Relinquish(70)

“Do what?” I reply vague.

“How did you kill him?”

I swallow, my heart sinking in the pit of my stomach as I think about it. The gun pulling back as it fired. The loud bang. The blood. Landon’s face.

“I shot him,” I mumble, closing my eyes. How did I miss the tattoo on Landon’s back? I close my eyes, and images of Landon and me together play behind my eyes. Us at the hotel, but the little bit of red lighting cascading into our room wasn’t enough to see with. When I was on his desk in his office, he still had his shirt on, and when we were in his room last night, it was too dark to see anything. The evidence was right in front of me, and I missed it every time.

“Daaaaamn,” Jayden remarks, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Done. Go out, make a left, walk six blocks till you get to a hotel that reads Hawns. He’ll take care of you,” Mick directs as he points toward the door. “Now. Get out now,” he insists, his voice serious.

“Thank you,” I reply, turning to leave.

“Rarity, you need to leave and never come back here. Do you understand?” Mick questions,, cocking his head to the side.

“Why?”

“You have been running the streets with Fancy, who killed a Blackwell. I don’t need to chance that someone saw you two together, and is tailing you,” Mick explains, his tone hard.

“I’m not leaving her by herself anyway” Jayden responds, walking out behind me.

“You don’t need to come with me,” I tell her, but only because I feel like that’s what a good friend would say. In truth, I’m terrified right now and pray she comes with me.

“Screw you. I’m coming.” Jayden reaches down and grabs my hand, giving it a squeeze.

“We’re in this together,” she mumbles.





TWENTY-ONE


LANDON


My chest aches, and my head throbs painfully. I open my heavy eyes, finding everything blurry. I blink a couple times, trying to clear them when I see Roman sitting in a chair across the room. His shirt’s untucked, and he’s in jeans. I look down, finding myself in my bed, a patch placed over my chest, just below my shoulder. Reminding me that Charlie shot me.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. It’s her. How could I have not put two and two together? No wonder I’ve been so drawn to her; I knew who she was. My body recognized her before my brain registered who she even was. The thought that she actually had the balls to shoot me runs amok between the pride I have for her and the f*cking anger radiating in my chest.

“About time you wake up.” Roman yawns. I open my eyes and try to sit up. My chest instantly smarts with the stretch of muscle, causing me to wince.

“How long have I been out?” I question, glancing toward the window. It looks like the sun is just coming up.

“A day.” Roman stretches and walks toward my bed. “How ya feeling?”

I glance up at him after finally getting in the position of sitting up.

“Like I’ve been shot,” I inform dryly.

“You deserved it.”

I whip my head up and glare at him.

“Why’d you do it?” He lifts a brow in questioning.

“Do what?” I mumble, looking my wound over.

“Kill that woman?”

“I’m not getting into this right now,” I groan, resting my head along the headboard in exhaustion.

“I know Father had an affair with a woman with the last name Evans. I know the Evans woman was why Dad made the rule about not sleeping with the escorts, too.” Roman walks back to where he was sitting and grabs a folder. The rule came from Charlie’s mother, to be exact. She was the whole reason behind it.

“What are you rambling about?” I ask, irritated.

“Be honest. Did you sleep with her? Did you sleep with Charlie Evans?” Roman stands by my bed, looking at me with an unreadable look.

“Does it matter?” I shrug, my chest blazing with a warmth of pain.

“It does.” Roman slaps the folder in my lap and grins. “I know for a fact she didn’t have any clients. Well, none you didn’t send on their way, anyway.”

I open the folder, finding the girls’ weekly health checks from the doctor as Roman continues.

“So, if you look at that, you will see why I ask if you’ve slept with Charlie.”

My eyes roam the paper, finding all the girls with a negative sign for everything. But one plus sign stands out amongst those negatives, catching my attention. I furrow my brows and follow it to the escort’s name, finding Charlie.

“The doctor said everyone checked out, but that one girl in particular had a rise in HCG.”

I follow the positive sign up, looking for what Charlie has when the word hits me like a ton of f*cking bricks.

“Pregnant,” I whisper.

“Pregnant,” Roman confirms. I drop the paper and close my eyes. Charlie told me I was the only one she slept with without protection. Shit. It couldn’t just be that I slept with an Evans, that I cared for an Evans. No, I got one pregnant.

“You got an Evans pregnant, Landon. Do you know what Father is going to do when he finds this?” Roman points at the paper and scoffs.

I swallow the lump in my throat. I know exactly what he’s going to have done.