Dead. Whitney is dead. That was what Maisey had feared all along.
“Soon, you’ll be gone, too, and you won’t be coming back.”
“I’m not scared of you,” she said.
“Yes, you are.”
Her fingers were shaking as she clutched the covers.
“You think you can hide behind the boyfriend, don’t you?” A taunt from that robotic voice. “But you can’t hide behind a dead man.”
Her fingers stopped shaking. Her whole body stiffened. “Don’t you dare touch him.”
Laughter.
“Don’t!” Maisey snapped.
But he hung up on her.
“Got him,” Odin said with satisfaction.
Her head whipped up. Maisey realized she’d been glaring at the phone. He threatened Odin.
Odin had turned on the lamp. His phone was pressed to his ear, and he was listening to someone. One of his contacts? The cops? She didn’t know.
“You’re kidding me,” he snarled. His eyes turned to slits. “Hell, yes, I know the location. I’ll be right there.” He dropped the phone.
“Where?” Maisey leapt from the bed. Hauled the sheet with her.
“Armageddon.”
She had no clue what he meant. Frantic, she shook her head.
“That’s the name of War’s bar. The bar that is located right beneath the Trouble for Hire office. The caller is either at the bar or at our PI office.”
She dropped the sheet and ran for her closet. “If he’s there, then so are we,” she called out as she hauled on clothing as fast as she could. “We should call the cops. Get them to close in.”
A phone was ringing again. Maisey shoved her head out of the closet just in time to see Odin take the call.
“What is it, Jinx?” His words were snapped out. “Shit. Now? Are you serious? Yes, we’re coming. Hell, yes, you need to keep Clay alive. Keep Ramsey off him.” He shoved down the phone and hauled on his own clothes. In seconds, he was racing for the door.
Maisey ran with him. She grabbed his arm. “Stop! Tell me what’s happening.” Though she had a scary feeling she knew.
“Ramsey just arrived. He’s storming for Clay’s door. If we don’t stop him—well, we both know what he’ll do.”
“But it’s not Clay.” Not if Clay was next door. Not if the call had come from the bar or the PI office. “It’s not him.” He couldn’t be in two places at once.
“We need to make sure Ramsey realizes that. Before he does something he can’t take back.”
Something like…killing Clay Prescott.
Chapter Eighteen
“Get the fuck out of my way!” Ramsey bellowed.
Jinx didn’t move. Odin knew he’d always been good at standing his ground. “Can’t let you go in,” Jinx said, his raised voice drifting to Odin as he barreled toward the house. “Because if you go in, you’ll do something stupid like try to kill the guy.”
“I won’t try.” Ramsey grabbed Jinx’s shirtfront. “I’ll succeed.”
The door behind Jinx flew open. Clay gaped at the sight before him as the porch light glared down on the scene. “What in the hell is going on?”
Odin rushed up the porch steps. “Get back inside, Clay. Lock the door. Stay there.”
“I don’t take orders from you!” Clay snarled as he shoved Jinx to the side and strode onto his porch. “I don’t—”
That was as far as he got. Because Ramsey was on him. He drove his fist into Clay’s jaw and sent the man stumbling back. One hit. A second. Then Clay was down and Ramsey was crouched over him, holding a knife to Clay’s throat.
“What did you do to her?” Ramsey asked, voice hollow. “What did you do to my Whitney?”
“Stop!” Maisey’s frantic shout as she flew up the porch steps. “He didn’t do anything! I was wrong. We’re all wrong! It wasn’t him!”
A drop of blood trailed down Clay’s throat.
“Let him go,” Odin ordered. “I don’t want to have to hurt you, Ramsey. Let him go!”
“Nothing else can hurt me. She’s gone.” Ramsey stared down at Clay. “I don’t think you’re innocent. I looked at your past. Saw the skeletons. I see the lies beneath your skin.”
“The man who took Whitney just called me!” Maisey yelled.
The knife jerked. Clay whimpered.
“He just called,” Maisey added, voice softer but still strained. “We have his location. Odin and I are going there now. We don’t have time to waste because he could be gone if we screw around. We need backup. You can come with us.”
Odin’s head whipped toward her. “Uh, Maisey…” That’s a terrible idea.
“It gets his knife away from Clay’s throat!” she threw at him, as if reading Odin’s mind. “We can’t do this. We can’t just waste time. He called me. We have him, we just have to go. Now.”
Ramsey angled his head so he was looking back at Maisey. His grip on the knife didn’t waver. “Are you telling me the truth?”
“Yes. He just called. Odin traced the call. We have him.”
Jinx glanced back and forth between Ramsey and Maisey. “I don’t think she’s lying, man. And do you really want to slit the throat of the wrong guy? That shit will be hard to live with.”
“I’ve lived with worse.” Ramsey’s flat response.
Odin got ready to attack him.
But Ramsey pulled the knife back. “Give me the location.”
“No.” Odin reached for Maisey’s hand. “You follow us. And when we get there, you stand back until we know what we’re dealing with.”
Ramsey’s mocking laughter told him that wasn’t gonna be the case.
“Jinx,” Odin said with a quick incline of his head. “Stay with him. Keep him in check.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jinx demanded. “I have to ride with the obvious psychopath? How is that fair?”
“What in the hell is happening?” Clay shouted.
Odin stopped. Lasered his stare on Clay. “Maisey just saved you from dying. Now we’re going to destroy the man who took Whitney Augustine. Lock your door. Stay inside.”
“I’m calling the cops!”
“Good idea.” Odin started moving. “Send them to Armageddon, would you?”
***
No cops were at Armageddon. Actually, no one seemed to be there. When Odin pulled his Jeep to a stop near the bar, the street was empty and the bar appeared shut down. Closing time had been at one a.m., and it looked as if everyone had already cleared out.
“We’re too late,” Maisey said as she leaned forward to stare at the building.
No, they weren’t. The bar was dark, but the second level in the building wasn’t.
“There’s a light on upstairs.” In the Trouble for Hire office. A light that shouldn’t have been on. No alarms had gone off. No alerts had been sent to him. Someone disabled our system. “I’m checking it out.”
She grabbed his arm. “You mean we are checking it out.”
Not like he was going to leave her behind with Ramsey due to arrive any moment.