Panicking, Evie started to hand the ear bud to Jax, but did she really want him running into a gunfight?
Before she could say anything, Ariel continued in her precise, robot voice.“A tall, balding man is sneaking out a side door near the van. He has luggage.”
“Barouche! How did he get away from the crowd?” Evie jumped up, but with so many different problems converging, she didn’t know where to start.
Jax caught her arm. “What? What is Reuben saying?”
Problem four—where was Reuben? He’d been awfully quiet. And telling Jax that his hermit sister was outside...
“Barouche,” she shouted, gesturing at the hall. “He’s escaping out a side door. He has bags with him. What if they contain Marlene’s computers? How did he escape the police? Shouldn’t he be down here with the rest of us for questioning?”
She was practically hopping up and down, her mind running in circles. Roark in a vault?Ariel talking!From where? The van?
“Police followed Pris and Dante inside.”Ariel was on a relentless roll. She must have made a list to read.
Jax would go berserk if she told him his sister was probably outside in the van, watching all this. But someone needed to stop Barouche. Roark sounded safe enough in a vault. Pris and Dante... What the fiery demons?... And Reuben, where was Reuben? She had to get past the police and find Reuben. Could she send the police to the boardroom with a mad gunman...?
Jax looked ready to grab the ear bud again. She clutched his hand so he couldn’t. “Catch Barouche. I’ll try to persuade the cops he’s dangerous, but I make no promises. Go!”
She didn’t want him to go. She didn’t know if Barouche would be armed or even worth chasing. She didn’t want to stay here without Jax. Shehatedthis. Even Marlene was dancing on the ceiling, flitting back and forth and cursing rather colorfully inside Evie’s head—seriously not helping.
“Be careful.” Evie shoved Jax toward the door.
He glanced at the cop guarding the small anteroom off the lobby and shook his head. He kissed her cheek. “Distract him.”
He slipped behind her, against the wall. He was the military expert. Unquestioning, Evie walked up to the policeman blocking the exit. “Sir, I need water, please, and possibly a mint of some sort, if there are any. I suffer dehydration and low blood sugar, and I fear I’m about to pass out again. I think I saw a candy dish in the HR office but taking candy from a crime scene...”
He frowned down on her. Sometimes, Evie hated being only five-two. Other times, it helped to look pale and helpless. She clung dramatically to the doorjamb. She thought she heard a door open behind her. There was another door? Why hadn’t she noticed?
Because Jax had distracted her. Of course an anteroom like this would have two doors—and Jax was trained to scout exits.
“He has a gun!” a woman’s voice screamed on the far end of the corridor.
Pris? That sounded an awful lot like Pris... Except her cousin was in the hall, not in the conference room where she could see Roark’s dad... Either she was reading minds or Ariel had given her an ear bud.Bets on first.
The policeman pulled his weapon and took up a defensive stance. Well, good to know she was protected. Except Roark was in a vault, Reuben was missing, and Pris... She wouldn’t even ask what her addled psychic cousin was doing.
Slipping back into the room, Evie spoke quietly into her mic. “OK, Jax on his way after Barouche. Roark, if you hear this, all hell is breaking loose out here. Can you breathe?”
“Breathing,” he muttered raggedly. “Combination one-nine-six-nine. Get... me... outta... here.”
“If I knew where you were...” Evie slipped out the door Jax must have taken. She was in an office off the lobby where residents milled excitedly. Marlene returned to chandelier swinging, obviously clueless about vaults or Roark or anything else. A second later, the apparition flew down the office corridor. Okay, so maybe Granny wasn’t entirely clueless, just causing a distraction. Everyone was staring at the creaking chandelier.
“Filing room off big office. Is that Ariel talking?” Roark sounded breathless and furious and... not himself.
“I can’t go down that corridor. It’s packed with cops and screaming cousins. Does the office have a window?” Evie slipped through the crowd in the lobby and out the front door. More cop cars were pouring into the lot, but they apparently didn’t have enough men to station at the door, just in the hall.
Outside, she glanced around for Jax... and saw her Subaru flying down the drive at high speed.
What?
Covering her mouth to prevent screaming, she watched as Jax... it had to be Jax, he had the keys... drove her little car straight in front of a Mercedes leaving the resident parking lot.
AblackMercedes—one with a new tire?
Shattering metal and glass exploded as the big sedan crashed into the rear fender of her pretty car. She would have wept for the car, exceptJax was behind the wheel.
She raced down the drive, catching a policeman stepping out of his car and pointing him that way. “Barouche! Barouche just tried to kill my lawyer!” She thoughtlawyermight sound less hysterical thanboyfriend, but she kept running, not waiting to see if he’d listened.