Page 74 of Beautiful Killer

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Zeke

I pushed through the office door and strode down the hall to Hunter’s office. Van had called me in from a job with no explanation. I didn’t have time for this. And if it was about the other night, if he’d decided to conduct some messed-up intervention to force me to go to a shrink, we’d have a serious problem.

The door to his office was open and I walked on in without knocking . . . then pulled up short.

Everyone was there, crammed into one room. Neco, Ruby, Jude, Hunter, and walking toward me, expression blank but tense, was Van. I’d only been half joking about the intervention, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Ruby moved in, closing the door behind me, and Neco moved to block it. Every muscle in my body locked up tight. I looked at Van. “What the fuck is this?”

“Something happened this afternoon,” Ruby said.

And I knew—as soon as the words left her lips, I knew it was Sunny. “Tell me.”

A muscle in Van’s jaw jumped, and Ruby touched his arm, stopping him from speaking. “I’ve got this, Van,” she said then she looked back at me. “Someone tried to run Sunny down outside her shop this afternoon.”

A lightning bolt shot down my spine and the fucking earth shifted beneath my feet. “Is she okay, is she hurt?” I forced out past the fear trying to choke me.

Ruby shook her head. “Yeah, she’s okay. Seriously shaken up, though.”

I shoved Van out of my way and paced to the end of the office and back, trying to keep it together. When that failed, I walked to the other side of the room and plowed my fist into the wall, once, then twice. The plasterboard gave way, dust raining down. Van and Jude started toward me, but I pulled away, sucking in a ragged breath. “Where is she now?”

“She and Julia are in the holding room with Lulu,” Hunter said.

I wasn’t ready to see her, not with the way I was feeling. I’d scare her, I’d drag her home to my place and never let her out of my sight . . . never let go. “Did we get any of this on camera?” I asked Ruby.

“Yeah . . . but it’s through the shop window, so it’s not that clear . . .”

“Show me.” If there was anything, anything that could help me ID this fucker on the video, I wanted to see it.

Ruby crossed her arms. “Zeke, we’ve got this. I think that you should talk to her . . .”

“Show me the goddamn footage.”

A look past between Van and Ruby.

“What?” I barked.

“Do it,” Van said to Hunter.

Hunter tapped at a couple keys then turned his laptop to me.

The video started. I could see Sunny walking toward the shop. Yeah, it was grainy and she was still quite a way away, but you couldn’t miss her. Walking, talking sunshine.

I watched a car speed toward her, Sunny dive out of the way, fall hard to the pavement.

So fucking close. I shoved my fingers through my hair. Jesus, they’d almost hit her. No way was that an accident.

Julia rushed out, led her inside, and sat her down.

Sunny’s hand dropped to her belly. “I hit the ground hard. My baby. What if I hurt the baby when I fell?” she said, her voice ringing out from the laptop speakers.

Blood rushed through my ears.

What?My heart started pounding in my throat. Had I just heard what I thought I had? Had she actually said those words?

I carried on watching, as they called Sunny’s doctor, filling her in on what happened to Sunny, asking if there was any risk to the baby. Then the call to Ruby. I didn’t look away until the end, frozen.