Chapter 9

He shook his head, enjoying himself. “You women and your marrying-into-money dreams. That is not a good place to end up. I only say it because you seem all right — in this country, the world rich people live in, we’re never getting in there. Not in this lifetime.”

He was fine. Lily let it go and nodded along. “You’re right. Come on. Let’s go back.”

She stood up.

Kevin fell in beside her. “So what were you doing out here?”

Lily brought the wrench out from behind her back. “I thought you might run into the pervert.”

Kevin’s face did something surprised, and then something touched. “You were actually worried about me.”

“We work together. And—”

She didn’t finish, because at the edge of her vision something black was coming at them very fast.

She turned her head. A black sedan, and it was already close.

Her body moved before her brain did. She got a fistful of Kevin and threw them both sideways.

“Holy shit!” Kevin’s mouth was open.

They’d made it a few steps. The car had come to rest less than a meter from where he’d been standing.

If she’d been half a second slower, if he’d been slightly less quick, there would have been nothing left of him worth identifying.

“Is this guy insane?! Who drives like that!” Kevin’s voice was still shaking as he pulled out his phone to call it in.

Lily hadn’t come down from it yet.

Everything in her said that had not been an accident. Nobody loses control of a car in a straight line, on an empty street, at that exact moment.

The car had taken too much damage to move. The engine was dead.

The driver slammed the wheel once, furious, and then his head came around and he fixed on the two of them with a look that had nothing accidental in it.

Lily’s chest seized and she grabbed Kevin’s arm. “Don’t call. We’re going. Now.”

Kevin had seen the look too. He didn’t argue.

Ethan’s forearms were on the second-floor balcony rail, watching two figures scatter into the distance.

He tapped the metal twice with a fingertip.

There was no annoyance on his face at the plan having failed. He looked energized. Amused, even.

He looked down and laughed quietly.

“Not just a pretty color. There’s some fight in it.”

Compared to the delicate pastries that came apart the moment you touched them, something with that much life in it would surely have a better texture.

He was looking forward to this more all the time.

Lily and Kevin didn’t stop until they hit the restaurant door.

Jenny was waiting outside and saw them arrive with no air left. “What? What happened?”

Kevin put his hands on his knees and got it out between breaths. “Nothing serious. Some lunatic — driving like he was high on something — nearly took us out. Then he gave us a look like he was going to get out and start swinging.”

Jenny’s eyes went to Lily.

Lily gave her a small nod.

Jenny pressed her lips together and turned to Kevin. “Listen to you. Go inside and drink something.”

“I’m dying.” Kevin straightened up and went in.

When he was gone, Jenny lowered her voice. “What actually happened?”

Lily let out a long breath. “It was him. The car came at us on purpose. And he was upstairs watching.”

Jenny had been holding on to a thread of maybe. It didn’t survive, and she wasn’t especially surprised — people like that did whatever they wanted.

“So what are you going to do? I can’t refuse his orders. One complaint call and Thomas knows. And you know Thomas. He cares about the business. He’s not going to stand next to you on this.”

She stopped, and got serious. “Same thing I said before. Get out of the country. Don’t wait until leaving isn’t an option anymore.”

Lily bit her lip. “I—”

The order chime went off inside the restaurant.

Jenny touched her arm. “Think about it properly. Nothing matters more than being alive.”

She went back in and pulled the ticket off the printer.

Her eyes went across it, and she stopped moving.

Lily had followed her in. She saw Jenny freeze over the ticket, and then she saw the look Jenny gave her, and she understood everything.

“Across the river,” Jenny said quietly.

Lily’s hand closed at her side. She was quiet for a few seconds.

“I’ll take it.”

Jenny didn’t say anything. She sighed and carried the ticket back to the kitchen.

The kitchen was fast. Ten minutes and it was up.

Lily picked up the bag and was turning to go when Jenny stopped her.

“Wait.”

Jenny came over with her hand pulled up inside her sleeve. She hooked a finger in Lily’s collar, pulled it open, and her hand went in and out.

Something cold and hard and metal settled against Lily’s skin, inside her bra. The shape of it, the weight of it — there was only one thing it could be.

A gun.

Jenny withdrew her hand and spoke against her ear, so quietly it was barely sound at all.

“Remember. Better prison than dying by someone else’s hand.”

Then, probably because she’d frightened her, Jenny managed something like a smile and added, “Hopefully you never need it.”

Lily’s heart was going hard enough to hurt. She nodded.

“Thank you.”

Jenny didn’t say anything else, just tipped her head toward the door. “Go.”

Lily left the restaurant and took the road across the river one more time.

A few minutes later she was standing in front of the iron gate.

This time she didn’t have to raise her hand. It slid open on its own.

Something in her dropped. Of course. The house was full of cameras.

He was somewhere, watching all of it.

She tightened her grip on the paper bag and walked in.

She had gone a few steps when the gate closed behind her, without a sound, and locked.