Page 115 of Ricochet

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

The disgust and horror on Colin’s face froze the next words on Adelia’s tongue. She couldn’t force out the ‘and’ to connect what she’d done with any explanation of saving them.

In his mind, he could imagine her as someone who could do the unthinkable, and the more she stared at him, the more aghast he became.

Traffickers were like cockroaches. Kill one and a dozen morepopped up.But keep one in your sights, and you could manage them.Lenora had cultivated her long-term plans, and they were going after the monster, the source of all evil: Gloria Astor.

He saw her like that? Evil?

When Adelia had dreamed up her idea to buy trafficked girls and find the resources to re-establish their lives, she hadn’t known how hard the task would be. But it was the only option.Taking out the middlemen was pointless. Law enforcement was too slow. That was when she’d had to enlist the Mayhem old ladies. And for as often as loose lips caused drama at Mayhem, no one spoke once they were initiated into Adelia’s network. It was as if they knew the hell that she had been through and believed that if she was crazy enough to do this, she was crazy enough to bury them if theyso much as uttered a word that would out her operation. They had a code of silence.

Yet here she was, getting ready to tell Colin more than she’d ever tell Tex.

“You bought people?” His color had drained. “You’re going to have to explain.”

“If I do, and you share with anyone—”

“Anyone?”

“—like your team, people I love will die.”

He blinked as though he stared at a ghost. “I’m… so…”

Shereached for his hand, and he snatched it away.

Adelia’s eye shot to his arm, tucked away like a wounded animal, and then his face, covered in unmasked disgust. What the—? The sick realization that had frozen her tongue continued to batter her. “You’re quick to judge.”

“You haven’t said much I shouldn’t.”

Why did she expect him to understand? They came from separate worlds. His was made ofprep schools and diplomat dinners. He was a leader in a powerful military organization. Everything about Colin was straight and narrow. Closed-minded. “I said enough to find out what you really think.”

Adelia pushed away, sliding from his warm arms, off the bed and snagged her boots.

“Hang on a minute.”

She put her hand up, unable to tell him no.

“Wait. Damn it, Adelia!”

Like hell she waswaiting. He thought she’d grown up to be a trafficker? Adelia flew down the stairs with her boots in hand, grabbing her duffel bag, purse, and sweatshirt at the bottom of the stairs as she heard Colin’s curses and his feet hit the ground.

“Stay in bed.” He was going to kill himself! She threw open the door and a brown paper bag, likely filled with more of his medicines, sat waiting like it wasa grocery delivery and not an antibiotic care package from a rogue task force of pharmacists. She grabbed it and spun. “Take your medicine and get back in bed!”

He was halfway down the stairs. “Where the hell are you going?”

No idea. But she’d never been so hurt, and blinded by angry tears, she threw the medicine bag and rushed out the door.

A new car sat in the driveway, probably with thekeys in the ignition, and her anger turned to exasperation. How could a man who lived like this assume the worst in her?

Still with her boots in hand, Adelia ran down the sidewalk, only slowing to glance over her shoulder. Colin stood on the front porch, hand on his side, and guilt nearly made her turn back, but he had it in him to believe the worst in her.

She paused long enough to tug on herboots before cutting into the neighbor’s yard and hopping the fence. When she was out of sight, Adelia changed direction and sprinted several houses down where she cowered underneath the spider web-covered side of a deck enclosure with her heart slamming in her chest.

She didn’t trust anyone, not to take out Gloria Astor or to keep the Mayhem women alive. But she needed help. A plan. She wasrunning low on money, didn’t have access to a phone or was too worried to grab a car.

Calling Seven or Victoria would put them in a bad position with the club and maybe the men they cared about, and she’d done enough to hurt Tex. She couldn’t ask more from Lenora.

Kids’ voices filled the air, and Adelia went cold. Her eyes searched the yard, and then the deck above her shook as though she wereunder a stampede. But only two little boys jumped off the deck, and half-tackled, half-kicked their way around the backyard with a soccer ball. She flattened herself to the ground and prayed she blended in with dirt.

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