Shifting his weight, Ethan glanced behind him at the girls, four faces, all of them shadowed by fear.
Just as he was about to make his way out of the room, Tito came running down the hall, panic all across his features. “We gotta go!”
“What’s wrong?” Chuck asked with a frown.
“Five unmarked cars—get the fuck out!”
That was the last thing Tito said before turning around and booking back out of the place himself.
Chuck cursed and went off in the other direction, then turned around uncertainly toward the exit. He must have been more afraid of Lane than the cops, because he went the other way to warn them.
Okay, the shit was hitting the fan. Turning around, in a tone that brooked absolutely no argument, Ethan shot the stubborn girl a hard look. “Get over here now!”
She tensed, but she didn’t get up.
“Now!”
She jumped up, her gaze darting toward the door, but she finally listened and got on the cot behind him. While she did, he turned to his other charge and told her to get on the same cot, and that one moved without question.
“What’s going on?” Gray Eyes asked.
“The cops are busting us. Stay behind me,” he said, pulling his own gun out, checking it to make sure he was ready in case he needed to use it.
“If the cops are here, you’re already busted,” she said desperately. “Let us go!”
“I’m not holding you prisoner, I’m keeping you safe. If it ends in gunfire, guess who isn’t armed?” he shot back.
“Says the bad guy holding the gun,” she fired right back. “If that’s illegal, you’re going to get additional charges.”
He spared her a look of disbelief. “Are you really lecturing me on the law right now?”
She shrugged, stretching her neck toward the door. “Just saying.”
“Listen,” he said lowly. “I know you hate me, and you have every right to hate me, but for the love of God, if I tell you to stay or run or anything else, I need you to listen to me, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” she said sarcastically.
“I mean it,” he said. Looking back one more time, he said, “I have a wife and three kids at home, so I’d like to survive tonight and not get shot at trying to save your ass.”
Her eyes widened and she didn’t respond immediately, so he turned his attention back to the door, peering out into the hall one more time. No one was running down it, so that could be a good sign.
When he pulled back, he heard the girl mutter, “I guess even bad guys have families.”
“Yeah, well, I’d like to return you safely to yours, so just…listen to me for 10 minutes, okay?”
“Return me to my family?” she demanded, the disbelief evident in her tone. “Please, I’m not a fucking moron.”
Even though he knew it shouldn’t give him any satisfaction, he glanced back. “Lauren Kensington and Ashlynn Sanders?”
The girl’s face froze. “How do you know those names?”
Ethan sighed. “I’m a private investigator, this is what I do for a living. Now please… stop distracting me right now.”
Instead of complying, she demanded more answers. “You’re what? This is your fucking process, are you kidding me?”
“I had to blend in, if they knew I was lying to them, they wouldn’t have thought twice about killing me. I can’t explain this to you right now, I’m sorry.”
Still nothing in the hallway, and he had really expected running by now if they were going to try to escape out the back way. Lane didn’t strike him as the type to roll over that easily.