The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games #3)(74)

“Put the gun down!” Oren repeated. “I guarantee you that I can get a shot off before you can, and I don’t miss.”

Eve took a step forward, utterly, beautifully unafraid. “Are you really going to let your bodyguard shoot me, Avery?”

This was a different Eve. Gone were the layers of self-protection, the vulnerability, the raw emotion—all of it.

“You helped Blake abduct Toby, didn’t you?” I said, certainty washing over me like a wave of heat.

“I wouldn’t have had to,” Eve replied, her tone smooth and hard, “if Toby had opened up. If he’d just agreed to bring me here. But he wouldn’t. ”

“This is the last time that I’m going to tell you to put the gun down!”

Oren boomed.

“I’m still Toby’s daughter,” Eve said, adopting a familiar, wide-eyed expression, her gun unwavering. “And honestly, Avery, how do you think Gray will feel if Oren shoots me? What do you think will happen if that beautiful, broken boy walks in here to find me bleeding out on the floor?”

At her mention of Grayson, I instinctively looked for him, but he wasn’t there. My body shaking with pent-up rage, I turned to Oren. “Put the gun down,” I told him.

My head of security stepped directly in front of me. “She puts hers down first.”

A haughty expression on her face, Eve lowered her weapon. Oren was on her in an instant, taking her to the ground, pinning her down.

Eve looked up at me from the chapel floor and smiled. “You want Toby back, and I want whatever you found in that tomb.”

She’d called it a tomb. She’d said earlier that there were supposed to be remains in there. I wondered how she’d come to that conclusion, and then I remembered where I’d left her—and with whom. “Mallory,” I said.

“She admitted that Liam didn’t leave. I believe her exact words were There was so much blood. ” Eve’s gaze went to the altar. “So where’s the body?”

“Is that really all you care about?” I asked her. From the very beginning, she’d told me that there was only one thing that mattered to her. I was starting to think that wasn’t a lie—it was just that her single-minded purpose had nothing to do with Toby.

It had never been about Toby.

“Caring is a recipe for getting hurt, and I haven’t let anyone hurt me in a very long time.” Eve smiled again, like she was the one who had the upper hand, not the one pinned to the ground. “In all fairness, I did warn you, Avery. I told you that if I were you, I wouldn’t trust me, either. I told you that I am a person who will do anything— anything—to get what I want. I told you that invisible is the one thing that I will never be.”

“And Toby,” I said, staring at her, sick understanding coming over me, “wanted you to hide.”

“Blake wants me by his side,” Eve said, zeal in her voice. “I just have to prove myself first.”

“You don’t have one of the seals yet, do you?” I asked. I thought about Nan saying that Vincent Blake didn’t give anyone—not even family—a free ride.

“I’m going to get one,” Eve told me, her voice burning with the fury of purpose. “Give me that USB, and maybe you can get what you want, too.”

She paused, then hit a nail right through my heart. “Toby. ”

I hated even hearing her say his name. “How could you do this?” I said, thinking of the picture Blake had sent, the bruises on his face—and then of the pictures of Toby and Eve on Eve’s camera roll. “He trusted you.”

“It’s easy to make people trust you,” Eve commented softly, “if you let them see you bleed.” I thought about the bruises she’d shown up here sporting and wondered if she’d told someone to hit her. “You can spend your whole life trying not to hurt,” Eve continued, her voice high and clear, “but making people hurt for you? That’s real power.”

I thought of Toby telling me that he had two daughters.

“Give me the USB,” Eve said again, her eyes still blazing, “and you won’t ever have to see me again, Avery. I’ll earn my seal, and you can have this place and those boys all to yourself. Win-win.”

She was delusional. Oren had her pinned. She’d come at me with a gun.

She was in no position to negotiate. “I’m not giving you anything,” I said.

A flash of movement. I whipped my head toward the chapel door.

Grayson stood there, backlit, his eyes locked on Oren, who was still restraining Eve.

“Let her go,” Grayson ordered.

“She’s a threat.” Oren clipped the words. “She pulled a gun on Avery.

The only place I am letting her go is far, far away from all of you.”

“Grayson.” I felt sick. “This isn’t what it looks like—”

“Help me,” Eve begged him. “Get the USB that Avery has. Don’t let them take this from me, too.”

Grayson stared at her a moment longer, then walked slowly toward me.

He took the USB from my hand. I just stood there. Feeling like my insides had been hollowed out, I watched as he turned back to Eve. “I can’t let you have this,” Grayson said softly.

“Grayson—” Eve and I said his name in unison.