Runner: A dark enemies to lovers gang romance (Sapphire Duet Book 1)
Runner: Chapter 30

Thanks for the jewelry. It really complements his hand, doesn’t it?

I stared at Mili’s text for what felt like the thousandth time in the last three days. But it wasn’t her words that kept me coming back to the message. It was the video under it. The one where she was sprawled on Rylan’s desk, wearing nothing except the chain Kade had locked around her throat.

I had no idea I could be so fucking turned on and pissed off at the same time until I watched that video. She had been careful not to show her face and to shield her tattoo. But I didn’t need to see her eyes to know what she’d been thinking in that moment. Her body said it all. She’d submitted to him. Even if it was for the time she’d been on his desk, she’d given the fucking mayor what she refused to give me. Or Kade.

There was no tension. No hesitation. Her feistiness was still present, but she let Rylan control it. She gave him what she would never give us. And she made sure we knew it.

“Ready?” Kade asked as I hurriedly slipped my phone back into my pocket.

I glanced at the warehouse and nodded before we climbed out of the car. The knots in my stomach had been growing since we’d tried running Mili out of town. With every little thing that happened, my first thought was that she was coming to pay us back. None of our men had seen her, and everybody had been on the lookout. But with her ability to blend in and her fondness for wigs, I had a feeling she could be right under our noses and we wouldn’t know it.

But we knew she hadn’t left town. At least not yet.

For the most part, it had been quiet. But odd things were happening, and although neither Kade nor I voiced it, we were guessing she was behind it. Last night, the employee entrance to our club was found unlocked, even though everyone on shift swore it was locked. Nothing had gone missing, and the cameras didn’t show anything suspicious. Kade hadn’t pulled his Jaguar out of the garage because we worried she’d try to blow up a car again.

I wasn’t used to walking on eggshells in my own city, and it made my annoyance flare. What we’d done to her was to make her run. And I felt guilty every time it replayed in my head. I felt like a complete piece of shit, knowing what we did hurt her. But it was supposed to fucking work.

“Front door?” Kade asked as we got closer to the warehouse.

“Yeah,” I muttered, knowing we wouldn’t replace anything if it was Mili. Unless she was already long gone. I half expected to see our cars gone when we opened the door.

Kade pushed open the door, and the alarm echoed through the large building until Kade punched in the code, shutting it off. My gun was out, and I scanned the area once we flipped the lights on. Everything was exactly how it had been the last time we were here. The cars sat in perfect rows, not one out of place. We moved slowly, peering into each car until we covered the whole building.

“This doesn’t mean it was her,” Kade mumbled as we got to the back of the warehouse. “It’s not like this is the first time this has happened.”

He was right. Sometimes, kids would come and try to fuck around, not knowing that this was our warehouse. Or homeless people would try to get in to replace a place to sleep. The alarm had been tripped more than once in the past.

Pulling out my phone, I hit Vic’s number.

“False alarm,” I told him gruffly when he answered, still scanning the room as if she was going to pop out. “Nothing on the cameras either.”

“Was it her?” Vic asked tightly. They were pissed when we told them Mili skipped town, but they had no idea why she did it.

“Doubtful. If it was her, she wouldn’t have left the cars untouched.”

Beeping in my ear alerted me to another call, and I glanced at the screen, my heart jumping.

“I gotta go,” I told Vic before nudging Kade and showing him the screen. A muscle in his jaw flexed as he stared at the unknown number. Hitting the button to connect the call, I put it on speaker so Kade could hear too.

“The midnight blue Mustang is my favorite.” Mili’s bright voice came through the speaker. Apprehension flitted through me as I lifted my head, my gaze trailing down the aisle of cars until I saw the one she was talking about.

“You couldn’t have loved it that much,” I replied as we looked around, wondering if she was somehow watching us. “You left it behind.”

“I like my Corvette more.”

“Where are you, Rebel?” I asked. “What’s so important in here that you’d risk us replaceing you?”

She laughed. “Risk? I’ve had eyes on you since I walked out of your club. The men you ordered to keep a lookout for me? One of them flirted, not even realizing who I was.”

A horn of some kind blared through the speaker, and my gaze went to Kade. A train horn. There were tracks behind the warehouse. Was she really so confident that she stayed on the property while calling us?

Kade jerked his head, silently telling me which way he was going. I nodded, following him back through the warehouse. He turned left to go out the side door, while I kept going straight to cut her off in case she bolted when she saw him.

“You should have left town,” I said, trying to get her to keep talking. “We told you what would happen if you stayed.”

“And you should have stayed with Kade,” she murmured, her voice dripping with threat. “See you soon, Gray.”

Ice dripped down my spine as she cut the call, and I whirled around toward the door Kade had disappeared through. Fuck.

“Kade,” I bellowed, hesitating about which way to go. She was expecting me to chase after him. Silence smothered the warehouse, and I gritted my teeth, deciding to go through the back like I planned. Quietly pushing the back door open, I kept my gun raised as I scanned the parking lot.

A lone old van was parked in the center, but what got my attention was the body slumped on the ground in front of it. I stared at Kade, my breath returning when his chest moved up and down, proving he was still alive.

“Ready to play?” Mili’s voice came from behind me, and the metal of a gun barrel was jammed into my spine before I could move an inch.

I stayed still, keeping my eyes on Kade. “We’ve been playing with you ever since you came to town. If you wanted to kill us, you would have done it already.”

Her small laugh promised hell as she kept the gun on me. “No. You’ve seen me play as Mili. Child’s play. I was having fun. But now? You get to see Sapphire.”

I hissed out a breath, feeling a prick in my neck. My hand shot to my throat, but whatever she’d given me was already working. My movements were sluggish, and keeping my eyes open became impossible. I fell to my knees, my head swimming in darkness before everything went black.