The man leading our trek through the woods spun around, leveling his gun in my face. “Shut up.”
But I didn’t shut up. Cyrus was the twin when you needed to be schmoozed for a reason. I could piss a man off in less than a minute. Something about me rubbed people the wrong way.
Probably my superior intellect.
We all had our skills in life, and I’d embraced mine years ago.
“See, Hazel,” I said as if I spoke to her, but I made sure I said it loud enough the two men heard.
I’d taken one look at the second man and known who he was instantly. Bernard. If anyone was in charge here in Maine, it was him. He didn’t have a mob nickname, but he was still deadly. “I didn’t believe the Grandmaster, either, but why would a notorious Chicago mobster be in Maine? It didn’t make sense.”
She glanced at me with wide eyes, and I nodded, telling her I expected an answer. “I don’t know, Corbin.” Her voice wobbled on the words, but I was proud of her for playing along.
“I had to make sure he told the truth, so I made a deal he couldn’t pass up. Can you guess what it was?”
She shook her head, but then her eyes grew wide as she figured out what she misheard this evening. “What did you offer him?” she asked, and even though was dark, I swore her lips were tipped high on her face.
I grinned back, wanting to offer her a little reassurance in the moment of panic. “You. I offered the Grandmaster the evidence and you for a measly fifty million dollars. Pocket change to a man like that, but guess what he did?”
“What?” she asked, getting involved in my story.
“He laughed. Told me to give the thumb drive to the police. That’s some confidence. Don’t you think?” I asked, doing my best not to look back and catch the expression Thumbs wore to see if I caught him off guard. I knew I had.
CHAPTER21
HAZEL
Imissed a step while processing his words and stumbled forward, but Corbin caught me before I hit the ground. Since we met, he’d been catching me. How dumb of me to question him.
“That’s why you said those things?” I asked, disbelief clouding my words, but I didn’t disbelieve him. In fact, I believed Corbin with everything in that moment.
How had I been such a fool to think he’d give me over to a Chicago mobster? I climbed out the bathroom window and right into the clutches of a man who stalked the back yard getting ready to break in. I didn’t even see him until it was too late and he had me in his hands.
Corbin tilted his head and speared me with a glance. “Babe,” was all he said. Even in the dark, I saw his expression that said so much without him having to open his mouth.
I tipped my head, staring at the ground in front of me. “I’m a moron.”
Because I had a moment of uncertainty and made a run for it, now we were both going to die. I’d sentenced the two of us to death because I didn’t believe someone as smart or handsome as Corbin might love me.
We walked through the forest for at least fifteen minutes but didn’t get much deeper. Lights of the city were still visible on our right side, which gave me hope they weren’t leading us out to a distant part of the woods to shoot us. Although, that could mean they had something worse in store rather than a quick death in the forest.
“I blame Eric Wrigley.” My words shattered the deadly silence. A small woodland creature, a chipmunk, maybe, scampered in front of us, completely unafraid of two men with guns. Leaves crunched under our feet as we walked, masking his sounds of rustling.
Corbin stared at me as if I’d grown a second head. “What are you talking about?”
I squeezed his fingers, enjoying the comfort in knowing that even as we were being led to death, a part of him didn’t hate me enough to let go of my hand. “In fifth grade, he told me I was too fat to date.”
Corbin grew taut and his fingers crushed mine against his. “Another asshole for my list,” he growled under his breath.
Huh, what list? “I just I never thought I deserved anything more. If Eric Wrigley found me so repulsive—the teacher caught him picking his nose in third grade—then how would I ever find someone who’d love me?”
“Babe, he was a moron.”
“Easy for you to say.” Eric may have been a moron, but it didn’t make his words sting any less. I shrugged, even though I wasn’t sure Corbin saw in the darkness. “I’m a project coordinator in Bangor. The most excitement for me is a vacation in Florida. Even that I’d have to save for two to three years to afford it.”
Corbin smiled. “Aren’t you glad you met me?”
He said it with so much confidence I couldn’t help but snort back. Here we were walking to our doom, and he made a joke. Corbin believed we’d get out of trouble so much he couldn’t picture a different reality.