my blood boil in a way I hadn’t known was possible.
Eddie had no right—no right—to put Holden in danger. Holden, who’d only ever tried to take care of me. Holden who’d been so good, so sweet, so strong. Holden, who was probably more concerned for my safety right now than for his own.
But I couldn’t do anything to stop Eddie from where I was currently standing, so I put on a worried face and crossed the library, coming to a stop just out of my uncle’s reach. I didn’t have to work all that hard to look scared, considering the fact that I, you know, was. But I wasn’t losing Holden. No way.
“I don’t get it,” I said, playing for time. “Why are you doing all of this?”
I didn’t actually care about Eddie’s reasons, but I needed to say something to draw this out, to make Daisy start to wonder where we were. I just prayed she was smart enough not to barge in here like I had done. That, and I began to hope she had a gun somewhere on the premises.
Eddie looked at me like I was stupid. “For the money, of course. Why else?”
“I thought you had money,” I said, confused. “Didn’t you end up with all the money Dad should have gotten, once Grandpa cut him out of the family?”
Eddie scowled. “Hardly. Your grandfather was a bastard when he was alive, and even more of one dead. By the time he died, there was almost nothing left. A man’s gotta live, Ariel. I’ve got debts, and they’re not going to pay themselves.”
“So you kidnapped your own flesh and blood?” Holden snapped, speaking for the first time since I’d entered the library. “You consented to letting him get beat up, abused, God knows what, by your cronies, for money?”
“So the kid got a black eye or two,” Eddie said, somehow managing to shrug while keeping the gun in his hand completely steady, pointed at Holden. “He survived. Obviously.”
“No thanks to you,” Holden spat.
Eddie rolled his eyes. “Save the dramatic threats and denouncements for your Emmy reel, lover boy.” Holden’s face darkened as Eddie looked back at me. “Come on, kid. Time to go.”
He stepped forward and grabbed at my hand, but I danced back. White-hot anger flashed through my chest. ‘Kid’ was Holden’s word for me, and compared to the way Eddie said it now, disdainful and annoyed, I could hear, in retrospect, the affection in the way Holden always said it.
How dare Eddie call me that?
“As if I’d go anywhere with you,” I sneered.
“I’m pretty sure you don’t have a choice,” Eddie replied drily. “Unless you’d like me to shoot your boyfriend.”
“Don’t listen to him, Ari,” Holden said. “Just run. Get out of here. Go.”
“Again, I’d like to point out that I’m holding a gun a foot from your boyfriend’s head,” Eddie said.
“And you’re going to shoot me anyway,” Holden snapped, turning his gaze back to me. “But you’re worth more to him alive than dead. He’s not going to shoot you, even if you run.”
“How are we even having this argument?” Eddie said, his voice rising. “Me, gun. You, no gun. Unless you both want to end up dead, you’re going to do what I say.”
I frowned. I didn’t like the casual way Holden was treating the idea of getting shot. He might not have a problem with it. Hell, in his personal cosmology of guilt, he might even consider it a fair bargain. But I sure as shit took issue with it.
“Listen, if you want me to—”
“No, you listen, you little shit,” Eddie broke in, his voice losing all its urbane polish. “I did not spend a month planning your kidnapping, and another month trying to find you after you slipped through my nets, for you and your boyfriend to compete over who’s the bigger romantic hero. I’m not fucking around here, and I’ll show you.”
It all happened in an instant. Eddie swung the gun low, no longer aiming at Holden’s chest, but at his thigh. He narrowed his eyes. His finger moved to the trigger.
“No!” I shouted and lunged as Holden called out, “Ari, don’t!”
Somewhere in there, the gun went off.
I didn’t see where the bullet went, didn’t see anything. All I knew was that one second, Eddie was preparing to shoot Holden in the leg, and the next, I was crashing in between them, pushing Holden out of the way as I fell to the floor.