Page 126 of Never Sleep with the Enemy

He snorts. “You’re not worth a fraction of what I’ve got in this, kid.”

“Take anything. Do whatever you want tome,just—just leave Tesla alone.Please.”

His eyes barely flick up. “Sorry, Logan.”

He hitsCALLand raises the phone to his ear.

Panic clutches my chest, tight and paralyzing. I can’t breathe. Can’t think. There’s nothing else I can do. No card left to play that would rip Criminal Records apart.

Unless—

“I can do it!” I shout, lifting my begging hands. “Give me another chance. I’ll get it done.”

Monroe glares at me, the phone still ringing in his hand. “Heard that song already.”

“I know,” I say. I hear the call connect—a voice on the other end. “But there’s... there’s something else I can try. It’ll work.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

He studies me for a long, awful beat. Then he lowers the phone and ends the call without a word.

“All right,” he says, too calm now. A terrifying kind of calm. “You’ve got one more chance, Logan.”

A shaky breath escapes me. “Thank you.”

“But I’ve got zero patience left,” he adds. “You’ve got until midnight tomorrow to get it done. Or Little Miss Tesla leaves Las Vegas in handcuffs.”

“Yes, sir,” I say, my heart shattering.

Monroe flashes a grin—empty, cold,unhinged. “Good boy,” he says.

He turns and walks out.

As the door clicks shut, I drop onto the edge of the bed, too hollow to stand anymore. The weight of it all presses down on me, pinning me in place.

My phone vibrates in my pocket.

I fish it out, hand trembling.

Kitty

I miss you.

God. I miss her, too.

I’m going to miss every piece of her until the end of my days.

33

KATRINA

“We’re almost twenty-four hours away from the most exciting rock battle of a generation!”Jonny Red says through the radio app on my phone.“Criminal Records are taking on The Electrics at the Sin and Sand in Las Vegas tomorrow night, and the city is buzzing with anticipation! Knox versus Logan! The Shock Girls versus... whatever the Criminal Records ladies call themselves. But I think the most exciting match-up of the night is between frontman Logan Shock and little Katrina Benton!”

I glare at my phone, sipping my club soda alone while the others chat across the bar.

Really wish people would stop puttinglittlein front of my name like that.

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