Torn - Cynthia Eden Page 0,106

there are plenty of other women here. Go find one of them.” He turned away.

Wade didn’t want to find anyone else. Victoria was it for him. She’d called him. She wouldn’t have ditched him for some other guy. That just didn’t fit.

He turned away from the bar, his gaze sweeping over the crowd once again. But there was no sign of a familiar figure with dark red hair. No sign of her at all.

Eyes narrowing, Wade headed back toward the entrance. He walked outside, his gaze sweeping over the crowd that waited to pass inside. Definitely no Victoria in that line.

Had she gone back to her place? Because he’d been late?

He moved right, heading in the direction of her building. But then . . . his gaze slid toward the alleyway. And he found himself turning. He’d been behind Wild Jokers once before, when he discovered Victoria, locked in an embrace with Flynn. No way would he find that scene now.

He trusted Victoria completely.

His steps quickened as he neared the back of the building. He turned and—­

Victoria was there. Held tightly by Flynn.

Only there was nothing loverlike about the embrace. The bastard had a knife to her throat and he was trying to drag her away from Wild Jokers.

But when Flynn saw him, the guy froze.

Victoria didn’t speak at all. That knife was digging into her throat. Wade was afraid that—­was blood sliding down her neck? Faint light spilled from the club onto the alley.

“Well, well,” Flynn called out. “I guess Prince Charming did decide to join the party.”

Fucking bastard.

“So very late, though.” Flynn put his mouth close to Victoria’s ear. “If he’d been here earlier, if he’d just cared more, none of this would’ve happened.”

“You cut my tires,” Wade snarled as he lunged forward.

“Stop!” Flynn’s order cut through the night. “Another step and I will slice her from ear to ear. She will be dead long before help can arrive. Another woman, choking to death on her own blood while you hold her so tightly in your arms.”

Fuck me. That bastard had not just said . . . “You were there,” Wade realized, stunned. The bastard must have been on that beach. How the hell was that possible?

Troy North had been the killer. North had taken Wade’s phone.

Hadn’t he?

Or . . .

Or had North been set up?

If he had, then Wade knew he’d shot an innocent man. A man who’d been pushed too far.

Pushed by . . . by Matthew Walker? By—­

“I said stop!” Flynn bellowed.

Wade stopped inching forward. He also stopped trying to figure out what the hell had gone down in Savannah. Right then all he could afford to think about was Victoria. Saving her. Stopping that SOB with the knife.

Wade didn’t take another step forward, but his gaze darted around the alley.

Had he just seen a shadow move behind Flynn? Was someone else out there?

Flynn laughed. “Your phone was real damn helpful, by the way. Lots of good info. Especially about your security system. Thanks to it, I was able to get in your home and tap your phone, no problem. Though I did need to haul ass back. Lucky for me, though, you decided to make that pit stop at the hospital and stay in Savannah longer.”

Sonofabitch. That’s how you knew to slash my tires. You heard Victoria ask me to meet her here.

And if Flynn had taken his phone—­he is the bastard who killed Melissa Hastings. Him, not Troy North.

What in the hell?

How did he know about the hospital visit, though? If he’d already gone . . .

“So this is how the night is going down.” Flynn’s voice roughened. “You’re in my fucking way. You’re going to turn around and walk out of this alley. I’m going to take Victoria and we’ll leave.”

Wade didn’t move. “Not happening.” Because he would never see Victoria again. He knew it. If she left the alley . . . if Flynn took her away . . .

She’s dead.

“I wasn’t giving you options,” Flynn snarled. “I was telling you what would go down. Either get the fuck out of here or I will slit her throat right now!” He yanked her head back and let the blade cut into her skin.

Wade heard Victoria’s cry of pain, but she quickly clamped her lips together.

Again, a shadow seemed to move just behind Flynn.

Keep him talking. Keep him focused. “Why the hell are you doing this?”

“Because I can.” Flynn laughed. “Because I’ve seen how very easy it is for others to get