“Coming,” he replies.

   “You might have been if I didn’t wander over,” she replies in a dry tone, laughing at her own joke.

   I spend the next hour on the phone ordering parts for the next few custom motorcycles and organizing the business receipts to send to the accountant.

   When it’s closing time, I still have a little work to do, so I decide to stay behind and just get everything done. My new reorganization system is almost complete, and I just want to keep going until it’s all sorted. An hour later and it is, and I’m about to leave the garage, opening the door, when I see a man right in front of me. He pushes past me through the door, overpowering me as I try to shove him back outside.

   I’ve never seen this man in person, but I know who he is from pictures. Jasper. And I know that right now I’m in deep shit.

   What is he doing here? Hasn’t he done enough already?

   He looks like crap, with bags under his eyes, messy hair and rumpled clothes. He has desperation written all over him, and that makes him more dangerous than ever.

   “What the hell are you doing?” I ask, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.

   This can’t be good.

   I know this isn’t going to end well for me.

   “Close the door,” he demands, beady dark eyes on me as he pulls out a gun out and aims it at me. “Now. And I’m not fucking around. Listen to what I say or you are going to die. Just like your father died.”

   Shit.

   Him mentioning my dad makes my blood turn to ice, and I’ve never wanted revenge on someone more than I do right now. This man is a complete piece of shit. A coward.

   And I’m not going to let him get what he wants right now.

   I’m going down fighting.

   I close the door and face him, just the two of us, alone in this huge garage. “What do you want, Jasper?”

   I try to stay calm. Panicking isn’t going to help the situation, and I don’t want anything to set him off.

   He tilts his head to the side and laughs. “So you know who I am? Well, let me see, Bronte. What do I want?”

   He’s clearly insane. There’s a look in his eyes that says that something has pushed him over the edge.

   “I want you dead,” he says, finger on the trigger. “I thought I had accomplished that, but instead I killed your little friend. Has anyone ever told you both that you kind of look alike? Unfortunately for her.”

   I freeze. I knew he did it, but to hear it coming from his mouth so nonchalantly is a whole different story. So he thought Billie was me. She really did die because of me.

   I hold my hands up. “You don’t need to do this, Jasper. Do you really want more enemies by killing me?”

   “I do,” he says, sighing. “You’ve been standing in my way of getting what I want for too long now. And after Jean spoke to you, both her and Anne went missing. What did you say?”

   “Nothing,” I say, wondering how the hell I’m going to get out of this. “She came to tell me that she didn’t kill my dad, that it was all you.”

   He laughs without humor. “Of course she did. After I kill you, I’m going to get your uncle and then I’ll be right where I deserve to be, sitting on top of a drug empire. One by one my enemies will die. No hard feelings, right?”

   His finger moves on the trigger, and I’m not going to stand here and wait to be shot, so I do the only thing I can right now: I run.

   I run through the garage, and he shoots two bullets at me, but lucky for me, he misses. He doesn’t know this warehouse like I do, and that’s the only thing I have going for me right now. I hide in the garage behind a car Crow is working on for fun, and try to control my breathing. I’ve never been one for guns or weapons, but right now I’m wishing I were a little better equipped to handle a situation like this.

   I didn’t prepare myself, and now I’m going to die.

   I find a tool set and pull out a big wrench. Now if only I can dodge the bullets, maybe I can hit him with this and then run away.

   A big bang has me lifting my head, and then I hear Crow’s voice yelling my name. “Bronte? Where are you?”

   I stand up and slowly walk out, wrench still in hand, body on alert. “I’m here.”

   “Oh thank God,” he says, running to me and pulling me into his arms. “Can you feel my heart? Fuck, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life.”

   I look over to see Temper standing there with Jasper lying on the floor, his foot on his back, Jasper’s gun in his hand.

   “What do you want to do?” Temper asks me, eyes on Jasper.

   “What do you mean?” I reply, frowning. “Call the cops.”

   “You sure you don’t want to handle this ourselves?” he asks, lifting his head.

   I look to Crow, my mind working. I know they are against this, but I think right now this is the best option for us all. “Call the cops.”

   He nods, and pulls out his phone.

   I don’t want them to get into any trouble because of me. My revenge can be him behind bars.

   “The cops are on the way, everything will be fine,” Crow says, wrapping his arms around me.

   “How did you know?” I ask, brow furrowing.

   “We have a live camera feed,” Crow says, taking the wrench from my hand. “We have a control room and someone always checks to make sure everything is running smoothly. One of the new prospects was on duty, saw you and called me right away. Temper and I were on our way somewhere else and got here as soon as we could.”

   “He was going to kill me,” I say, my body starting to shake. “Just look me in the eye and kill me.”

   “I know,” he replies, jaw tight. “But you’re safe, all right? And he’s going to be arrested.”

   Crow needed to save me again. Next time something happens, I want to save my damn self.

   The police come and take Jasper away. Temper hands over the security footage of the night, and that’s all the proof they will need to lock him away.

   “He admitted to killing Billie because he thought she was me,” I say to Crow, tears pooling in my eyes. “It really was my fault.”

   And I don’t know how I’m going to live with that.

   “Did you get shot?” Crow suddenly asks, touching my skirt.

   “No, why?” I ask, frowning. I glance down and see blood.

   And then everything goes black.

* * *

   I wake up in the hospital, Crow sitting on a chair next to my bed, him holding my hand. My mind is fuzzy for a little while, and then everything that happened comes back to me.