King(45)

“What are you doing?” Ignoring him, she slid by, walking back through his bedroom. He grabbed her arm in the hallway.

“Let me go.” Her deadly-calm voice had him dropping her arm.

Evie went to the couch, picking her purse back up. “Get yourself out of the mess with Ramos. I don’t care how, just do it. I checked them out. Ramos plays dirty. He’s the type to try to use Lily against you. Let him do his deal or let the Predators deal with it. Either way, go back to Treepoint and visit Lily until the deal’s over.” Evie went to the door, opening it and closing it behind her.

Once in the elevator, she shut down every emotion she had, shoring the barricades she had let crumble last night. She had known better; she couldn’t believe she had fallen for his lies. He had told her he wouldn’t let her fall, yet she felt as if she was in a downward spiral she wouldn’t be able to recover from.

Going out into the daylight, she started walking down the city street toward Penni’s apartment when she heard a car come up behind her. She didn’t have to turn to know who it was.

Henry pulled up, rolling the window down. “Get in, Evie.”

“Go away, Henry. Please, just leave me alone.”

The man nodded and the electric window slid back up. Evie continued walking, her feet becoming sore and tired, but she refused to ride in his car or have anything to do with King again.

The car followed her until she stumbled into Penni’s apartment building.

Penni was sitting at the table, jumping up when she saw her. “What happened?”

“Nothing. I’m fine. Make sure you lock the door when you leave for work and inform the concierge that if someone comes knocking on the door without permission, I’ll call the owner and complain about him not doing his fucking job.”

“Okay, do you need me to get you something?”

“No. I’m going to lie down for a while. I’ll see you tonight.” Evie shut her bedroom door before Penni could pry any further.

Limping into the bathroom, she started to run water into the tub before getting undressed and climbing inside, hissing in pain as her blistered heels were engulfed in the warm water.

Evie drew her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. She lay her head down on her knees as tears fell from her eyes. Evie couldn’t remember the last time she had cried so hard. Keeping the water on, she cried until her sobs turned to hiccups.

After a while, she turned the water off and got out of the tub. Wrapping a towel around herself, she went to her dresser, pulled out one of her own t-shirts then took a pair of fresh underwear and got dressed.

She went back into the living room, relieved to see Penni had left.

Going to her purse, she took out her phone and checked the messages. There were three from King and one from Shade. She touched on Shade’s message.

“Going hunting. See you soon.”

* * *

“Pull up the security tapes from my apartment this morning and get out,” King said, walking inside his security room.

Trey pulled up the requested tape then slid his chair back before leaving the room.

King sat in the chair, forwarding the tape to where he wanted it, then pressed play, watching Evie walk into the room. King saw her accidently knock the folder over then she was about to set it back down when he saw her turn toward him in the hallway. King pressed stop, looking at the expression on her face.

She had laid it out for him to see and he had ignored it. He was too used to the betrayals he had suffered through the years.

She hadn’t even glanced at the papers in the folders.

Regret filled him at what he had said; he had deliberately pushed her away.

Last night had been the best night he had ever spent with a woman. Hell, the last few weeks were some of the best he’d had in his whole life. Now, he had destroyed her fragile trust with a few well-placed, cruel words.

He took his phone out, calling her, and it was no surprise when she didn’t answer his call. He texted her a message instead.

“I’m sorry. Meet me to talk.” He sent the message.

It pinged back an hour later with her response. “Fuck off.”





Chapter 19




“You’re leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes.” Evie turned away, putting her dirty dishes in the sink. “I’ve been here long enough.” Too long, Evie thought.

As soon as Rabbit had called her and told her Ramos and Moran were heading out of town, she would board her plane.

Rabbit said Ramos had agreed to King’s cut, so there actually hadn’t been a confrontation between the two men. Evie was relieved King wasn’t gaining a new enemy who was trying to move into his territory; he would be able to hand over the reins for the city to the Predators without conflict.