Chapter 4 The Easy Way Or…

Stone

The woman turned so fast the barrel of her pistol found my chest before the last word left my mouth.

For one second, neither of us moved.

She was smaller than I expected. Tiny had saved her in his phone as Stormie Fox, and Nixx had found enough photographs to tell me what she looked like, but none showed the woman standing before me now. Her dark hair was pulled beneath a cap, her face bare, her eyes wide with the kind of fear that made people dangerous.

Then she grabbed the nearest thing within reach and threw it at my head.

I ducked as a ceramic bowl shattered against the wall behind me.

“Easy,” I said, lifting one hand while keeping the other where she could see it. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

She did not believe me.

The pistol dipped only long enough for her to pivot toward the hallway. She ran for the back of the apartment, fast enough that I nearly admired the move before remembering I could not let her disappear before I got answers.

I caught her near the bedroom door.

She twisted the second my hand closed around her arm and drove an elbow toward my ribs. I blocked it, but she followed with a heel aimed at my knee, then a punch that glanced off my jaw when I shifted too late.

“Whoa. Stop.”

She tried to wrench free.

I caught both wrists and turned her away from me before she could bring the gun back around. She kicked backward, catching my shin hard enough to make me swear.

“Would you stop fighting for two damn seconds?”

“Let go of me.”

“Put the gun down.”

“Get out of my apartment.”

“Your door is hanging open and the place has been torn apart. This stopped being your apartment the second whoever did this broke through your door.”

She went still, though every muscle in her body remained tight beneath my grip.

Her gaze dropped to my cut.

The black leather had shifted during the struggle, exposing the Black Daggers patch on the front of my cut.

“Black Daggers,” she breathed.

I loosened my hold, but I did not release her completely. “You done trying to break my nose?”

“That depends. Who are you?”

“Stone.”

Her eyes snapped to mine.

For the first time since I entered, the fear in her face changed shape. It did not disappear. It sharpened into calculation.

Then she said, “It wasn’t me.”

I frowned. “What wasn’t you?”

“I didn’t kill Tiny.”

The words landed harder than I expected. Three days had done nothing to soften the image of Tiny slumped beside the couch, blood soaking into the rug, his eyes staring at nothing.

“I didn’t figure you did.”

Her chin lifted. “Why not?”

“Because the bullets came through the window.”

That stopped her.

I released one wrist and carefully took the pistol from her other hand. She let me, but only because she was watching every movement I made.

“So what do you want?” she asked.

“Answers.”

“I don’t have any.”

“You were the last person Tiny spoke to.”

“How do you know that?”

“His phone.”

Her expression closed immediately. “You went through it?”

“I found him.”

Something flickered across her face. Grief, maybe. Guilt. Whatever it was vanished before I could name it.

“And judging by the fact that you immediately assumed I thought you killed him, you were there.”

“You called the police?”

“Eventually.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Eventually?”

I ignored that. “You were with him.”

It was not a question, and she knew it.

She stepped away from me and looked toward the wreckage of the living room. “If you already know that, then you know enough.”

“Not even close.”

She folded her arms, but the movement did not hide the tremor running through her hands. “Then ask.”

I glanced toward the open door. Anyone walking down the hall could hear us. Anyone who had searched the place could come back.

“Not here.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You can’t stay.”

“I know that.”

“Good. Then we agree on something.”

“No, we don’t.” She pointed toward the door. “You can leave. I’ll handle the rest.”

I looked around the apartment. Couch cut open. Mattress slashed. Drawers dumped. Laptop missing.

“How’s that been working out for you?”

Her mouth tightened.

I should have eased off. Tiny had always said I treated every problem like it would surrender if I stared at it long enough. But Tiny was dead, and the woman in front of me was either the only witness or part of the reason he had been killed. Until I knew which, she was not leaving my sight.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about that.”

Her laugh held no humor. “No. I absolutely need to worry about that.”

“You have bigger problems.”

“This is the bigger problem. Whoever tore apart this place found me. You found me. That means something I built failed, and I need to know what.”

That caught my attention.

Most people would have asked whether I could protect them. She wanted to know where her defenses had broken.

“Built?” I repeated.

She realized too late that she had said too much.

“I meant my privacy.”

“Sure you did.”

Her gaze hardened. “How?”

“Nixx.”

“That tells me nothing.”

“It’s all you’re getting until we’re somewhere secure.”

Her eyes moved toward the bedroom, calculating distance again. She had already tried to run once. I could see her deciding whether she could make it past me again.

“Don’t,” I warned.

“I wasn’t doing anything.”

“You were measuring the hallway.”

Surprise flashed across her face before she buried it.

“You don’t know me.”

“No, but I know people who run.”

“And what do you know about people who chase them?”

“Enough to catch you.”

The silence between us tightened.

She looked past me at the destroyed apartment, and for a moment the fight drained from her shoulders. She understood what I did. Whoever had come through that door had not been searching for jewelry or cash. They had wanted something specific, and they had expected to find it here.

I ejected the clip from her pistol, cleared the chamber, and held the empty gun out to her.

“You’ll get the ammunition back when we’re somewhere secure.”

She took the gun and slipped it into her purse. “That still doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere with you.”

“It does tonight.”

“You don’t get to decide that.”

“Until I get answers, yeah, I do.”

Her eyes flashed. “You planning to kidnap me?”

“I’m planning to keep you alive long enough to tell me why Tiny was meeting you.”

“That sounds a lot like kidnapping.”

“Call it protective transportation.”

“That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Then we can argue about the name later.”

She stared at me as if she could set me on fire by force of will alone.

I stepped aside and gestured toward the hall.

“Here are your choices. We do this the easy way and you come willingly, or…”