Desperate Girls

29

“BRYNN? BRYNN?” Erik cursed and swiped at his phone. He swerved around a slow-moving car, prompting a blare of horns behind him.

“Where is Ross?” he demanded the instant Skyler answered the phone.

“Ross? He’s at home. Why?”

“Home at his apartment? Or Pine Rock?”

“They haven’t left yet,” she said. “Keith’s picking him up at three and driving him back.”

“Shit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Get to the apartment now. Ross is there with Brynn, and I think he might hurt her.” Erik pulled an illegal left turn and stepped on the gas.

“Ross might hurt her?”

“Call Jeremy, too. I’ll call 911.”

“What the hell’s going on, Erik?”

“I’ll explain later. Just get there!”

Ross stuffed her cell phone into his pocket. “How’s your boy, Brynn?”

She glanced around, but it was just the two of them in the foyer. The woman from the elevator was alone in the fitness room now, jogging on a treadmill with a pair of earbuds stuffed in her ears.

“I mean, come on, Brynn. Fucking your bodyguard? What a cliché.” He shook his head. “Some people might even say that’s unethical.”

Brynn eyed the gun again and took a step back, but Ross reached over and plucked the file from under her arm. “Too smart for your own good.” He folded the file in half and tucked it in the back of his pants, tugging the sweatshirt over it. “You should have let it go.”

“Let it go? An unsolved rape and murder, and I should have let it go so you could frame someone?”

“It’s not like Corby’s innocent.” Ross gave her a sharp look. “He got what he deserved. Guy’s a sociopath.”

“And you’re not?”

“Actually, no. I didn’t plan any of this. It just happened. And then what was I supposed to do? I was three years out of law school. I can’t have rape allegations floating around me. I could get disbarred.”

Fury welled inside her as she looked at the man she’d spent so many hours of her life with.

“You’re a coward. You’re a piece of shit and a coward.”

“Save the lecture. Let’s go.” He poked her ankle with his foot. “Come on. Out the door.”

Brynn pushed through the door to the rooftop terrace and was hit by a hot gust of pollution-tinged air. She stepped into the blinding sunlight, and Ross followed her.

“Where—”

“Walk. And keep your mouth shut.”

Brynn glanced at the sparkling blue pool. It was empty. There was nobody out here.

“Go,” Ross ordered, corralling her behind the concrete structure that housed the building’s industrial-size air conditioner. No one in the fitness room could see her from here, and she felt a spurt of panic. She had to stall for time.

She stopped and turned to look at him. The gun was out of his pocket now, a big black pistol pointed right at her chest.

“Everything’s about you, isn’t it?”

“Shut up, Brynn.”

“You think you’re so clever, but you’re digging your own grave here. You know that, right?”

“Keep walking.”

She glanced at the wall ahead of her, and an icy wave of fear crashed over her.

“Been a rough day, huh, Brynn? You’re probably thinking of hurting yourself.”

She turned around, and the feral look in his eye made her throat close. He wanted her to step off this roof and disappear.

The sun blazed down on them. Brynn’s back was sweating, and her mouth tasted like glue.

She had to stall him.

“Right. Sure.” She choked out a laugh. “I just got my client off. You think anyone’s going to believe I’m suicidal?”

He stopped and stared at her. “I think you’re right. Better to make it look like an accident.”

Her chest tightened as she thought of Erik. Where was he? And even if he got over here, how would he find her up here? The traffic sounds fifteen stories below seemed impossibly far away.

Brynn swayed backward, suddenly dizzy. She felt the too-still stillness of the air. The pool beside her was as flat as a mirror.

Ross stepped closer. “Sorry, Brynn.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Nope. Just smarter than you.”

She glanced at the concrete wall, and her pulse started pounding so hard she could feel it in her ears.

She turned to Ross. “I’m not going to jump off a building for you. You’re going to have to shoot me.”

“Oh, I will.” He eased closer. “But just know that if you don’t cooperate, you’ll die anyway. And while the cops are figuring out what happened, I’ll be on my way to your sister’s house.”

Her stomach plummeted, like she was sinking in an elevator, down, down, down.

“You don’t want those pretty nieces of yours to grow up without a mommy, do you?”

A flash of movement caught Brynn’s eye. She tried to keep her gaze on Ross.

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“You don’t know me as well as you think, Brynn.”

She caught the sight of Skyler’s dark head ducking behind the building. How did she get here? She had to be with Erik. Maybe they’d found her by using the surveillance cameras.

“Hop up there.” Ross jerked his pistol toward the wall. “Go on.”

“Drop the weapon, Ross!”

He turned toward the sound of Skyler’s voice, but she was hidden.

“I’ve got a gun on you! Drop it now!”

Ross darted an angry look at Brynn.

Behind him, a shadow shifted. Brynn’s heart skittered as she saw Erik easing around the side of the maintenance building. He had his pistol raised and ready.

Ross looked desperate. His gaze hopped between Brynn and the far side of the pool, where Skyler was hiding.

“Three seconds, Ross,” she called. “Either drop it or you’re dead!”

Ross turned to Brynn. The desperation was gone, replaced by a look of utter calm.

“Three . . .”

Ross didn’t move.

“Two . . .”

Erik leaped out from behind the wall, and Ross’s arm jerked up.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

The barrage of bullets came from all directions, and Ross fell to the ground.

Brynn dropped to her knees. Erik sprinted toward her.

“Are you hit?” He clutched her in his arms, searching her face. “Are you hit?”

“I’m okay.” She threw her arms around him. “What happened?” Her words were muffled against his shoulder. “Is Skyler okay?” She pushed away from him to look.

Skyler knelt beside Ross, checking his neck for a pulse, and Brynn had a flashback of her kneeling beside him on the sidewalk right after he’d been stabbed by Corby.

Skyler looked at Erik.

“Is he—”

“He’s dead.”