I shook my head. “Never. Perfectly obvious to me. I was the best in my class.”
Byrne laughed out loud. “Far from it. No, girl, it wasn’t that you were the best or even in the top ninety percent of your class.”
“Now you’re just being unnecessarily mean.”
He shook his head. “It was more that I had to keep my eye on you. I knew one day your curiosity would get the better of you, and then you’d lead me exactly where you have.”
I saw the safe I’d seen in the back of the antique shop sitting on my dining room table. “Are you under the assumption I have the combination to that thing?”
His fingers dug into the back of my neck, and he brought his face close enough to mine that I could smell whiskey on his breath. “I’ve grown weary of your feeble attempts at humor. You know goddamn well what was in that safe, and it wasn’t diamonds and emeralds. Now, tell me what you’ve done with it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He moved his hand to the front of my throat and slowly tightened his grip. “Willing to die? And for what? Ancient history that no one gives a shit about?” He released my neck and shoved me. “Stupid girl. So much like your father.” Byrne walked over, put his gun to Gene’s head, and cocked it. “Not so brave with someone else’s life. You have until the count of five to tell me where you hid it.”
I crossed my arms in front of me. “You can count to three and kill him, and it won’t change the fact I have no idea what you’re talking about. I never saw inside the safe, and I certainly never took anything from it.”
Byrne moved the gun from Gene’s head and pointed it at me. “If that is the case, you are worthless to me.”
From behind him, Gene began to thrash about in his chair, trying to scream through his gag. It sounded as though he was trying to say, “I know.”
“Untie him,” I demanded.
Byrne backhanded me, and I fell against the wall of muscle standing at my back. “You don’t make the rules.”
Gene continued to thrash about to the extent that I feared the chair would topple over.
“For feck’s sake,” muttered Byrne. “Untie the gag.” He motioned with his gun at me; the muscle shoved me at Gene.
“I know!” he screamed when I untied his gag. “I know where it is!”
“You better not be playing me, old man. If you are, I’ll make your last day on earth a living hell of pain.”
Gene frantically shook his head and looked at me.
“Your m-m-mother,” he stammered. “The b-b-box.”
“The box?”
Four things happened simultaneously. First, I realized which box Gene was talking about. Second, Byrne knew that I had. Third, when my eyes sought Smoke’s, I noticed he’d worked himself free and was waiting for the right time to strike. And finally, I saw that Byrne’s sloppiness in having his three goons on the inside rather than on the perimeter, meant Decker and the rest of our team had been able to get inside unnoticed.
While all eyes in the room remained focused on Gene and me, I saw Hughes creeping toward us in the hallway, along with Casper and Deck standing at the ready from two of the other rooms’ doorways. I had no doubt the others were standing ready to burst through the front door the second I gave the signal.
My eyes met Smoke’s one more time. He blinked thrice in rapid succession; I counted three seconds in my head and screamed, “Now!”
I dove, knocking Gene’s chair to the ground and covering his body with mine like Smoke had done to me before the ceiling crashed down on us.
I closed my eyes tight as bullets flew all around us, and prayed.
33
Smoke
Within seconds, Byrne was dead, and so were the three men with him. I walked over and put my hand on Siren’s back and knelt down beside her. “It’s over,” I said, easing her body from Gene’s.
Casper untied him, and I pulled Siren into my arms.
“What happened?” she asked.
“They’re all dead,” I answered, knowing full well that wasn’t what she meant.
“You got this?” Decker asked Hughes. When he gave a thumbs up, I escorted Siren out while Casper and Deck helped Gene.
“Hughes said there’s a safe house close.”
“There is,” said Siren. “I can get us there.”
While Byrne had been neutralized, there was still the question of the men he’d been working with. Until we knew exactly who they were, we weren’t in any position to let our guard down.
I had, and that was what had let Byrne get the upper hand.
“Let it go for now,” said Decker as I got in the back of the SUV behind Siren.
I knew I had to. If I didn’t focus on the here and now, we could wind up in a worse situation than the one I’d landed Gene and I in. That didn’t mean I could stop the mistakes I’d made from lingering in the back of my mind.
Siren sat between Gene and I and held his hand. Apart from her giving Casper directions to the safe house, we were all quiet on the drive. Each of us had our own experiences to process through before the hotwash that would eventually come.
“How’s your pain?” Siren whispered.
“Too much adrenaline to feel much of anything,” I muttered without looking at her. She squeezed my thigh with her hand and rested her head on my shoulder. Was she trying to give me comfort, knowing that I recognized my fuck up as much or more than anyone else in the vehicle? Even Gene knew that because of me, he had almost lost his life. I’d been distracted; my head wasn’t in the game; I didn’t protect my asset.
We approached the safe house, waited while the garage door opened, and then pulled inside. Like when we’d left Siren’s place, Decker and Casper helped Gene.
“Wait,” said Siren, stopping me
