Page 34 of Twisted Trust

The limo pulls to a gentle stop and there’s a long moment of silence where Maeve and I simply stare at one another with the shard glittering in her fist, held aloft between us.

Her eyes are wide and wild and her hair seems to match with the way the untamed waves are balancing on her shoulders.

Her chest heaves much like it did with her earlier panic attack, but this time, there’s fire in her blood, and part of me understands it.

Maeve will do absolutely anything for her son.

It’s admirable.

The door beside me opens and Chip steps aside to let me out.

Maintaining eye contact with Maeve, I slide out of the car and step aside.

She follows a few seconds later and Chip immediately goes for his gun when she spots the glass shard she brandishes as a weapon.

I calm him with a brief flick of my wrist.

“Don’t ever come near me ever again, understand?” Maeve barks.

“You know I can’t do that,” I say softly, and disappointment swells in my chest.

I don’t want this to be over. I’d fight with her all night just to have a conversation with her.

I don’t care how many glass shards she’d hold to my throat.

“Leave me alone!” She stumbles backward and nearly trips on the curb.

Chip jerks forward as if to catch her but she aims the glass at him instead so he hesitates.

She maintains angry eye contact with me until she’s at the base of the metal stairs leading up to her apartment, then she turns and sprints up them as if the hounds of hell are snapping at her ankles.

“What the fuck did you do?” Chip breathes after a moment. “She was as quiet as a mouse when she got in the car.”

“We just talked,” I reply casually, leaning against the side of the limo. “Sort of.”

“Talked?” Chip finally takes his hand off his gun and sighs as he places both hands on his narrow hips. “What are you doing, Levi?”

“Huh?” Tearing my attention away from her building, I meet his curious gaze. “What am I doing?”

“If you’re going to kill her, then kill her. It’s cruel to toy with her.”

“Should I kill her kid too?”

Chip’s lips part and he grunts softly. “We don’t kill kids.”

“Exactly.”

“Years and years I’ve listened to you rant about how badly you want to kill her. By some weird stroke of luck, we find her, and you call an ambulance. I understand it because we have that kid as a witness. But this?” He gestures toward the building. “You say she’s a traitor. She’s the reason so many of our men died, right?”

Right.

I never should have let her live this long and yet doubt gnaws away at my heart. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” His brow darts up to his hairline. “Now there’s amaybe?”

Confiding in Chip risks breaking the seal of trust that Naz and I have built since I went to work for him for two years, but having him on my side can’t do much harm.

He’s suffered almost as much as I have and if he turns around to stab me in the back, then it’ll be obvious it’s him.