The Beautiful Thief (Stolen Hearts #2)(37)

She knew he wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger. If Adam was right that his apartment address had been leaked on purpose, that meant he was expecting a fight. No. She needed to get this one in one bullet.

Adam didn’t think she’d be able to do it, but now, faced with the chance to put down the bastard who killed her mother once and for all, she didn’t have any second thoughts. There was no morality biting at her or an angel on her shoulder pleading with her to change her mind. All she thought was that this was justice. This was a monster, and she needed to stop him from hurting anyone else. To stop him from hurting her again.

She took a deep breath and steeled herself.

“You ready?” whispered Adam.

She nodded, not trusting her voice to work right.

“Then take the shot.”

The permission/order from Adam was all she needed. She took aim and her finger started to tighten—

The door to the room Forbes was in opened and a young girl was pushed inside, landing hard on her hands and knees. Forbes jumped off the couch to look down at the girl.

The suddenness was enough to knock her out of her killing haze and her finger moved off the trigger.

“Melody,” warned Adam.

But before she could even think about bringing the gun back to ready, the girl who had been forced into the room looked up at Forbes. The girl was small.... Her delicate features were a stark contrast to the angry Forbes glaring down at her. “You shouldn’t have come here, Willa.”

Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath and there was genuine fear in her eyes as she looked up. Two other guys walked in to flank the tiny girl. Maybe woman. It was so hard to make out an age. The backup proved that Forbes was expecting something to go down. He wouldn’t have had so much backup for one woman like this.

“Please, Matt. I know you hate him too. Help me and—”

“No,” he said dispassionately. “I don’t give a damn about your daddy, but if I sided with you, I’d burn too many bridges.” He looked up at one of the burly guys who had come in with the girl, Willa. “Take care of her.”

Willa started to scream, but she was immediately grabbed by one of the guys. “No! They’ll come looking for me!”

Forbes shrugged, not seeming to care. “Let them. They won’t find you.”

They started to drag the poor thing away and Adam squeezed her shoulder. “Wait until they leave and take your shot.”

Melody knew what he really meant. Wait until they took the girl away to kill her and then take the shot. Wait until backup was gone. Wait until she was dead.

The girl kept fighting and suddenly Melody was hit with a flash of recognition. She’d seen this girl before. She’d been at Jadon Belli’s office. This was the girl who had seen her when she’d stolen the laptop. She could’ve ratted her out in a second, but instead had kept quiet.

Damn it. As the decision was made for her, Melody brought the gun up and finally took her shot, except not at Forbes.

She shot at the men holding the girl. Her aim, predictably, was off, but the loud shot was enough to spook the guys enough to release the girl, who immediately took off running.

Adam cursed in her ear as he took the gun from her hand and fired off three quick shots. Both of the henchmen went down, but Forbes dove behind the couch. The blonde who had been sitting on Forbes’s lap before he dove for cover let out a series of loud screams.

“Come on.” Adam pushed Melody toward the door. He kept the gun aimed at the window, covering her as she pulled the door open.

As soon as she was out, she saw a bouncer approach. Even though her nerves came out again, she kept her cool and said, “Please help—they’re killing each other!”

Once the bouncer was close enough, she put every inch of muscle she had into ramming her shoulder into him, slamming him against the wall.

It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it was enough to distract him as Adam came out of the room. The bouncer went to punch Melody, but Adam caught the hand and slammed the butt of the gun into his head and then slammed him into the wall once more. The guy slid slowly to the floor. As Melody stared at the scene, slack-jawed, Adam grabbed her arm and urged her on. “Keep going!”

She jumped over the now unconscious bouncer and they ran together out of the mouth of the hallway and into the club. It was jarring to see that the music was still blaring and people were still dancing. All those shots and no one seemed to know....

“Keep your head down,” he ordered as he slowed down their running. “They’ll look for people rushing out and jittery.”

Even though they’d slowed down, they were still going quickly toward the far door. Melody knew that if they waited too long, there would be guys on every exit. Right now the club was probably trying to weigh the cost benefit of spooking all the club members by sending out the army of security or pretending nothing happened. But judging from how quickly Adam moved for the exit, he was betting that Forbes would get his way soon enough.

“We’re going for the left corner.” Adam glanced over to Melody. “See it?”

She nodded. There was a guy in front of it, but she had to assume Adam knew that. The bodies pushed them together and she stayed close to Adam so they wouldn’t get separated. She tried to keep her eyes ahead of them, but she couldn’t help scanning the room. There was a flurry of activity from where they’d come from. Men in suits, looking out over the dance floor.