“Does Sal even know about the laptop?” she asked.
“I have no fucking clue.”
“So why bring me here? Why not kill me up in Trout Run or somewhere along the way?”
He rolled his eyes. “Too many loose ends. I arranged to meet Moresco tonight at his warehouse”—Gary flicked his gun toward the back of his car—“over there. I’ve got another bomb in the trunk. I shoot you, put your body near the warehouse, and then blow that. When they investigate, they’ll assume Moresco killed you and Aleksei planted the bomb. He was always so goddamn sure that Moresco was responsible for Phillipe’s murder. Everyone will assume it was revenge.”
Her bones turned so cold she felt like they would crack.
“What do you mean ‘assumed’? Didn’t Moresco’s men murder Phillipe?”
Gary didn’t answer, and her blood dropped to the same frigid temperature as her bones.
“Did you kill him? Did you kill Phillipe?”
Gary hesitated and then shrugged. “He found out. I have no fucking clue how he figured it out, but he did. Not all the details, but enough. He knew I was in with Moresco. He knew I was seeing Lily.” He snorted. “He was so fucking naïve. He actually thought I would turn myself in.”
Fire mixed with the ice that had taken over her body. “You killed one of your own men, and you’re setting up another to go to prison. Everything was a lie. Sal never threatened my sister. My family was never in danger.”
“I needed to get you away from Aleksei.”
She’d made it easy for him. She’d let her need to prove that she could stand on her own go too far. After she was declared cancer-free, she’d thrown herself into the job Davis found for her so she could show him she didn’t need his financial support. Insisted her sister move out of their shared apartment so she could prove she could live alone. Declined invitations from friends because she didn’t want to be around people who remembered what she was like when she was sick. Looked wistfully at signs for hiking clubs but refused to join because she wanted to prove she could do it on her own.
Her living life to the fullest motto was a façade. She’d been so proud of herself for being self-sufficient and free, but she’d actually trapped herself in an invisible prison of her own making. She’d been so worried about not being a burden on anyone that she’d missed opportunities for new relationships and adventure. Her need to prove her independence had led her to refuse Aleksei’s help tonight.
Aleksei was right. She was way out of her league. She didn’t have the expertise or training to deal with a situation like this. Her stubborn insistence on doing this alone was going to get her killed.
Realization hit her like a frying pan to the head. She’d made a terrible mistake. She had nothing to prove. She hadn’t been a burden on her family. She had simply been loved.
In loving Aleksei, she’d wanted to do everything in her power to keep him safe but hadn’t respected his need to do the same for her. In maintaining her autonomy, she’d taken away his. Just like her desire to keep Aleksei away from this shitshow stemmed from love, his anger at her walking into it may have been love, too.
Maybe he loved her. Maybe he didn’t, but she was certain that she loved him. Hopefully, she didn’t die before she got the chance to tell him.
Either way, she wasn’t going down without a fight.
She faked a coughing fit, slipping her arms through the straps of the backpack and pushing the unlock button on the door. Then she used the only weapon she had.
She pulled off her long blonde wig, threw it over Kemper’s face, opened the door, and ran.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aleksei’s hands shook as he flipped through Phillipe’s old notebook. He’d gone back to it because he had no place else to turn. He didn’t know where Kemper was taking Rosemary, and he had no one to ask. Kemper wasn’t answering his phone, and he’d let the other friendships he had within the FBI fade after Phillipe’s passing.
Now he had no one close enough to be willing to put their job on the line and share the details of a covert op. Especially not when he might still be on the suspect list.
And Virus was no fucking help. He was hanging out in his goddamn rocking chair, cleaning his fucking gun like all was right with the world.
Aleksei’s frustration popped like a pressure cooker bomb. “Why the hell did you let her go?”
Virus arched an eyebrow. “Are you really asking me that question?”
Aleksei’s fingers pressed so hard into the notebook that the page started to rip. “Yes! Don’t you see Rose is putting herself right in the line of fire? Why didn’t you stop her? I thought you liked her.”
Virus put the gun down on the tray table with a hardthunk, then began slowly massaging his left knee. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke.
“Let me see. She has evidence some mafia dickhead wants. If said dickhead doesn’t get it, he’s going to hurt Rose or her family. Kemper has a stick up his ass, but at least he offered her a solution other than keeping her head in the sand and hoping it all works the fuck out. He kept it real with her, gave her a choice, and respected her decision. He’s putting his job on the line for her, and he’s going to have an entire unit ready to bust in if things go south. If you were so goddamned worried, you should have kept your temper—and your ego—in check and gone with her. At least then you could’ve busted in with them.”
Shit.There wasn’t one fucking thing he could say to that. Everything Virus said was something he already knew.