Page 68 of Pursued-

He tucks it away and guides me to the doorway.

“Nice whistling,” I say to Trick.

He winks at me. He could be shooting a Calvin Klein ad. His hair’s not even mussed.

Alberto is face down on the ground. There’s blood dripping from the back of his head and saturating the back of his shirt. Both shots hit him.

A car screeches to a stop and the door flies open. C emerges and jogs over.

“Rachel?”

“I’m okay. Not hurt.”

He catches my chin and turns my face to examine what I imagine is a puffy red mark from the slap.

“I’m okay,” I repeat.

C looks at the body on the ground with a hard expression.

I think about the past few days—and farther back—to Alberto’s spiteful brutality toward me and his tendency to hire mercenaries to kill C Crue members. What choice did he leave us? None. He brought this ending on himself.

C glances at me and gives my shoulders a squeeze. “Go get in the car. Zoe’s there.”

“I don’t need to?—”

“Go on,” C says firmly.

I glance at Sasha who gives me a small nod.

As I’m walking away, I hear C ask, “Who made the kill shot?”

Neither speaks.

“Who had the head?”

“Me,” Trick says.

“It was a tough shot from his angle,” Sasha says. “I went for the bigger target to drop him. Easy to finish the job.”

“That’s why I had to go for the head shot,” Trick says.

“Had to?” C asks.

“Yeah. There was a half-million-dollar bounty on this asshole.”

“From who?” C asks.

“‘Vil.”

There’s a moment of quiet, then Sasha says, “Asshole,” before both C and Trick start to laugh.

I don’t laugh, but I’m glad they are already walking away from the body and walking off what happened. Thank goodness Trick can always lighten a mood. I finish my trek to the car and climb in. Zoe drags me to her for a hug.

“Are you all right?” she demands, her dark curls spilling over her shoulders and me as she leans in.

“Yes, I am now,” I say, exhaling.

Chapter