SWNOVELS Runner: Chapter 44
I leaned against the counter, staring at my phone, waiting for the damn call.
“How long do you think it’ll take her to find out we aren’t behind bars?” Gray asked, watching crew members put a tarp over our doorway until we could get a new door.
“Not long,” I muttered.
“She might come back to finish what she started.” Gray sounded almost wishful about that.
“She’s smart enough not to,” I grated out. “She’s as good as dead if she does. Vic and Juan want her even more now that she turned on us.”
“When we got her arrested, she said it was boring.” He chuckled. “Never would have guessed she’d do the same fucking thing.”
“But she did do it,” I snapped. “She fucked us over. And she did it instead of killing us because she thought it would be worse on us. She hates us.”
Gray’s smile fell, and his eyes went cold. “I know that, Kade. Thank you for reminding me.”
One of the guys came up to the counter. “That’s as good as we can get it until your new door gets here.”
I nodded. “Make sure everyone stays clear of the stairs. Actually, keep everyone in the front of the house down there.”
The guys left, letting the tarp fall into place. It was going to be fucking annoying not to have privacy for the next day or two. But that wasn’t what was on my mind. She was, like always.
“Has he called yet?” Gray asked.
“No.”
“You think—” He stopped talking and turned toward the hall. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
I straightened up, hearing it too. It almost sounded like…a woman screaming. Gray and I looked at each other before racing to the end of the hallway. The noise was louder now, and I hurriedly typed in the code, unlocking the door. Gray’s shoulder hit mine when I pulled it open. My heart stuttered as I stared into the room.
“What the fuck?” Gray muttered in shock.
Rylan closed the closet door, turning to face us. But it wasn’t him that was the surprise. It was the girl on his shoulder who was screaming bloody murder and thrashing like crazy. Rylan’s jaw was clenched as he walked past us.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed. “And with her?”
Rylan didn’t answer, striding into the living room and dumping Mili onto the leather chair next to the couch. It was only then that I realized her hands were tied. I raised an eyebrow, wondering how hard it had been for him to do that. From his red, splotchy cheek, I was guessing she’d put up a fight.
“You fucking asshole…” she trailed off when her gaze landed on Gray and me. Her eyes darted around the room, growing wide when she realized she was back in our house. “What the hell?”
All three of us stood in front of her, and Rylan pushed her back down when she tried getting off the chair. She scowled, glaring at him as she leaned back.
I turned toward Rylan. “Why the fuck is she here? You were supposed to make sure she left town.”
Rylan scrubbed a hand down his face. “Caleb found my name on the web. She knows.”
“Shit,” Gray mumbled.
“What’s going on?” Mili growled, her eyes trailing over each of us. “Did you—did you plan this together? Are you working with Rylan?”
We stayed silent, and I crossed my arms, my stomach twisting painfully. She was never supposed to find out. Rylan was going to make sure she left town, and that was supposed to be it. If Vic and Juan knew she was here, there were going to be huge fucking problems.
“Since none of you want to answer me, then let me leave,” she snapped.
“Yes,” I said quietly. “We’re working with him.”
“The whole arresting thing was what? An act?” she shrieked, staring at Rylan.
“Yeah. But he wasn’t supposed to blow our door off,” Gray said, trying to lighten the mood.
“How long? Tell me how long the three of you have been working together,” she demanded.
“Forever,” I stated simply.
She frowned in confusion. “What?”
Gray shrugged. “He’s part of the crew. Always has been.”
Her lips parted. “No. That’s not possible. He has no affiliation—”
“That was the point,” Rylan cut her off. “We never went our separate ways like I told you. We just let the public think we did.”
Her chest heaved as she took in that information, still looking at us like we were lying. I crouched down, and she pressed into the cushions to get away from me. Her distrust radiated from her every pore.
“How do you think we knew everything?” I asked softly. “The night you were at the dive bar with that biker. Who did you tell where you were? When we were in Roseville and we snuck in the hotel room without you noticing? How did you think we did that? Because we knew what you were doing.”
“We knew when to go to your apartment because you told Rylan you’d leave in the morning, not at night,” Gray added, clearly wanting her to know everything now that it was out. “We didn’t just get lucky.”
Her nostrils flared. “Fuck you. Fuck all of you.”
“You were supposed to leave,” I snapped. “Ry called us the second after you told him your plan to fuck us over—”
“Ry?” she asked sharply. “He’s not just a member of the crew, is he? You’re all friends.”
She was spot on. The three of us were best friends. The tunnel he’d brought her through led between our houses. He lived here and had the other home for show.
“How did you find my apartment?” she asked snidely. “I know I didn’t give you a chance to put a tracker on any of my things.”
I shook my head. “No. At least you didn’t with Gray or me. You didn’t trust us enough. But Rylan? You opened up more to him.”
She snapped her head toward him. “You did it? When?”
Rylan hesitated. “The first time I kissed you. I put it in your bag.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Holy shit. You all outplayed me.”
“It started out that way, yes.” Rylan put his hand on the armrest. “It changed though. Because I started to care for you. We all did—”
“Save it,” she snarled. “I don’t believe anything that comes out of your fucking mouth.”
The truth in her words ripped me apart. She would never fucking forgive us. And I was fine with that if she was out of this city and safe. But I could see it in her eyes. She wasn’t about to just leave. She wanted sweet vengeance now that she knew Rylan was with us. But if she stayed here, she’d be in trouble. Vic and Juan wanted her to pay for what she’d tried to do to us.
“What now?” she sneered.
“Seeing as we don’t have a door, you’ll stay at Rylan’s until we can figure it out,” I answered, seeing her go rigid.
“I’m not staying here,” she hissed.
“You are for now.” I held her stare, not wavering. She knew Rylan’s other identity. If she and Caleb picked it apart, then they could take down the entire crew. Plus, I was sure if we freed her now, I’d have to worry about waking up with a gun to my head.
“Fuck,” I muttered, reaching for her. She twisted away from me as I slid her phone out of her pocket. “Caleb’s going to track her.”
She glared daggers at me while I slid the SIM card out and shut down the phone. “He’ll find me anyway.”
“Let’s hope by then we can come to some kind of agreement that doesn’t end with you trying to kill us,” Gray muttered.
“I never should have come here,” she muttered, staring at the ceiling. “I should have just planned the Panther job alone.”
Her words weren’t for us. She was thinking out loud as we all watched her. My phone vibrated, and I strode to the counter, seeing Vic’s name flashing on the screen. I walked down the hall, answering it.
“Yeah,” I clipped out.
“Come to the club. We need to meet,” Vic demanded.
“Now?”
“Yes, now. Both you and Gray…and bring her.”
My blood went cold. “She’s not here.”
“No more fucking lies,” he roared. “I have men coming now. She’s coming whether you want her to or not. And then we need to talk to you and Gray about what loyalty is.”
“We live for the crew,” I snapped. “She’ll work with us. You can’t kill her.”
“Get here now.”
He hung up on me, and I stared at the phone for a moment before racing back to the living room. I caught Rylan’s sleeve, dragging him into the hall.
“Ry, take her back to your house now—”
Noises came from the front of the house, and I peeked around the corner. Six guys suddenly appeared, pushing the tarp to the side. They looked nervous, but once they saw Mili, one of them started typing away on his phone. Shit. I pushed Rylan farther back, giving him a silent warning to stay out of sight. Only a select few in the crew knew about him. Keeping it a secret was why it worked so well.
“We have orders to bring her to the club,” one of them said, lifting his chin.
“Fuck that. I’m not going.” Mili cried in protest when I pulled her up. I moved to untie her wrists, only to find she’d already gotten herself free. I raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged before shaking out her arms.
“We really don’t have a choice right now,” I breathed in her ear. “Either Gray and I go with you, or those men are going to take you without us.”
“Aren’t you their bosses?”
“They take orders from us. But Vic and Juan’s say goes over ours. They’re here on their orders. Not ours.”
“I won’t go.”
“They’re not going to hurt you.” I held her upper arm, leading her toward the door.
“They can’t hurt me any more than the three of you already have,” she muttered.
One of the men moved to take her from me, and I shoved him aside. “I got her.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Gray mumbled as he followed us down the stairs.