“What about you, Heather? Would you be willing to help us get in another way that won’t require us to go in guns a’blazing?” Seth asks, his mind obviously working faster than mine, because I was just going to crash through the front door with my fucking SUV.
“I…” Her eyes are suddenly anxious. “I um…”
“We will protect you at all times. I’m thinking you walk in just like you would any other night you work, say you were running late for some reason, but now you’re ready to work. I don’t know—anything to get you through to the back. You said there’s a door near the dressing room, right? We’ll meet you back there, and all you gotta do is open it. We’ll take care of the rest,” Seth tells her, and I glance up from my messages with our other guys to see her nod reluctantly.
“I… I can do that.” She takes a deep breath. “I can do that,” she says with more conviction, and she stands.
I slide my cell in my pocket and step around the desk, taking hold of her biceps before she can go anywhere. “You will never know how grateful I am for your courage tonight. After this night is over, I want you to quit that place, and I will personally find you a job either in my office or at Club Alias. We don’t pay nearly the amount A Secret does, but at least you’ll know you’re safe and aren’t working for someone who could turn on you and take your life.”
Her eyes go wide, her chin wobbling for a moment. “Thank you, Dr. Walker.” She blinks back her tears. “Let’s go get your girl,” she murmurs, and Seth closes the cabinet containing the printer, separating the papers and handing me a set.
I flip the page to find his picture…
And the world stops spinning.
My heart plummets to my stomach and catches fire in the lava-like acid there as equal parts rage and terror fill me.
Yes, Heather was right when she said Randy is short for his last name. It’s short for Randolph.
The papers start to shake in my hand the longer I look at the picture, because although he’s much older than the last time I saw him, I’d recognize those soulless eyes anywhere.
They’re the eyes of Elias Randolph, the boy who raped my sweet Shelly twenty-four years ago.
Chapter 22
Doc
“We should take my car,” Heather says as Seth locks the glass front door of Imperium Security. “Astrid drove, so they’ll think it’s weird if your car comes through the gate. They won’t look twice at mine.”
“Good thinking,” I tell her, and as we’re walking around the building to the parking garage, we hear tires squeal, echoing down the street. Within seconds, an SUV comes to a skidding stop next to us before we can go down the stairs to where Heather parked.
Corbin jumps out of the passenger side, and I get the barest glimpse of Brian before the door is shut and he takes off around the front of the building.
“What’s happening?” Corbin asks, his voice low and deep as we head down the stairs. Seconds later, Brian is coming through the garage gate and taking the nearest parking spot.
He spots us making our way to Heather’s car and meets up with us as she’s clicking the remote to unlock the doors of a white Lexus.
“Guess we’re gonna cuddle, boys,” Seth says, pulling his backpack off, hopping in the back seat, and sliding to the middle. Brian and Corbin take the seats beside him as I fold into the front passenger side, and Heather takes the wheel. Without even waiting for a signal or for one of us to speak, she backs out of the space and whips around to the gate to exit the parking garage.
“Fuck a job at Club Alias, Doc. She needs to be our new getaway driver,” Seth says through a cackle, and I don’t tell him off for his inappropriate timing for jokes, since I know for a fact that it’s his defense mechanism whenever he’s scared to death. It’s not just me he’s worried for, or even himself, because he adores Astrid. I know he’s thinking of his wife, Twyla, and how she would react if something were to happen to her only sister. After what she’d been through to keep Astrid safe, she would be beyond devasted for something to hurt her now, when she’s finally getting her