Rise (Rise & Fall Duet #1) - Grahame Claire Page 0,3

arrested. Eric was okay on his own for limited amounts of time, but I never left him.

Why was I inserting us into a situation we needed no part of?

“I must’ve dropped them on the street. Help me look.”

The agent didn’t move, but everyone else searched like it was an Easter egg hunt and the eggs were filled with gold.

Beau crouched down as if she were looking under the front end of the blocked SUV. I joined her.

“Give them to me,” she whispered.

“What?” Had she lost her mind?

“If I have the keys, I’ll be the one in trouble. Not you.” She held out her upturned palm.

I stared at it. Why hadn’t I already dropped the keys into her hand? I couldn’t take risks like this. Especially not for someone I didn’t believe in.

I’m not a good guy.

He’d admitted what I already knew. I hoped he hadn’t noticed the out-of-control pulse in my neck when he’d gotten close. His scent was expensive and all man. Just like he was.

I hated I’d even noticed.

“No.” The ring of keys burned in my pocket. This is the dumbest thing you have ever done.

Once I made my mind up about something, there was no going back.

“Damn it.” Beau uttered the curse under her breath. She was well aware of my stubborn streak.

“What are we doing?”

I jumped when Eric spoke from right beside me. “You snuck up on me.”

He grinned.

“Keep looking for the keys.” Beau winked at him.

“How long before you can get here?” Teague barked. I didn’t know him well, but that scary tone sounded more like his brother than him.

The car door slammed. Beau, Eric, and I straightened.

“Time’s up. You’re coming with me.” The agent motioned me over.

“If we don’t find the keys, none of us are going anywhere.” I propped a hip on his running vehicle.

His nostrils flared. “Get in the back of the car.”

“With him? No way.” Through the front windshield, a warped vision of Lincoln was visible. He had that pissed off expression that seemed to be permanently on his face.

Except when he’d laughed at Eric.

Or Eric had made him laugh.

I still hadn’t decided which was the case, but I knew one thing: I’d already been close to Lincoln Hollingsworth once today. I’d ride on the hood of this car before doing that again.

“In.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if more of us searched for the keys?” I asked oh so innocently. Provoking an officer of the law with a smart aleck attitude was just another thing on the list of stupid stuff I’d done today.

“Every minute you don’t hand over those keys is another day you get behind bars.” He stomped back to the driver’s side and slammed the door once he was behind the wheel again.

Could he do that?

“Give them to me,” Beau pleaded.

I put on a brave face and flipped my hair over my shoulder. “How much time do we need to buy, Teague?”

“Half an hour,” he grunted.

Thirty days in jail.

If the jerk face made good on his threat of a day for every minute I stalled.

We weren’t going to stop Lincoln from going to jail. We were just prolonging the inevitable and making the situation worse.

“We’re going to save him,” Eric said as if reading my mind.

No matter how many times we were kicked down, he remained optimistic. I wished I shared his attitude.

Somehow, his positivity made me believe in miracles. Because of him, we had a business that was growing and thriving in a way I never dreamed.

The word impossible wasn’t in his vocabulary.

“Eric . . .” I didn’t want to get his hopes up.

“Just believe me, sis.”

How could I not?

I won’t go to jail. I won’t go to jail.

I’d stopped making promises to myself a long time ago that I knew I couldn’t keep. Jail was a hard limit for me, so this was one I’d make sure I followed through on.

“Okay.” I stooped back down, undeterred by my dress touching the dirty sidewalk. The clothes were for show anyway. “They have to be somewhere around here,” I called loudly enough for the agent to hear.

“Did you check by the van?” Beau asked, also using an extra loud voice for emphasis.

“I’ll look.” Pepper jogged to the driver’s side.

Honk. Honnnnnkkkk.

Underneath the SUV, I made out the tires of another vehicle stuck behind me. Pepper waved them around. They blew the horn again as they passed.

A small crowd began to gather on the sidewalk. Huh. I thought most people in the city just kept on going past trouble.

Miss Adeline held