Deadly Desire (16 page)

Rachel pointed the gun at me, and I began to stand, my eyes zeroed in on her face. Her hands were shaking, and her face was white. She was clearly more shaken up about this than she wanted us to know. Slowly, she started backing toward the elevator.

“People are going to have heard those shots,” I said as I eased from the ground with my hands held over my head.

“We’ll be gone before they can do a damn thing about it.” She pushed the elevator button, and for a moment, her attention was away from me. My body tensed, and my mind flew through a million different scenarios, but before I could move, she’d faced us again.

Cynthia was quiet by my side, and I was scared to look her way. If Rachel saw me move even the slightest of an inch, I was afraid she’d fire another shot.

“Move your fucking feet over here,” Rachel snapped. “If you stand there frozen any longer, I swear on my mother’s grave that I will shoot both of you and leave you here to die.”

“You don’t want to kill us,” Cynthia whispered as she began to take small steps toward Rachel and the elevator doors she held open with her foot. “If you did, we’d already be dead.”

Rachel’s smile spread across her face as her gaze shifted toward my roommate. “I don’t want to kill Emma, but I will if I have to. She’s the only person besides my husband that Pierce seems to give a damn about. You, on the other hand…he probably doesn’t even know your name.”

Rachel shifted the barrel of the gun so that it pointed right at Cynthia’s chest. My blood roared in my ears, drowning out the hushed sounds in the hallway. I reached out, heart beating hard against my ribcage.

“Please don’t,” I managed to choke out. “She has nothing to do with this.”

“She’s
here
, isn’t she?” Rachel waved her gun. “She’s witnessed this entire thing.”

“Please,” Cynthia whispered around a sob.

Narrowing my eyes, I stared hard at Rachel Donovan. I couldn’t let her do this to us.

“Look,” I said, reaching out to take Cynthia’s hand. “We’re coming with you. We’ll do whatever you want. Okay?”

Rachel frowned but nodded her head. And in this moment, I realized that she really didn’t want to kill either one of us. Not if she could help it. She hadn’t wanted to kill the woman who was bleeding out on the floor either. And maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t wanted to kill Michael Astor. She was in over her head, which gave me an advantage, despite the fact she was the woman with the gun.

Cynthia and I moved slowly toward Rachel. We were only steps away from where she waited, holding open the elevator. Time seemed to move in slow motion while my mind latched onto every single detail about our surroundings. A glass vase on a decorative table. Another door leading to an emergency staircase. Next to it, a fire alarm.

Rachel hadn’t seem to notice any of this. I tightened my grip on Cynthia’s hand. She had no idea I was going to try something, and I just had to hope she’d follow my lead.

We stopped just in front of Rachel, who visibly relaxed now that we’d reached her side. My eyes were glued to the hand that she had wrapped around the gun, and I noticed that her fingers had loosened their grip. She thought she had us now.

She backed into the elevator and cocked her head. “Come on.”

I took in a deep breath, gripped Cynthia’s hand, and yanked hard. My feet pounded toward the emergency exit as I prayed for the elevator doors to slide shut. I ripped open the fire alarm and pulled down the red handle. Immediately, a piercing alarm shrieked through the entire building. Cynthia cried out, but I didn’t dare stop. I kept my hand tight around hers and pulled us toward the exit.

I threw open the door and headed down the stairs. Cynthia stumbled but kept running just behind me. Nothing in the world existed but the concrete steps. I didn’t dare cast a glance over my shoulder. Rachel could be there, right on our heels, and if I so much as turned around, it would slow us down too much to get away.

No shots rang out. No angry yells.

We just kept running.

When we reached the ground floor exit, I finally stopped long enough to cast a glance behind us at the winding staircase. Rachel was nowhere to be seen. The high-pitched alarm still blared loud in our ears, and I bent over to catch my breath, my head swimming from our fast escape.

“Did you see where she went?” I yelled into Cynthia’s ear. Her face was red and her hair was plastered to her sweaty forehead, but the flush in her cheeks made her look so alive.

We were both still very much alive.

Cynthia shook her head. “She started to come after us, but when you pulled the fire alarm, she disappeared.”

“Good.” I nodded, still gulping in deep breaths. “We’ll just wait here. Pierce will be back soon. He’ll make sure we’re okay.”

“Oh, Emma.” Cynthia threw her arms around me and buried her face in my hair. Her whole body shook as she squeezed me tight. “I’m so sorry. I totally screwed up.”

I wrapped my arms around her, tears streaming down my cheeks. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. We made it out of there alive.”

When I returned to the city with Chase, my building was in chaos. Police cars and fire trucks crowded the tree-lined street, and paramedics streamed in and out of the front doors. My heart lurched inside my chest, a shot of pure panic going through me, an emotion I hadn’t felt in a very long while.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded from the police officer who stood on the curb, writing down some notes onto a pad of paper. His name-tag said he was Officer Andrews, and he gave me only the faintest of glances as I glared at him.

“Sir, I’m sorry, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Officer Andrews said with a gentle smile that I wanted to punch right off his face. Didn’t he know who the hell I was?

“I’m Pierce Donovan. I own an apartment in this building.” I ground my teeth together. “If something has happened here, I demand to know what it is.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Pierce Donovan. The penthouse on the top floor, correct?”

“Yes.” My eyes narrowed even more as my heart banged against my ribs. The look on the man’s face did nothing to calm my nerves.
Emma
. Something had happened to Emma. I knew I never should have left her here without my protection. If anything had happened to her, it would be all my fault.

“Sir, maybe we should go somewhere to talk a little more privately.” He looked pointedly at Chase, who was hovering behind me with his face half-hidden behind a newspaper. Chase had been in trouble with the law more times than I could count. He’d done some things even I didn’t approve of, but I still did everything I could to get him out of his scrapes, even if that meant taking the fall myself.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Just tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Yes, sir,” the police officer said, though he still dropped his voice almost too low for me to hear. “There’s been an incident. A woman who said she’s been staying with you in your apartment—”

“Emma Berry,” I said quickly, heart picking up speed. If the cop was saying that Emma had spoken to him, then she must be okay. Rachel hadn’t gotten to her. Not yet.

“Yes, Emma Berry.” The cop glanced down at his notepad. “And another young woman. Cynthia Goldblatt.”

I nodded. “That’s right. What’s happened to them? Are they okay?”

“They’re fine.” The cop grimaced. “It looks as though someone confronted these two girls in your apartment and tried to force them to leave by gunpoint. Another resident in the building caught them in the middle of this, and unfortunately…she was found dead. Miss Berry pulled the fire alarm and escaped down the stairs with Miss Goldblatt, but they are pretty shaken up about the whole situation. Miss Berry has been asking for you.”

My mind darkened. “I had two of my assistants in my apartment as well. Where the hell are they?”

The cop shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m sorry, Mr. Donovan. They weren’t on the scene when we arrived, and Miss Berry and Miss Goldblatt have said nothing about them.”

“Where is Miss Berry?” I asked.

“She’s being looked at by the paramedics to make sure she isn’t in shock.” The cop cleared his throat. “I have to ask you a few questions, Mr. Donovan. A murder has been committed here. We’ll need to know if you have any details that can help us.”

The whole world slowed to a stop. Chase and I weren’t brothers by blood or in any true legal sense. Back when we were teens, we wanted nothing more than to adopt the same last name, to show solidarity to each other. We were the only two people in the world against everyone else. But now that seemed like it had been a terrible mistake. It was too easy to link us together, and if this got out on the news, then the foster father Chase had been hiding from all his life would be able to find him once and for all.

There was only one thing I could do.

“I don’t know anything about it,” I said in a flat voice.

When the cops finally left, Pierce and I stared at each other across the suddenly too-quiet living room. We’d been questioned, repeatedly, about what had happened and what events had led to Rachel Donovan trying to kidnap us from Pierce’s apartment.

I’d lied. Pierce had found me before the cops had asked me more questions, and he’d begged me not to share the connection. I knew all of this had something to do with his secrets, something he desperately wanted kept hidden, and I’d found myself going along with it, despite my intense need to see justice served.

“What did you tell them?” he asked, looking at me and Cynthia. A man stood beside him that I recognized as Chase Donovan from the Facebook photos I’d found. A ruggedly handsome guy wearing cowboy boots and looking very much out of place in this swanky apartment. He looked nothing like Pierce. He was rough where Pierce was smooth. Warm where Pierce was cold. I had so many questions, but I knew I shouldn’t ask.

“I told them that a woman showed up with a gun and tried to kidnap us.” I met his gaze. “I said I didn’t know why she wanted to do it.”

Pierce visibly relaxed. “Thank you. Trust me, it’s better this way.”

“But why?” I asked, clenching my fists tight. “I need to know what’s going on, Pierce.”

“Who is that?” Cynthia asked, pointing at Chase.

“This is…my brother for all intents and purposes.” Pierce clapped Chase on the back and gave him a weak smile. “He’s married to Rachel. I thought her rage would probably turn to him soon, so he’ll be staying here with us for awhile, too.”

“Your brother? What do you mean for all intents and purposes?” I asked with a frown. What did that even mean?

Pierce glanced at Chase, who gave him a nod. “What I’m about to tell you isn’t anything I share with anyone else. I want you to know that, Emma. But I think you deserve an explanation after everything I’ve put you through. Chase here is my foster brother. We grew up in the same household for most of our lives. It was an unpleasant place. When we got older, we decided we’d stay brothers no matter what, even if we aren’t blood.”

My eyes widened. “Oh.”

“And Rachel is my wife,” Chase said, a hard edge to his words, though there was a spark of something much lighter in his eyes. “She definitely lives life by her own rules.”

“That’s why I hired you to take those photos,” Pierce said. “I wanted my little brother to see what she was up to, though I didn’t expect it would lead to this…”

“Okay, things are starting to make more sense, but that still doesn’t explain everything,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Why does this stop us from telling the cops what’s going on?”

“Emma,” Pierce said quickly, stepping in front of Chase. The movement didn’t escape my notice. It was almost instinctual the way he did it, stepping in front of him as if to protect him from my words and my questions, and things were beginning to make even more sense to me. Pierce had said a few times that there was someone he’d protect over everyone else. And this was the person. Chase, his foster brother.

“Can we go speak privately, please?” he asked.

Chase sighed. “He doesn’t want me to hear him explain how we came to be in this situation. He thinks it’ll set me off. Don’t you, big brother?”

“Won’t it?” Pierce whirled on him, and I couldn’t see whatever passed between them, other than the resigned expression that settled over Chase’s face.