Chapter 148
Chapter 148
-Hailey
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1 pulled the car door shut behind me and the overhead lights turned off, leaving me alone in the dark with Sam.
She glanced over at me and nodded once, but she didn’t say anything. She put the car in drive and we pulled away from the
curb
The hole in my chest tore itself wider with every foot of pavement we put between me and the clubhouse. In the side mirror I watched the pulsing blue and red lights vanish as we turned a corner.
I hoped he would forgive me.
Thoped Abby would forgive me.
Sam didn’t speak for three blocks.
“How was the exit?” she asked finally, cutting through the quiet. “Any problems?”
1 shook my head. “Fine. Thank you for…. the help.
A slight shrug of her shoulder, “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Are you armed?”
I looked down at my empty hands, curled into fists inside the oversized sleeves of Logan’s hoodie. I could still feel the ghost of his touch on my hip.
“No.”
Her grip tightened on the steering wheel. She let out a slow breath. “Alright. Probably for the best.”
She was probably right. I had a feeling any weapon would be useless against Anatoly. I pictured myself launching a rocket at him and him stepping out of the smoke unscathed.
I tried to bury the thought.
We drove on through Riverstone. I kept my face turned toward the window, watching the dark windows of houses blur past. Houses full of normal people. Sleeping in their beds, next to the people they loved. Not betraying them.
Another ten minutes of silence and Sam’s hands relaxed their death grip on the wheel. She signaled and turned into the empty parking lot of an abandoned grocery store.
She parked and killed the engine, and the sudden silence rang in my ears. She turned in her seat and faced me. The dashboard lights cast her face in a pale green glow. She looked tired.
She started to lay all out, calm and methodical. I twisted the sleeves of Logan’s hoodie between my fingers, trying to calm
my nerves.
“Okay,” she said. “So. You’ll go in alone. I’ll find a vantage point. I’ll give you an earpiece so we can stay in contact. We need a signal. A word you can say that tells me it’s gone to hell and I need to move in.”
A nervous laugh slipped out of me. “Bananas,” I muttered under my breath
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9:41 am P DED
Chapter 148
“Okay, bananas. That works. If you think you’ll be able to slip it into conversation.”
157 Ny vounter’s
“No.” I said quickly. “Sorry. That’s… that’s the word Logan and I used when–well, on the night you and I first met, actually. At…”
At Matt’s house. Standing over Matt’s corpse.
And this situation felt awfully similar to that one. Except this time I didn’t have the comfort of a gun tucked into my waistband.
“Hailey.” Sam’s voice cut through my mental spiral. “You with me? You just went white as a sheet.”
I blinked, forcing myself back into the present, away from the image of Matt’s blood seeping across his living room floor.
“I’m fine.” I lied, clearing my throat. “How about ‘Russia?‘ I won’t have trouble sneaking that one into a sentence.”
“Russia.” She studied me for a few seconds with her cop eyes. “Alright,” she agreed.
I knew she hadn’t bought my lie. She just chose to move past it. “We need to get going. They’ll be out looking for you soon. Ramirez won’t keep them occupied forever. His hard–on for nailing Logan is the only reason this worked.”
She pulled out her phone. “He’s had a thing for me since he transferred in. Thinks we’re kindred spirits because we’re both by–the–book. Thinks my frustration with the department’s politics means I’m secretly on his side.”
A humorless smirk twisted her lips. “Men like him are so predictable. They see a woman who’s good at her job and assume she must be as rigid and lonely as they are. He was all too happy to play bad cop tonight. Gave him a chance to swing his dick around in front of the club.”
She put the phone to her ear and it rang twice.
“Ramirez,” she said, shifting her voice into professionalism. “It’s Andrews. Stand down. The package is secure. Disengage and fall back.” A pause. She rolled her eyes slightly, a gesture meant for me. “No, Javier, it’s handled. Your part’s done.”
She pressed the brake and the ignition button, and her car purred to life.
“Yeah. Thank you. Now I need you to do something else. Rally your units. I’m texting you a location. Meet me there but keep your distance. Set up a perimeter. Do not, I repeat, do not move in until you get my signal. This is a sensitive negotiation”
I could hear his voice through the phone, but not the words. Sam sighed and ended the call without another word, dropping the phone into the cupholder.
She took a deep breath, recentering herself. “Okay. He’ll be our backup. Whether he knows it or not. This goes south, my ass will definitely be on the line I’ll have to bribe him with a dinner date or something”
Cool, I thought. Neat. If this goes south, I’ll probably be dead.
She put the car back in drive and pulled out of the lot. The time for talking was done. We were moving toward the point of no return, and the word ‘bananas‘ was ringing in my ears A cruel echo of the trust Ed just shattered
But as the city fell away behind us, turning into industrial parks and abandoned warehouses, I let resolve settle over me like a coat of armor
There was no turning back now. The path was set I would end this, or it would end me
The guilt was still a sickening knot in my stomach, but it was being slowly encased in ice Frozen solid by the necessity of whatever came next.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
