Downfall(64)

I took the keys from her and gulped. “Thank you. I’m not sure why you’re helping me, but thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

She bopped Noble on the end of her nose and slid a pair of mirrored Tiffany sunglasses over her startlingly clear, gray eyes. I kind of wanted to be her when I grew up… whoever she was. She oozed confidence and control. She seemed like a badass and I could use a solid dose of that right about now.

“I was an exotic dancer when I was your age. I spent every single day trying to convince very wealthy men they were not entitled to every little thing they wanted.” She reached out and tugged on one of Noble’s curls. “I also have a baby girl I would die for, so it was a no-brainer when my husband told me Solo needed some help because he went and found himself a complicated little family.”

I looked her over and gave my head a shake. “No one is going to believe you’re me.”

She laughed. “People see what they want to see. Just like that fight you and Solo staged in front of your building. People like drama, and a public break-up is kind of like an accident on the street. No one can look away, no one looks past the carnage. Get in the Rover and get your baby safe. If everything goes according to plan, everyone can sleep easy tonight. Don’t worry too much about Solo tangling with Vincent. He couldn’t have better backup than my old man. The worst thing you can do in this town is piss off my husband. Revenge is sort of his stock and trade.” She pulled the brim of Solo’s hat down lower and moved around me so she could get inside my crappy car. She told me to make sure I put on the dark wig and sunglasses she left on the front seat, then flicked her fingers toward the Range Rover in a get-going gesture.

It was official. Everyone in my new life was way better at subterfuge and deceit than I was. I felt like I stepped into a spy movie and everyone had the script but me.

As I was buckling Noble, who got her own tiny hat and sunglasses, into the expensive, high-end car seat in the back of the Rover, she asked again, “Who was that pretty lady?”

I sighed and bent forward to kiss her on the end of her nose. “A friend… I think.”

In this upside-down world I called my own, friends were people I would’ve considered enemies, and my enemies were people who claimed to be my family. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to adjust to it, but I was going to try my best, because just as Solo informed me when we first met, sometimes the best people could be found in the worst places.





Solo



Staying seated in the front seat of my boss’s rare Plymouth GTX while the white SUV ran Orley’s little car off the road just outside of the city limits might have been the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. We parked in a clearing just off the side of the road, hidden by a roofing advertisement, but in clear view of the only part of the road wide enough for the collision to happen without both cars crashing. It was a strategic spot with a clear view of all the crazy events unfolding, yet allowing us our anonymity.

Logically, I knew the redhead behind the wheel wasn’t her, and I knew Noble wasn’t in the car. However, none of that stopped me from automatically reaching for the door handle when the car violently skidded off the road. A large hand with a bumblebee tattooed on it clamped down on my shoulder and held me in place. My boss was one of the few men who had the physical strength to keep me still when every instinct I had was screaming at me to bolt.

“Stop it. We have to wait until Channing shows up. Doesn’t do any good to go after the hired muscle.” He was right. I knew the plan inside and out. I had helped come up with the damn thing. But that didn’t stop my heart from wanting to make rash decisions on my behalf. I’d had to fight tooth and nail to keep my shit together when Orley packed Noble up in the car and drove away. Sure, the fight was staged, but the fake break-up felt all too real and I was a little raw about it all.

“We sure Channing is gonna show?” That was the one outlier in the plan we couldn’t one-hundred percent pin down. If Channing didn’t show, then all of this was going to be for naught and there was a possibility Orley really would disappear on me.

“Yep. He’ll show. As soon as his goons realize they have the wrong girl and there’s no baby in the car, they’ll call him for instructions. She’ll say she’ll tell them where Noble is, but only if Channing shows up and is willing to pay. He’ll come. He thinks every problem can be solved with money, and he won’t be surprised that someone from the city is trying to leverage this situation for fast cash.” It was shockingly easy to use Vincent’s own prejudice toward the poor against him.

“He won’t come alone.” I sighed. There was no way he was going to roll into an unknown situation without an armed guard.

The Boss waved away my concern with the same hand he’d used to keep my ass in the seat as the leggy redhead climbed out of the car when the goons approached. From this distance, she did bear a striking resemblance to Orley. Both were tall and willowy. She was even dressed almost identically to how Orley had been dressed when she left me standing on the sidewalk. Only, this chick wasn’t wearing Converse. She had on some kind of spiked high heels with studs all over them and blood red soles. And my hat didn’t look nearly as cute on her as it did on my girl.

The woman halted in front of one of the goons, not even flinching when he pointed a gun at her. Her head tilted to the side, and a moment later, she pulled the long red wig off and threw it on the ground along with my hat. Her actual hair was a rich sable color, cut in a weird, asymmetrical style that only someone with her sharp, elegant features could pull off. She looked far more expensive than Orley ever had.