it will give me some goddamn satisfaction. God, you even had to have the hot guy.”
“Why do you begrudge me having something? Why? That’s not how love works Willa.”
“Well, you had someone to teach you. I never had that person.”
“I would have done it. I would have taught you mercy and compassion.”
“You’re so full of yourself. I wish, we’d never taken you in.“ She reached for me again, and I stayed just out of range.
She raised the gun at me again and I knew. She had absolutely gone off the rails and she would absolutely kill me. She’d stopped caring about having me decipher the ledger. Instead her anger and hate had taken over.
If I didn’t do something she was going to kill me. I was dumb. I knew. The odds were slim, but I wasn’t going to take this lying down. I’d had plenty of that my whole life.
I lunged for her, grabbing for the gun. No way was I letting her shoot me and no way was she letting me have the gun, so it was one hell of a fight. She fought my grip, I pushed her back. If this was how it was going to end, at least I wasn’t taking it lying down.
With grunts and heaves, we wrestled the gun between our bodies and I met her gaze. “Do not do this, Willa.”
“I wouldn’t have to if you just gave me what I wanted.”
Then the ear-splitting crack reverberated between us and I winced as my stomach roiled. Was I hit? I waited for the pain, but none came.
“I will kill you,” she growled at me.
But I managed to squeeze that tender spot in her wrist just so and she dropped the gun. Then, I did the one thing I’ve been dying to do since she turned up on my doorstep. I faced her. “You almost shot me? After everything?” Hand raised, palm closed, I hit her in the face.
Petty? Maybe. But goddamn satisfying. It was only after I watched dispassionately as her head snapped back that I realized she’d shot herself…in the foot. Literally and figuratively. Shit.
I whipped off my jacket as she slumped to the ground. I had no choice but to apply pressure to her foot. She might hate me and have tried to kill me, but, I wasn’t going to let her die. She was still Mayzie’s mom.
The doors to the yoga studio busted open, and Ariel, Tamsin, and Jameson came in. “Jesus Christ. What are you guys doing here?”
Ariel stared at me. “Jax called. We didn’t find you at the ferry.”
“We took a charter boat. And Willa and I needed to have it out. I wanted to see how much she hated me before deciding what to do with her. She’s all yours. Here is the secondary cipher. Those embossed symbols on the edges of the authentic ledger, and the markings, those are names. And I’m pretty sure she’ll be more than happy to give them to you. I, for one, just need to find my guy.”
Ariel smiled at me. “Pretty bad ass, Neela.”
“I’m not. But when I channel Jax, I come pretty damn near close. Now, does one of you know how to staunch bleeding?”
Jax…
I cradled Mayzie to my chest. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I could feel my bones trying to crack and realign. I was feeling foggy from the drugs they'd injected me with. Just on the edges, but enough to feel off. And my heart, the worry constricting it, I needed to get to Neela. I needed to keep her safe.
You failed her. You let her go off with the enemy.
Even though I'd suspected what Willa was, I’d still let my guard down. That was dumb. But Neela was stubborn. Mule-headed. Refused to listen to reason.
I wonder why that is?
She hated being told what to do, and I was used to being in charge. We'd have to work on that.
Once the ferry had landed on the main island, I wasted no time. Trace was there with the car. I unstrapped the baby and handed her over to him. “Put her in the back.”
He didn't even argue, which told me there was trouble.
“Neela. What does the GPS say?"
Trace strapped Mayzie in and then climbed into the passenger seat next to me.
“Relax. Ariel's already on her way to her."
"I will not fucking relax until I know she’s okay."
Trace wasn't even buckled in when I kicked the car into gear. He would just have to hold on, because I needed to get to her.
At that time of night, the streets around the main shopping district were quiet as church mice. Eerily silent. Nothing was open that late. No reason for anything to be open.
The surrounding streets with all the restaurants were still semi-alive, but the area where we were was dead.
We turned the corner though, and things weren't dead anymore. There were cop cars everywhere.
What little adrenaline I had left in my body surged back, and my heart hammered. I barely even threw the car into park before I tried to climb out.
"Jax, it's fine. She's fine."
"Shut up."
I ran for the cars.
One of the patrol cops looked like he wanted to try his luck at stopping me from going inside.
I gave him a shake of my head. "You don't want to try this."
He frowned, and his hand went to his gun. I cursed under my breath and put my hands up. "That's my girlfriend in there. I need to see her."
He put his hand up. "Sir, you can't go inside. There's been a shooting."
"I know."
And then I remembered my Royal Elite badge.
I pulled it out and flashed it. He frowned, shook his head then he let me pass.
Holy hell. If I'd known that badge would get me in and out of trouble, I'd have been using it a lot more often.
I ran past the tape. Past those filing around.
Inside, I followed the crowd, eyes scanning for her. Oh God, please let her be alive. Please, please, please fucking let her be alive.
I saw Ariel first. Her gaze was grim. "Jax. Listen before you go in there—"
I wasn't listening. I barged past her. "Neela? Neela!"
I shoved past the policeman at the door to the women's bathroom. "Neela.”
From the corner, her voice was calm. "Jax."
I whipped around. "Oh my God."
She was covered in blood. "I will kill her."
"It's unnecessary. I'm fine. I'm fine."
My hands were gentle on her face. When she winced, I wanted to pull back, but I had to check her. Make sure she wasn’t seriously hurt.
"I woke up and you weren't there. You were gone. And God I could have killed you myself. You were reckless and stubborn."
"I'm sorry. I just knew you wouldn't me let go. And I knew I had to do it. No way Willa was going to do things the right way. She would have found a way to kill us first. And I was the one she wanted, so I took her away from you and Mayzie. I'm sorry."
" Why would you do that to me? Don’t you know how much I love you?"
"I am so, so sorry. But Willa said it herself. Mayzie was your job. Not me. I wanted to do what I could."
Her lips quivered. I pulled her in, wrapping my arms around her, and only then was I able to breathe. Only then could I relax. She was safe. She was in my arms. She was breathing. She was okay. Her arms shook as they wrapped around me. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know.” And then she pulled back. "Mayzie, where's Mayzie?"
I couldn't help it, the smile tightening my lips. This is what a mother should do. A mother should worry about her child, how she was doing, how she was fairing. Willa never worried.
"She's fine. I promise. She had an unforeseen adventure, but I got her. I promise you she's okay."
She frowned. I could tell she wanted to ask all the questions, but I couldn't answer them right then. I just needed to hold her, heal her. Confirm for myself that she was alive.
"Let's go."
She nodded. "Yeah. I just want to see Mayzie."
It only then occurred to me to ask, "Where's Willa?"
She inhaled deeply and sighed. "She's been arrested. She tried to kill me. She was pissed I didn’t bring her the authentic ledger."
"Not exactly a bluff. I did have the ledger. Just not the way she wanted it. It was a copy. The embossed pages with the secondary code didn't come through on the printout. They were only in the original. And to get the original meant going to Ariel.”
“She tried to kill you?” I ground my teeth together. "Where the fuck is she?"
Neela held on tight to my biceps. "Stop. I'm safe. Okay? I remembered how to look after myself. I'm okay. I promise."
I stared at her. "Never again, okay?"
She nodded. "I promise."
"Let's get out of here."
Ariel was waiting for us in the hallway.
"Jax, you need to let Neela get checked out."
I shook my head. "The hell I will. I'll take her to the hospital myself."
Ariel sighed. "The both of you actually need to get checked out. But she looks more urgent. Let's get the cuts and bruises cleaned. And then you can take her to the hospital, okay? The EMTs are outside."
I glowered at Ariel. But I knew what she wanted. To speak to me privately for a moment. I squeezed Neela tight and kissed her forehead. “I'll be right there."
She nodded. And as she passed Ariel, Ariel took her hand and squeezed. "You did great."
I watched as Neela limped outside, not needing my support, not needing anyone. She had taken care of the bad guy all by herself. Ariel met my gaze. "She's a tough cookie."
"She is mule-headed. She fucking drugged me so she could sneak away and protect me and Mayzie."
Ariel shook her head. "Yeah, that sounds like something you would do."
"It’s insane. She could have been killed. And then stupid Satorini was part of Willa's plan all along. She planned to manipulate Neela into helping her, and then while I was down for the count, he came and took the baby."
Ariel's sighed. “Christ this was such a shit show. Do I have bodies to clean up?”
"Taken care of. I'll debrief you in the morning. But yeah, basically. Satorini and his men came in. They took Mayzie and shot me. When I came to, I went after her."
"You need a medic?" Ariel ran her hands through her hair. “This is the worst."
"No, the vest caught the bullets. But I want Mayzie checked."
