Chapter Fifty-Eight

 

Paige saw the woman and Payton as soon as she entered the alley. The woman wasn’t even making an effort to hide what she was doing. Why?

Paige had her weapon drawn, and she approached the pair steadily. “Put the gun down and put your hands on your head.”

The woman looked at her for a moment, and Paige cataloged her quickly. Fifties, blonde, blue-eyed, expensively dressed. It took her a minute to place her. Judith Buenavista, mother of the man they’d arrested yesterday. Was this her revenge against Luc for her son?

It did make sense.

“Put the gun down.”

“No. I don’t think I will. You see, men like Davis Lucas need to be kept in their place.”

“And what place is that?”

“Out of mine. There’s etiquette to this sort of thing, and I’ve been building that supply chain since the two of you were in diapers. He had no right to interfere. Payton, I suggest you move here, please.”

Payton complied, her gaze meeting Paige’s. Payton was terrified, but she was holding herself together. Payton had an inner core of strength that Paige had always admired; she’d shown it to Paige the first time when the lab had exploded around them. Paige would get her friend out of this safely, somehow.

She’d dealt with confrontational suspects—even armed ones—many times. But never had the woman her brother loved been in the middle of it.

How was Paige supposed to end this without something going horribly wrong?