Flawed Perfection (An Eve Sumptor Novel) (23 page)

“No, Eve, you won’t. Once we’re done here, they’re next.”

That ugly, evil grin made Eve wish she had had Laurence killed after paying him a visit two years ago and making him hand over priceless paintings. God, she had wanted to. But, she wasn’t like Tony. Eve was not a murderer. Oh, but if she got her hands on that gun, she would turn into one right now.

“You’ll never find them,” she said icily.

“You’ll take me to them,” he challenged.

Eve smiled, knowing it would piss him off. “I don’t know where they are, Laurence. I put them on a plane before coming here. Destination unknown to me. You’ll never get to them.”

“Fucking bitch! I should have killed you that night.”

Déjà vu, Eve thought mirthlessly. She remembered that night, right before he was killed, Maurice had said almost the same thing to her. How many lives did she have? Was she finally on her last one?

“Laurence! Put the gun down!”

The intense relief she felt almost floored Eve. She hadn’t thought they would find her so soon, but then, she wasn’t exactly sure how long she had been there.

“Fuck you! The bitch deserves to die!”

“That wasn’t our agreement!”

Relief turned into pure shock, and Eve whirled around to stare at Billy. He wasn’t in the instructions she left Lainey. Agreement? What the fuck? Her eyes darted from Billy to Adam, with Adam’s expression mirroring her own shocked expression.

Adam locked eyes with Eve, not knowing how much longer they had.
I love you,
he mouthed.

Eve’s face became a picture of unadulterated grief. She had failed. It was she most important task she had in her life, to save Adam, and she failed.
I love you, too
, she returned.

The entire exchange of glances and declarations of love took place in the matter of seconds. But, it felt as if time had stopped for them.

“I’m backing out of our agreement. I made the mistake of letting her live years ago. I won’t make that mistake …”

It happened so fast, Eve didn’t even have time to react. For the second time in as many weeks, she was covered with someone else’s blood. Laurence’s body is laying at her feet, blood from the hole in his head covering her sneakers.

“Beautiful? Look at me.”

Eve’s brow furrowed in confusion, but she brought her eyes up to meet Adam’s.

“Focus, Eve. I’m here.”

She had to cut him loose. Laurence was dead, and no one came after them. That must mean … she took a tentative step towards Adam.

“Don’t.” Billy’s voice was low. It wasn’t menacing, but it made her stop her advance.

Eve turned to Billy, slowly. “Billy?”

He looked a little shell-shocked himself, visibly shaking, but still holding his gun up. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

“I don’t understand, Billy.”

Her voice was so soft, and sounded so young at that moment that all he wanted to do was go to her, and wrap her in his arms. “I lied to you before, Eve, darling. Eduardo did talk. He gave Laurence up almost immediately.” He didn’t tell her that he had offered him immunity. It wasn’t in his authority to do so, but it got him what he wanted. And, now Eduardo was dead. The bastard tried to kill the woman Billy loved. There was no way he would’ve let him live.

Eve gasped. “You lied to me.”

“I had to, my love. If I had told you, you would have gotten to Laurence before me. I needed to know why he was after you. You wouldn’t have told me the truth.” Billy’s voice became harsh, scolding her.

Eve shook her head. She couldn’t process any of this information, and it was frustrating her. All she wanted to do was get Adam out of that damn chair and get him checked out by a doctor.

“You’re not making sense, Billy.” She started towards Adam again. “Just help me get him loose, I need to get him to the hospital.”

“I said stay away from him!” Billy’s booming voice echoed throughout the empty warehouse.

Eve jerked her hand back, keeping her perplexed eyes on Adam. She saw him shake his head, the move so slight, she almost didn’t notice. He face held such sorrow, she found it hard to stay on her feet, and not crumble before him. Then, Eve felt the anger rise in her like nothing she had ever felt before. She whipped around to face Billy.

“What the
fuck
is going on, Billy? By lying to me, you put my husband and my daughter in danger! How could you do that?!”

“I would never have allowed anything to happen to Bella, Eve. You must know that.”

“And, Adam?”

“Eve, darling …”

“Don’t you dare! You were going to let Laurence kill my husband!”

“A necessity. He would have only stood in our way, trying to keep us apart.”

Eve stared at him as if he had grown a second head. “You’re delusional,” she whispered.

Billy’s eyes hardened. “You never even gave me a chance. I did everything I could for you, I helped you with Tony, I made that file implying you were a whore disappear, I …”

“
You
are married.
You
have children.
You
are a part of a past I want to forget!”

She stepped towards Billy, dismissing Adam’s warnings to stop.

“I couldn’t love you then, Billy, because I was a young girl who had just gone through the most horrible thing a girl could go through. As the years went by, I couldn’t love you because you reminded me of that time, and I found Adam.” Eve took another step. “I will
never
love you now because you have conspired to kill the love of my life.”

She saw the hurt fill Billy’s eyes, but didn’t care. No matter how deep she looked inside herself, she would never be able to find compassion for him.

“You’re just emotional right now. Once all of this is behind us …” His words trailed of in stunned silence as Eve grabbed his hand that held the gun and pressed it to her chest over her heart.

“Kill me, Billy.”

“Eve!” Adam struggled against the ties, completely oblivious to the pain of them cutting into him. He had one thought. To get to Eve.

She focused on Billy, gripping his hand tightly when he tried to pull away.

“Kill me,” she said again.

“I’m not going to kill you, Eve.” Billy’s voice was incredulous.

“But, you’ll kill Adam?”

“I doubt he’s going to let you divorce him without a fight. This is a solution.”

Eve pushed the gun harder against her chest.

“Then you’ll have to kill me, too. I won’t live without him. I can’t. And, I’ll never be with you.”

Eve’s eyes, normally a light grey that affected him every time he saw her, turned as dark as a storm cloud. He saw it before she said the words.

“I hate you, William,” she said icily.

“You don’t mean that,”
he whispered.

“Oh, yes, I do. I hate you. And, if you hurt Adam, you better make sure you kill me, too. If you don’t, I will kill you. I don’t care if I have to spend the rest of my life in prison for it.”

“Eve!”

Eve’s stare never wavered, even as Charlie and James burst through the door, calling out her name. Vaguely, she was aware of an army of people filing in, surrounding them. Somewhere down deep she knew Lainey had followed her instructions, waiting until they were safe before contacting Captain Harris and James, and telling them to track her phone.

“What the hell is going on?” James trained his gun on Donovan, while Harris watched the scene intently.

“Get me out of this fucking chair!” Adam’s roar bounced off the walls. Fuck, he needed to get to Eve before Donovan did what she told him to do.

The staring contest between Billy and Eve continued. She refused to flinch, still holding his wrist tightly. It was Billy that looked away first, tugging his hand away from her. He looked around in complete shock, see he was surrounded. This was not how this was supposed to happen! Laurence was going to kill Adam, and he would come in, save Eve and she would finally be with him. It was a flawless plan! That damned bastard screwed him and now Eve hated him. His heart broke looking at the woman in front of him.

Adam, finally free of his restraints, rushed to Eve, pushing her behind him. He could literally feel the rage pumping through his body, and it took every bit of strength to keep from going after Donovan. He felt Eve press her body to his, grasping his shirt to steady herself, and he reached behind him putting his hands firmly on her thighs.

“What is going on here, Agent Donovan?”

“He was working with that fucker Laurence,” Adam answered when Donovan said nothing.

A sound of disbelief came from Harris, but James’ sneer left no doubt that he believed it completely.

“Is this true, Billy?”

“I just told you …”

Eve squeezed Adam’s bicep, and his mouth clamped closed. She preferred to let Donovan hang himself, so Adam would comply. Let the fucker hang, as long as he was out of their life for good.

Billy’s dazed eyes darted around. He was trapped, he had lost the woman he had loved for most of his adult life, and when his family found out about this, he would lose them, too. He had nothing. Losing Eve alone left him with nothing.

“Drop the gun, Agent Donovan. This doesn’t have to get any worse.” Charlie’s voice soothed, but Eve heard the underlying anger.