32. Brie

CHAPTER 32

Brie

"Come on home with us, now, Mrs. Colombo," Frank calls over. "Let's not make this any more difficult than it has to be."

Nik turns her gun toward them. "Not a chance in hell."

Things are going to get out of control fast. I step to the side quickly, putting myself between Nik's gun and the Colombos.

"Get out of the way," she says urgently, but drops the gun as soon as I turn and put my hand over her wrist. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going with them," I tell her.

"Brie, come on! You don't really think I put a tracker signal out to?—"

"Nik," I say with a tiny smile, "I'm not an idiot. But for some reason, they really want me to think that you've betrayed me. For now, I'm going to play along."

"If you go with them, they'll kill you," she hisses.

"And if I don't, they'll kill all of us."

"They can try and fail," Lyssa says in a low voice. "You've got backup. If you want it."

"You heard her," Nik says. "We can take these fuckers—you just need to trust me."

"No," I say softly. " You need to trust me . You've put yourself in harm's way for me countless times, Nik. But this time, I need to step up. I will not run away from this any longer."

"But—"

"I'll ask you again, Nik. Are you willing to obey me?"

She remembers. I can see it in her face, she remembers standing there with Eva Novak at my husband's funeral, remembers me grinning at her when I asked her that question the first time.

This time her response is much faster. Much firmer.

"Yes," she says simply, and throws her gun to the side, capitulating utterly.

"You need to take care of Holden," I tell her quickly, quietly. "And Holden, you need to?—"

"Work on the footage," he whispers, nodding hard. It was the only stop we made on the way out of the house—we went to the security room to grab the flash drive and the laptop. "I will, Brie. And as soon as I have the proof of your innocence, I'll…" He breaks off, rubbing a hand across his mouth as he looks over to the Colombos. "Don't let them kill you before then, okay?" he asks, in a shaky attempt at a joke.

I smile. "You know me. I can wrap an old man around my finger with ease. But just in case, Nik, I?—"

"Don't you dare say goodbye," she warns me. "Just…promise you'll come back to me."

It's what I said to her myself only a few hours ago. I want to kiss her so badly. But that would feel too much like a goodbye. So I just put my hand on hers and say, fiercely, what she said to me. "I'll come back to you. Always."

And then I walk over to Frank, Larry, and Vince with as much dignity as I can. Larry takes great delight in wrapping a vice-like hand around my bicep and shoving me into the car, where he gets in beside me.

"You be careful there," Frank snaps, getting in the front driver's seat and glaring at Larry in the rearview mirror. "We agreed we'd do this nice and easy."

"Aw, this is Larry being nice and easy," Vince says, getting into the front passenger seat. "Ain't that right, Larry?"

Larry laughs. "That's right."

"Well, it seems like you two have laid aside your differences," I say. "I'm glad I could help bring you closer."

"You won't be so glad when we get where we're going," Larry says ominously. And then he stares closer at me. "You look different than usual."

"I'm not wearing any makeup, that's all."

He snorts. "So this is the real you, huh?"

I twist in my seat to watch in the back window as Nik and Holden and the rest of them fade away into the darkness, and I hope like hell that Nik can do what I asked, and trust me.

Trust me and wait for me.

"That's right, Larry," I say, turning back to stare straight at him without a smile. "This is the real me."

He pulls away in the seat a little as though uncomfortable with my scrutiny of him, and looks pointedly out the window. But I know he's nervous. I can tell by the way he's drumming his fingers on his knee.

And I swear to God, when we get where we're going?

I'll make sure the whole damn Family sees the real me, too.

Nik and Brie return in

Guarding Her Gangster Queen .

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