“He doesn’t care, do you, Granger?” Beckett taunted the man with the gun to her head. “Then again, I know the real reason we’re all here.”
Real reason?
“Wha…what do you mean?” Evie asked.
“You wanna tell her, or should I?” Beckett asked. The question must’ve been rhetorical, because with his next breath, the man she loved said, “Never mind. I’ll give it a go. But feel free to stop me if I mess up.”
He brought his gorgeous brown eyes her way, and for just a moment, Evie almost forgot she was facing imminent death.
“I don’t know what you’re?—”
“It’s pretty easy to follow, really,” her hero continued. “Basically, you pulled an impressive Madoff impression, right? Although, from what we were told, your Ponzi scheme would’ve put his to shame. You know, if you’d actually gotten away with it.”
Evie frowned. “Ponzi scheme?”
“That’s right, darlin’. Turns out, Granger’s spent the last several years bilking his clients out of hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“You don’t understand?—”
“You’re right!” Beckett shouted. “I don’t understand how someone as smart as you could be stupid enough to think you’d get away with stealing other people’s life savings. Not to mention the additional crimes of colluding with known terrorists for the purpose of kidnapping young children and an American woman. A woman you practically helped raise, for Christ’s sake! But none of that matters to you, does it?Shedoesn’t matter to you. That’s evident by the fact that you made a deal with the fucking devil himself and tried selling her to a goddamnsex trafficker!”
Evie had never seen anyone as angry as Beckett was in that moment.
His face was beet red, and there was a bulging vein running vertically down his entire forehead. He was on the edge of no return, and though she wanted this to be over more than her next breath, she also didn’t want to be the cause of another death on Beckett’s shoulders.
“Please, Landy,” she whispered softly, trying to reach the man she’d once thought of as blood. “Please, listen to what he’s telling you. You can still get out of this. There has to be a way. There has to besomethingwe can?—”
“Shut up!” Landy turned into someone she didn’t recognize. “Jesus Christ, Evie. Don’t you see? No matter how hard you try to put your Pollyanna spin on it, the only way you’re getting out of this alive is if your boyfriend and his buddies drop their fucking guns!”
Tears flooded her vision, but Evie blinked them away as best she could. The time to act had come. She could feel it deep inside her bones. If she didn’t do something now, it was going to be too late.
If she did make it out of this alive, she’d look back at this moment and mourn the man she’d once looked up to. A man she’d loved as much as if he’d actually been related.
There was a time she would have trusted Landy Granger with her life. But now, he was trying to take that same life. Threatening to put a bullet in her head if Beckett and his teammates didn’t let him go free.
Well, she knew one surefire way to guarantee that didn’t happen. And despite the risk to her own safety, Evie knew exactly what she needed to do.
Landy’s movements became more and more erratic. He yelled at Beckett and his friends to put down their guns. The men of Tac-Ops shouted back for him to do the same.
The confrontation was the perfect distraction.
With her left hand still holding onto the meaty arm wrapped tightly around her neck, she slowly lowered her right hand down until it hung loosely in front of her thigh. As the men continued yelling back and forth at one another, she used just her fingers to inch the sequined material further up her leg.
Evie kept a close eye on the men standing in front of her, which is how she’d noticed the way Digger’s gaze caught the slight movement of her hand. Apollo, too, though neither man reacted.
Instead, they brought their focus back up to Landy. Acting as if nothing about the situation had changed, even though Beckett saw the knife secured at her trembling thigh.
His gaze immediately became fixed with hers. Evie thought for sure he’d give her some sort of negative signal. A way to let her know he wasnoton board with what she had planned.
However, in true Beckett form, the incredible man took her by complete surprise when he gave an almost indiscernible dip of his chin.
He knows what I’m going to do. He knows…and he’s ready.
The sound of her racing heartbeat filled her ears. With her time dwindling faster by the minute, she pushed past her fear, envisioned what she was about to do, and put the plan in motion.
Three more men entered the room, and Evie recognized Falcon immediately. She had no idea who the other two were, but she didn’t care. They were clearly working with Tac-Ops, which meant the two strangers were on her side.
“Who the fuck are you?” Landy shouted as he took two jerky steps back, away from Beckett and the others. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. You can all go straight to hell, as far as I’m concerned.”