32
Trust No One
EVE LET THE MOTORCYCLE have its head. She felt her tears drying into itchy, salty tracks on her cheeks. This was everything she’d dreaded. She blew through a red light without even looking for oncoming cars, desperate to outrun her pain.
She felt a wave of disgust. She’d reacted the way she’d trained herself to do—Find something and destroy it. Feel something else, so pain won’t be the only thing inside—but blowing up the strip mall had not been gratifying. It hadn’t even been worth the trouble. And now she should want to find him and kill him, which she could easily do. But she couldn’t. Even if he’d used her and thrown her away. She sped by an empty parking lot. She couldn’t end someone she loved, even if she hated him.
Through her anger, something in Eve’s mind twitched. An empty parking lot. Where was she even headed? An empty parking lot!
Eve whipped the motorcycle around in an intersection. She only registered the swerving cars to avoid them. Fucking Merkin.
It all clicked together like a stack of Legos. Beckett would never have told Merkin to clear the lot before he fired her. Beckett didn’t believe in crying wolf, especially about the cops. And he’d never send Merkin to fire her. He knew she’d be likely to kill the messenger. I’m so stupid. Damn it.
She’d let her worst fears cloud her vision. She hadn’t seen Merkin’s deception. Eve raced back to the strip mall, something guiding her to the fury she’d just left. She pulled in just in time to see Beckett blown backward by an explosion inside the blazing building.
Son of a bitch. The motorcycle clattered to the ground on its side, and Eve sprinted to him as he pulled himself up and screamed her name. He looked at the wall of fire tensed like a runner on the starting blocks.
He thinks I’m in there.
The heat stung Eve’s skin and sirens wailed behind her as she reached Beckett and wrapped her hand around his throat, the most immediate means she could think of to stop him. He stiffened, then relaxed as she molded herself to his back and began pulling him away from the flames.
Irregular pops and explosions punctuated the ongoing blaze as the weapons inside the building discharged in the heat. But Beckett never flinched. She felt his throat vibrate as he sighed her name with relief. He tilted his head back until it rested on hers.
“Don’t ever die in my head again. Please, never again,” he told her, his voice raspy.
Eve continued to guide Beckett until they stepped backward over the firefighters’ hose and the air began to cool. When she released him, Beckett spun to face her. He didn’t smile until he met her eyes.
She pulled on his hand. “Come on, baby. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Beckett dropped her hand and grabbed her face, his big thumbs tracing her cheekbones.
“IS EVERYONE OUT? DO YOU KNOW WHO DID THIS?” he shouted at a volume too loud even for the fire-ravaged parking lot.
Eve realized then he couldn’t hear. She mouthed silently, “Everyone is out.” Then she pointed to the discarded rocket-propelled grenade launcher in the parking lot, back at her own chest, and finally at the mall.
“YOU BLEW THIS SHIT UP?” Beckett looked puzzled, then smiled.
She nodded.
“EVE, I LOVE YOU. I LOVE THE HELL OUT OF YOU. YOU’RE ONE CRAZY BITCH!” Beckett would not be pulled from the spot.
With the mall fire blazing high in the sky behind him and the emergency vehicles’ lights dancing across his face, he swept Eve into an I-just-got-off-the-boat-after-the-war-style dip kiss. Finally he set her on her feet and smacked her ass. He strolled over to the firemen and police officers.
“GENTLEMEN! THE BUILDING IS EMPTY. PLEASE STAY CLEAR AND LET IT BURN TO THE GROUND. THERE ARE DANGEROUS WEAPONS INSIDE.” He nodded when they gave him thumbs up.
Beckett waved away a paramedic who gestured toward a waiting ambulance, and Eve picked up her scratched motorcycle. Beckett threw himself into the seat of his Hummer, and they tore out of the parking lot.
They were a few miles away when Eve pulled ahead, then signaled him to pull over. Beckett parked alongside her on the shoulder. He stomped over to the motorcycle and stood in front of her with a huge, winning smile. She started speaking immediately. “Merkin’s a traitor. We have to find him—get everyone together. I don’t know what he’s up to. Can you hear me?”
“When your lips move, it makes me want to take my pants off right here.” Beckett went in for a kiss. He spoke loudly, but he wasn’t screaming anymore, which Eve took as a good sign.
Eve accepted the kiss and pulled his phone out of his pocket. She used the texting feature to type and then handed it to him:
Merkin told me u fired me. He cleared the lot. I blew up the mall
because I believed him. He’s up 2 something.
After a moment, Eve pulled his phone out of his hands as he began to shake and growl. She made him look at her.
“I’m sorry I believed him. I shouldn’t have believed him. I don’t believe him now.” Eve spoke slowly and watched as Beckett waved away her apology. He rubbed his hands over his face, turning away.
He didn’t hear his phone beep to announce an incoming text, so Eve clicked open and stared at the picture sent from Cole’s phone for several seconds before what she was seeing hit her completely. The message wasn’t from Cole.
When Beckett turned to her again, Eve’s horror was illuminated in the twilight by the phone’s screen. He pulled it out of her hands and looked for himself.
Silence.
Then the night echoed with Beckett’s anguished wail. “NOT MY BROTHERS!”
Eve grabbed his angry face, using all her strength to force him close to her. Beckett’s eyes had rolled back in his head. He was losing his mind.
“Look at me! Can you hear me?” Now Eve was the one yelling too loudly.
Beckett breathed quickly and through his teeth.
“We’re here together. We’ll get him back. I promise you,” Eve said. “Merkin has no idea I’m with you. I’ve practiced killing for years, and tonight I’m going to use everything I’ve learned to save Cole. Do you believe me?”
Beckett still sounded like an angry bull, but he nodded.
“I will not let you lose your family. I won’t let it happen to you.” Eve’s hands circled his big, tense neck.
He shook his head and let out a defeated breath. “I’m so sorry, Eve. I can’t even…Well, now I guess I can imagine what I did to you—just a little.”
Her words had hurt him, knocked him down. That’s not what she’d intended. She would have to lay it out.
“Beckett, I’ll save you from that fate because I love you. I love you.” She let her hands slip to his chest.
His heart. His beautiful heart, surrounded by thorns, guns, and pain. Beckett kissed her again, and together they began to plot like two evil bastards. Beckett had Eve send Mouse a text to catch him up and get his eyes on Blake; she signed it so he’d know why the spelling was so perfect coming from Beckett’s phone.