Behind him, he heard a gasp, so he turned to see what was going on.
The fourth girl, the short haired one who hardly spoke, was standing, and she had a gun pointed at his face.
Ethan froze. He had no idea what was going on.
Then it hit him.
Three beds.
They were only selling Max three girls. The fourth girl was a plant, probably because Lane didn’t trust him.
Well, if he hadn’t already been having the worst week of his life, he was now.
The other girls were skittering around, but he couldn’t focus on their nervous shuffling. All he could focus on was the barrel of the gun that was pointed in his face. Not the first time he’d ever had a gun pointed at him, but definitely the first time at such close range. In such tight quarters, even if she’d never fired a gun in her life she wouldn’t miss, and he was positive she had fired a gun before.
“Lane was right,” she said simply, pulling back the hammer.
Ethan closed his eyes, in a split second thinking of the things he should have done differently, of the time he should’ve spent at home with his family—the fact that he would never see them again, never read his daughter another bed time story, tickle his giggling son or give his newborn a kiss on the forehead.
And then he heard “oomph” and several pitchy screams. He opened his eyes to see Gray Eyes standing there with the lamp in her hands, pulling back to swing again and hit the armed girl in the side of the head.
The armed girl pulled her arm up to block as she swung around, undoubtedly planning to shoot the girl who was hitting her, but Ethan sprang to life, grabbing her and getting his arm around her neck, making quick work of disarming her before anyone got shot.
The girl who had easily just saved his life skittered back, as if she hadn’t just boldly attacked an armed person with nothing but a lamp. His gaze jumped to the other two girls, making sure they were okay, and there were no more decoys in the fucking bunch.
Unbelievable.
“Thanks,” he muttered, unsure what the appropriate response was. Honestly, in her shoes, he might’ve just let the girl shoot him.
She looked a little surprised at her own actions, and she merely nodded.
Now what was he going to do with the fucking decoy? She had just heard him say who he really was—had he said his name? He didn’t think he said his name, but it’s not like he could change his face; if they knew to look, they could easily find him.
He never should have taken that fucking job. The money to retrieve the other girl wasn’t even that good, her mother had just been such a wreck and he wanted to help.
Then he noticed the girls were looking behind him, and Lorena gasped, pointing toward the door.
>
When he turned, he saw Chuck standing there, a look of confusion crossing his face. “What are you doing?”
If Chuck had time to get back there, that wasn’t good. Were the police not even inside yet?
He didn’t have a good excuse at the ready, so he plucked the first thing he could think of out of the sky. “I was trying to… she thought I was trying to make a move or something. I don’t know, man, the bitch just pulled a gun on me.”
It wasn’t a good excuse for so many reasons, but he couldn’t think of a single solid explanation to give him on a moment’s notice.
Chuck’s eyes deadened. His gun was suddenly up, and he said lowly, “That’s not even the one you like, Jack.”
The girl he was holding onto struggled, probably trying to tell the truth, but she couldn’t speak with Ethan’s grip on her throat.
In the next couple of seconds, Chuck pointed his gun right at Ethan’s face—the second time in the same minute, and then dumb ol’ Chuck was poising to fire.
Ethan dropped his arm from around the decoy’s neck and ducked, missing that bullet while the girls screamed, but Chuck was already firing again.
The decoy fell to the floor and Chuck’s face fell, his gaze even angrier as he lowered his gun to where Ethan had crouched on the floor, and for the second time in as many minutes, Ethan knew he was about to die.
He heard the shots, but there was no pain. Nothing had hit him. Then he heard something heavy hit the ground and he looked up to see Chuck on the ground, his head out of view from where Ethan was at, but he wasn’t moving.