“Shut up!” His hand tightened on my arm and he started dragging me toward the curb, where his Ferrari was idling. It was blocking the flow of traffic down the one-way street. People were beginning to honk as the cars piled up behind it, crowding the busy wharf.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Florence cried. “You can’t just take Imogen! Are you crazy?”
“I’m leaving,” Adrian snapped. “And I’m taking Imogen with me. We have unfinished business.”
Normally, I might’ve formulated a retort. Seeing as there was a cold gun-barrel pressed tight to my temple, I chose to remain silent at this particular juncture.
Florence was less inclined toward silence. “You are one dumb fuck.”
Adrian froze solid with one foot on the curb, the other planted in a rapidly deepening puddle. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me! You are,” she hissed, annunciating every word so he couldn’t fail to understand she meant them sincerely. “One.Dumb.Fuck. Seriously. Don’t you realize where you are right now?”
Adrian said nothing. His grip on my arm tightened to the point of pain, and I couldn’t quite hide my grimace.
Where was Cade when I needed him?
Where were the badass boys in the office?
Gwen bobbed her thumb backward at the glass window, which was etched with the word GRAVEWATCH in super-sleek font. “This is the best private investigation firm in the state,” she said flatly, still clutching her fancy umbrella. “I would let her go, unless you want them on your ass.”
“I don’t fucking care!” Adrian snarled. He started moving again, yanking me backward toward the driver’s side of the Ferrari. I didn’t fight him. The gun barrel was still pressed hard to my temple.
Adrian released my arm, but only so he could grab the door handle and pull it open.
“Get in,” he ordered.
I didn’t move.
“Get. In.” The gun bit into my skin. “Now.”
I got in.
I had to scramble over the center console — no easy feat, the Ferrari interior was ultra-compact — to the passenger side. As soon as I was clear, Adrian slid into the driver’s seat. I only had a few seconds to glance out the window at Flo and Gwen before we rocketed away from the curb. But my heart lurched inside my chest when I saw the glass door to Gravewatch fly open as Graham, Welles, and Keir flew out of it, into the rain. They looked at our fleeing taillights for approximately three seconds, then started sprinting after us.
Oh boy.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Adrian chanted under his breath, eyes on the rearview mirror. He’d seen the legion of badasses, too.
“Adrian, this is a bad idea.”
“Shut up!” He screamed at me. “Just shut the fuck up!”
I shut up.
My heart gave another lurch as we swung abruptly off the one-way loop around Pickering Wharf, onto a main road. The second we did, I saw red and blue strobes light up the unmarked black SUV that pulled into traffic behind us.
Cade.
“FUCK!” Adrian shouted over the sudden drone of the sirens.
“I told you it was a bad idea.”
“And I told you to shut up!”
Suddenly, I didn’t feel like shutting up.
Suddenly, I was feeling pretty freaking pissed.