Page 40 of Echo, the Sniper (Men of PSI #2)

Josiah was still on his stomach with his hands bound behind his back when I returned to the kitchen, struggling hard against the tape and clearly trying to pull his hands free.

He stopped the moment he saw me, and since his attention was locked on me, I decided to take advantage of the situation.

With a sigh, I crouched down and let my hand hover over the tape at his mouth.

“You know, the great thing about gunning for you and Edward was the fact that no matter what we decided to do with you two, you’d never call the police on us.

You couldn’t. Not without revealing yourselves.

” With that reminder of what a shit position he and Edward were in, I pulled the tape from his mouth.

Slowly.

I was feeling mean.

“Is Edward okay?” Josiah asked the moment he was able to.

“He’s fine. My friend is just wrapping things up in there with him.”

“Wrapping things up.” His laugh sounded hollow as he squirmed. “Like you wrapped me up?”

“Exactly.” I let my butt hit the linoleum floor, and I sat cross-legged in front of him. “In case you didn’t know, you don’t have the right to sound indignant or betrayed, Josiah. You idiots are the ones who attacked me .”

“We weren’t attacking you , and I swear to God we never set your house on fire.”

“On that last point, I believe you.” Sadly, that meant I had no clue who had set the fire that nearly killed me. Life officially sucked now that I was back at square one. “Edward wasn’t clear on this offshore account Dane supposedly set up before he was killed. Do you know anything about it?”

He goggled at me through the gloom. You’re asking me ?”

“Well, I can’t exactly ask Dane about it, now can I? I’m fresh out of Ouija boards.”

His head rolled on the floor in a distinctive headshake. “I only know what Edward told me, as well as what he’s pieced together in trying to find it.”

“I’m listening.”

“I... I want to tell you about it, Aurora, I swear I do,” he said, his eyes locked on mine while his cheek remained glued to the linoleum floor. “But I’m in a bad position right now. You, uh, may have noticed.”

I’d always liked Josiah’s sense of humor. “I’ve noticed. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Let’s make a deal, okay? You know I would never hurt you or want you to be hurt, right? And you know... you’ve always known how much I love Edward. I know you saw right through us. Right?”

I nodded, but said nothing. Where was he going with this?

“I just want to make a deal here, okay? I don’t need Dane’s money.

I don’t even want it, but Edward’s become obsessed with it because he thinks it’s his frickin’ Willy Wonka golden ticket out of here.

But me? My needs are simple. All I want—all I need —is Edward.

I don’t care if we spend the rest of our lives in this little shoebox of a house.

As long as we’re together, I have my own slice of heaven. Do you understand?”

If he was trying to tug on my heartstrings, he was doing a great job. I had to speed this up before I caved to a sob story. “Get to the point, Josiah.”

“I’ll tell you what Edward thinks about that account if you swear you won’t call the police on us.”

“I swear I won’t call the police on you,” I promised immediately, nodding. “Just tell me what you know so we can get out of here.”

His sigh of relief was audible. “About a day or so before Dane was killed, he told Edward that he should’ve gotten the bulk of his wealth out of the country.

That asshole really rubbed Edward’s nose in the fact that Edward couldn’t even buy a pack of gum without the Feds being all over it.

That’s when Dane said he’d moved everything six months earlier before the shit hit the fan, and that Edward deserved to be poor for not covering his ass. ”

The gloating and taking delight in Edward’s misery sure sounded like Dane. “So, what does that have to do with anything?”

“The timing , Aurora. The timing. Six months before Dane was killed... it was around New Year’s, wasn’t it? Where did we all go to celebrate the New Year?”

“The Cayman Islands.” My sudden gasp was audible as the pieces snapped into place.

“ Exactly .” Again he nodded. “Edward thinks Dane did it then—opened the account right under all our noses.”

“That... sounds right.” The memory of that trip surfaced easily, because it had been a little.

.. weird. Dane had mixed business with pleasure, not unusual for him in that respect, but he’d had me sign something as a witness.

When I’d tried to read what it was, he’d belittled my ability to understand the legalese within the document, and just told me to focus on the part he circled with his pen before signing it.

Like a trained dog that had been kicked too many times, that was exactly what I’d done, and then I’d committed to memory everything Dane had wanted me to memorize.

The account number.

The security questions.

The two-step passcodes.

Everything.

I knew exactly where it was.

And I was a cosigner.

No wonder Dane had told Edward that he’d secured the account information in a place that was always on the move.

It hadn’t been the Bentley. It had been me , because despite everything he’d ever said to me, Dane had known I wasn’t stupid.

Cowed into submission? Yes. Broken beyond belief? Yes. But stupid?

No.

Echo appeared in the doorway, pulling his gloves on. “Time to go.”

“You can’t just leave me here like this,” Josiah blurted as I pushed to my feet. “Aurora, for God’s sake, we’re friends!”

“You and Edward destroyed my father’s Bentley and had my wallet stolen because you wanted to drain a bank account I was entitled to.

” My emotions were locked in ice as I followed Echo toward the back door.

“You never even came to speak to me about it. We could have divvied it up between the three of us—all I want is the ten million that’s my inheritance from my dad.

But did you guys do that? No. You wanted to steal every last penny for yourselves, and to hell with me.

With friends like you, who needs enemies? ”

“And for what it’s worth, we’re not leaving you here trussed up like this forever.” Echo took a long, wary moment to search the backyard for any sign of danger. “As soon as we’re gone, we’ll call the proper authorities to cut you free.”

“ No .” Josiah’s head craned off the floor to look at me. “You promised you wouldn’t call the police!”

“I did, and I won’t.” My smile felt as cold as the wintry air seeping in through the open door. “He will.”

“Don’t do this.” The table, still pinned between his legs, screeched across the floor as he began struggling in earnest. “Aurora, please —”

“Goodbye, Josiah.” Despite everything, hardening my heart against his pleas took more effort than I was willing to admit.

I kept my lips tightly pressed together as I followed Echo out into the night, refusing to offer Josiah so much as a word of reassurance.

While I believed his desperation to help Edward was genuine, the way they’d gone about it had been to terrify me, with a heaping side order of robbing me blind.

Why?

Because they could.

Because they thought I’d just sit there and take it, like the cowed dog they thought I was.

They were no better than Dane.

Rage pulsed through me, so hot it chased away the cold as I followed Echo into the frigid night.

More than anything, I wanted to punch and kick and scream my wrath, but instead I had no choice but to try to be as silent as he was as he led the way toward the SUV.

I was so wrapped up in keeping a lid on my fury that I almost bumped into him when he came to a halt at the corner of the house just past the gate, his eyes scanning the sleepy, night-drenched residential street.

“I need to do a sweep of the car before allowing you to step foot inside it.” His whisper was no louder than the icy breeze sifting through the winter-stripped branches of the trees around us. “Stay here until I give you the go-ahead to get in the car. Clear?”

I nodded mutely, not trusting myself to open my mouth without screeching at him.

I had to get a hold of myself before I lost it completely, and whether I liked it or not, Echo was the only person trying to keep me alive.

Not because he cared about whether I lived or died.

Because he was being paid to do it. Which was fine.

I had no illusions about how he felt about me. He’d made it clear.

You told me your ex slammed you for not being smart, but I fucking swear, woman, you do not help your case when you pull stupid shit like this.

My eyes stung in the icy dark while the dagger of betrayal stabbed straight into my soul.

Like every other man in my life, Echo thought I was stupid.

Childish. Useless. Just like Dane. Just like Edward and Josiah.

They all believed I could be taken advantage of because I was too stupid and too weak to stop them.

To them, I was nothing.

Just... nothing .

In that moment I hated every man on the planet.

“Okay. Just keep your eyes on me, and I’ll get you out of here.

” To my surprise, he turned back to wrap a steely arm around me and pressed a lingering kiss to my temple.

Then he was gone, reaching a hand to the small of his back as he walked with seeming casualness toward the SUV, whose rear passenger door was now ajar.

I hadn’t left it like that.

My heart tried to climb into my throat, but then I realized why Echo had reached for the small of his back.

He’d pulled out his gun, which meant he was fully ready to use it on anyone lurking in or around the car.

Despite my anger, the breath backed up in my lungs as I imagined someone in the shadowy depths of the SUV taking a shot at Echo as he approached.

But thankfully the night remained quiet as Echo stuck his head inside the open door.

Almost a minute passed as he checked things out, and only when my head swam did I realize I was holding my breath.

A gasp puffed out of my locked-up throat when he turned and gestured for me to join him.

No longer caring if it looked suspicious, I took off at a run and didn’t stop until he curled a protective arm around me and ushered me into the passenger’s front seat.

“Hope you’re not too sleepy, because we’re not going back to the hotel.”

I was exhausted to the point of collapse, but there was no way I was about to admit it. “Why aren’t we going back to the hotel?”

“I had a parking pass for the underground parking on the dash. It’s gone now, and it had the name of our hotel on the back.

I’m going to turn this rental in for another car,” he added when everything inside me seemed to sag.

“I don’t know if any electronic trackers have been put on this SUV, so I don’t want to chance driving anywhere now that this vehicle’s been compromised.

Then we’re heading out to somewhere that’s not in the Denver metropolitan area.

From there we can regroup and figure out what our next move is. ”

“Was anything else taken?”

Darkness seemed to flicker in his eyes. “Your wallet was basically torn apart, Rory. The money’s still there, though, so that tells me—”

“They were looking for something specific.”

Like, for instance, a bank account number.