“You owe me for a shitload of stuff, including watching Charlie, and you know I’m going to collect.” He kept his voice light.

Vadim just snorted and asked him to return to the bathroom so he could talk to Taylor. Vadim and Taylor talked for a few minutes until finally Vadim convinced her to listen to reason. He also read her the riot act for breaking into his place but Roman was pretty certain his friend was impressed she’d broken in. Roman certainly was. Once they were done talking, Roman promised to call Vadim with any updates before disconnecting.

“Why are you helping me?” she asked as Roman slid the phone back in his pocket.

“Because you’re friends with Vadim and you clearly need it.” He needed more information on her story, but if she was willing to meet with a detective, that went a long way in proving her innocence. Not to mention Vadim trusted her.

Her eyes welled with unexpected tears and to his surprise and horror, she started crying. Big, ugly tears. Shit, shit, shit. “Don’t cry,” he commanded, as if the order would somehow make her stop.

She sobbed out something that sounded a lot like, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me’ before she cupped her face in her hands.

Her shoulders shook as she tried to hold back her tears but he couldn’t stand it anymore. Covering the short distance between them, he pulled her into his arms, rubbing a comforting hand down her spine. She buried her face against his chest and, taking him by surprise again, wrapped her arms around his waist and held on for dear life.

She might not know what was wrong with her, but he did. She’d seen someone close to her killed, she’d been shot and she was trying to deal with a shitty situation alone. On top of all that she was probably dealing with a healthy dose of shock and grief.

Even though Roman prided himself on staying away from any drama—unlike his twin—there was no way in hell he was walking away from a woman in need. After his father died, his mom had been left raising two, demanding boys. Looking back he knew how hard it had been on her. Maybe that was why something about women in need always called to him.

Even if he wasn’t sure Taylor was innocent in all this, he’d be damned if he let her walk away with no protection.

Chapter 4

Neal glanced at Benjamin Escobar, the head of security for the Powers Group, as the man swiped his security card over the elevator pad. “You don’t need to come with me.”

Over six hours later, Neal had finally been allowed to return to the building now that Hugh’s body had been removed and Neal had been processed for gunshot residue. He had some on him, which was easily explainable since he’d been in the vicinity of Taylor when she’d allegedly shot at him and because he’d supposedly gone to the aid of Hugh. It would be strange if he didn’t have any on him, but there wasn’t a ton of blowback on his current clothing, which was good. Now he needed to get rid of the other clothes and weapon he’d stashed and he couldn’t do it with Escobar hanging around like his shadow.

Escobar, who was about the same height as him at five-ten, shot him a stony glance before motioning to the elevator door that opened. There was an intimidating air about him that Neal could never ignore. “I’m not leaving your side while you’re here.”

For some reason, Neal wasn’t sure if Escobar was shadowing him because he was concerned, or for other reasons. He couldn’t help but feel paranoid, especially after he’d killed Hugh, but Neal wondered if Escobar had somehow guessed. The man was a straight arrow and it was damn annoying. No, Neal was just being paranoid. How could Escobar have any clue?

“The security cameras are up and running again so you have nothing to worry about.” Much to his annoyance the police had wanted to look at the video feeds immediately. He’d expected that. What he hadn’t expected was for Escobar to be able to link everything back online so quickly, but he’d done it as soon as he’d arrived at the office that morning. Neal thought he’d knocked the system offline for a while. He knew he’d erased everything, but still…it made him edgy worrying about the clothes in the empty conference room.

“Hmm,” was all Escobar said. Then, “Did Taylor say anything after shooting Hugh?”

Neal shook his head. “No. It all happened so fast. I guess she might have said something, but I was just trying to run for my life. It was…crazy. I still can’t believe she killed him.”

“Me either.” As usual, Escobar’s tone was unreadable.

Since Escobar clearly wasn’t going to leave and Neal couldn’t afford to make him suspicious, he decided to make use of him. “Will you bring Paige and Marissa up to my office? I want to speak to them.”

Taylor had called Paige and Marissa after she’d gone on the run. He was still raging that his man hadn’t been able to track down Taylor, but her running made her look guilty, which was damn good to solidify his story to the police. He wanted her dead though. Dead and gone so she couldn’t cause him any trouble. And he still wasn’t positive he hadn’t shot her.

The police had examined the elevator and taken the bullets out of the outside of the doors, but they’d asked him a couple times if he’d been injured, wanting to take him down to the hospital. That line of questioning made him nervous. He hadn’t seen any blood or bullet destruction in the elevator, but maybe he’d missed something.

Escobar nodded without looking at him as they reached the top floor. “Of course. I’ll get them right now. What should I tell everyone else in the building?” He pressed the button to keep the door open as Neal stepped out.

Neal knew that almost everyone had stayed after he and Escobar had gone down to the police station. The crime scene and their floor was cordoned off from everyone and no one was actually working, but he guessed they didn’t want to just leave either. “Everyone can go home. I’ll let you handle making the announcement. I just…” He looked down, shaking his head as he covered his face with his hand, as if everything was too much for him to handle. “I can’t deal with everyone right now.” Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at the other man. “Tell everyone to come in tomorrow at ten. I’ll set something up in the lobby and speak to everyone at the same time.”

Escobar nodded and removed his hand from the elevator button, letting the doors close.

One of the first things Neal was going to do was fire that self-righteous bastard. But not right away. No, he needed to wait a couple months, to let everything die down before he made changes. For right now he couldn’t afford any extra scrutiny.

He owed some terrifying people money, but he’d been making his payments. The last six months he’d had no problem covering his debt. The interest was what was killing him, but the Chemagan deal he’d set up had been brilliant. In another three months he’d planned to close it down and call it a loss with no one being the wiser, but that fucking bitch Taylor had somehow figured out what he was doing.

If his guy couldn’t catch her before she resurfaced he had a plan to run if the cops believed her. He didn’t think they would, but he was always prepared for a worst case scenario. Especially since he owed the Russian mob a shitload of money.

As he stepped into the hallway of the executive offices, he nodded once at the patrolman standing guard outside Hugh’s office. They’d secured the area with tape and even though he’d told them that he would cut off access to this floor for everyone else, the police must have decided to leave a guard. The thought made him frown, but he shoved his unease aside and hurried to his own office.

After shutting the door behind him, he rummaged in his desk for another burner phone and called his contact with a trembling hand. It’d been fucking hours since he’d been able to make contact and it was making him edgy.