“Go,” he ordered.

“She likes to play,” Marissa went on and Layne turned to her as his stomach churned.

“Go,” he repeated.

“That’s how you’ll get her. She lets her boy enlist but she’s hands on, Tanner. As hands on as she can get.”

“Honey,” Layne whispered, “go.”

“She buys immunity from local cops. Keeps ‘em happy with money but gets them under her thumb because they like to watch her play. She gets that shit on them, they’ll do anything but she keeps them fat and sassy by puttin’ them on payroll and givin’ them as much of their kink as they can stand. Just for that, they’d do anything for her.”

Layne swallowed the saliva that filled his mouth and growled, “No more, woman, go.”

“She’s got muscle and she’s got firepower. She even thinks you’re gettin’ close, she does damage but she likes a first warning. It’s about power, control. Someone thinks to f**k with her, she likes knowin’ they’re livin’ and knowin’ she got the best of ‘em. They come back after her, they’ll go down.”

Jesus f**king Christ.

“How do you know this shit?” Layne asked.

“I did my job, I didn’t complain, I wasn’t fresh but I was a favorite. She knew I was a survivalist. She knew I would never do what I’m doin’ right now. So she didn’t hide her business from me when she was of a mind to keep me close. And, bein’ a survivalist, I learned to keep quiet and listen. So I did.”

Layne stared at her.

Then he made a decision.

“How tied to Indianapolis are you?” he asked.

“What?” she asked back.

“How do you feel about LA?”

Her lips parted and she stared back.

“Dev’s got a job today,” Layne said. “Tonight, he’s got another one. You make contact, you make a meet, you pick up your new identity tomorrow from Dev. You sell that f**kin’ car and you get your ass to LA. I got a friend out there, he’ll help you get set up and he’ll watch your back until he knows no shit is gonna blow west. You do not check in direct, you check in with him, he’ll get word to me.”

“I got school here,” she stated.

“They got universities in LA,” he returned.

“The Pacemates –”

“Are a memory. You are no longer visible. You do not veer from your path. This shit gets done, you find a decent guy, you give him great head, you get him hooked, you settle and you keep that shit from him. You put your ass on the line for me just now so in return, I’ll give it to you straight. Do not share with him, no matter how decent he is, about Anita Dewmeyer or Marissa Gibbons. You were in the system. You lived a shit life. You had a social worker who showed you the way but other than that, you don’t wanna talk about it. Ever. You wanna look ahead, never behind. You keep him facin’ forward, Marissa, don’t you, and don’t let him, ever look back. But you find you need to talk about that, work things out after this is over, you contact me or Dev. You do not lay that shit on your man. Yeah?”

“If I disappear, especially from the Pacemates, they’ll know –”

Layne cut her off. “I told you, I got a guy who’ll watch your back.”

“He got twelve eyes? Because they can come from all directions,” she returned.

He knew that even better than she did. He got hit with three bullets and each of those bullets came from different guns. Ambush. The only things Marissa had given him were who was behind it and why they didn’t drill a round in his head after he went down.

“You trusted me to do the right thing with that shit you just shared, now trust me to do the right thing by you,” Layne told her.

“I’ve been takin’ care of my –”

He stepped back into her space and she clamped her mouth shut. “I know you have, Marissa, so I know this won’t be easy, since no one has ever looked out for you but I’m not like the trash that’s been twistin’ around you your whole life. You know it. This guy knows what he’s doin’ and if I didn’t think he did then I wouldn’t send you out there.” She’d closed down, he could see it, she was giving him nothing and she wasn’t buying one word he said. That was how terrified she was of what she’d just done. And fear could make you do some seriously stupid shit. So Layne pushed, “Your life just changed. You had an opportunity to turn your back on a bunch of girls you don’t know who’re either livin’ nightmares or goin’ to. You didn’t do that. You did the right thing. Now you leave the wrong life behind and look, the f**k, forward to an entirely new experience.”

She gazed up at him and he knew she was undecided.

So he decided for her.

“Dev doesn’t get a call, you make me hunt you down, which I’ll do, Marissa, no f**kin’ joke, that’ll piss me off. But I got too much to worry about to worry about you and if something happens to you, I’m not livin’ with that on my conscience. So you make me take time out to take you to LA and make you safe, like I said, that’ll piss me off. You don’t wanna piss me off. So, tonight, pick up the phone and call Dev.”

He didn’t know how he got to her but he got to her and he knew that when she whispered, “I’ll call Dev.”

“Eyes and ears open until you reach LA. You don’t turn that ‘vette, just leave it,” Layne pressed.

She nodded.

“Until you’re with my man, you get a bad feeling, you call Dev.”

She nodded again.

“You got friends; they’re not your friends anymore. You’ll make new friends in LA.”

She swallowed then she nodded again.

Layne examined her face then he toned it down. “You did the right thing.”

“Right,” she whispered and Layne knew she didn’t believe him but instead wished she could turn back time and keep her mouth shut.

“Before it turned shit for you, how would you feel if some woman saved you from that life?”

“They’ll never know it was me,” she returned.

“You wouldn’t have either but you also wouldn’t have had that life. Isn’t knowin’ that enough?”

She pulled her lips between her teeth and pressed her teeth together. Then she nodded again.

“You did the right thing,” he repeated.

She nodded yet again then her teeth released her lips so she could say, “Do me a favor?”