Page 11 of Everything We Found

“The hit.” Nadia mouthed the surreal words. Someone had been sent to kill Thomas and she’d been caught in the middle of it. She pressed a hand to her stomach, the nausea returning.

“Are you all right? You look ill.”

“I’m fine,” she said, teeth pressed together.

“Go sit down.” He gently prodded her arm.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she flared, feeding into her anger so she wasn’t overcome with terror. “I need my car.”

“We can’t go back. It isn’t safe.”

“Then take me home.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“We’ve been instructed to go to a safe house.”

“You’ve been instructed.” Nadia jabbed a finger at him. “Not me. This isn’t my problem.”

“We can shelter there until it’s safe to leave,” he continued as if she hadn’t said anything.

She skewered him with a venomous glare. “For how long?”

“Until Ruiz is back in custody. When someone else won’t be sent to take me out.” His attention shifted east toward his house. Nadia wondered if he could ever return home now that the cartel knew where he lived. She couldn’t wrap her mind around never returning home herself. Her traitorous heart pulsed through a sharp pang of empathy for him.

“Give me an idea of what you’re thinking. A few hours? A day? And don’t you dare say ‘I don’t know.’”

His cheek spasmed as he clamped down on what she guessed were those very words. “Soon,” he said after a beat. His tone told her otherwise. They could be holed up in the safe house for days, weeks even. Longer.

“I can’t go with you. I have a job, a life. People need me.” She’d committed to watching Aimee’s kids tonight.

“Nadia, please.”

“No! You sucked me into this once before and it nearly ruined everything good in my life. Never again. Take me home. This isn’t my problem.”

“It is now.” He closed the space between them, his face inches from hers. “They know you were with me. Your key is back there, so is your car. Where’s your purse?”

Realization hit her with such force her lips parted in speechless horror. She’d left her purse in the car with her license.

“They know where you live, Nadia. I won’t let them go through you to reach me.”

She lifted her chin. “You think very highly of yourself. I’m not going with you.”

“You’re scared. I get that. Take it out on me.” His delivery became gentler, but she found it insulting.

“Don’t placate me!”

“They will KILL YOU!” he yelled back, his control snapping. “But before they do, they’ll strangle, stab, and beat you. It goes without question what else they’ll do if you’re captured. Don’t believe me? I’ll show you how messed up James was after they finished with him. I have pictures.” He reached into his pocket for his phone.

She pressed a hand to her forehead and looked away. “God, no, I don’t want to see.”

“Then trust me when I say that once you got involved, you became a target.”

“Don’t you get it? I can’t just disappear. I have clients who rely on me. My mom! Aimee too. Do you realize what me going off grid will do to them? Especially Aimee after everything she went through with James.”

“You don’t come with me and I will tell Aimee you lied to her. That you’ve been lying to her for ten years.”