Page 361 of Good Boys Don’t Bite

“We get her back.”

“How?”

“Together.”

There. The word. Elliot’s breathing hitched. Ronan pressed his forehead against his.

“Together.”

Elliot closed his eyes. One second. Two. Then nodded. Ronan released him slowly. Elliot wiped his face with the back of his hand. Vance was already issuing orders. Main house. Roadblocks. Rebecca’s phone. Thomas. Cameras. Everything moving. Ronan looked at Elliot.

“Still with me?”

“Yes.”

“No killing.”

His jaw tightened.

“Ronan.”

“Say it.”

Elliot looked toward the photograph of his mother. Then at him.

“I’m not killing anyone.”

Ronan nodded.

“Good boy.”

This time Elliot didn’t react with heat. He reacted with pain. Then steadied.

“Let’s go get my mother.”

And Ronan understood Saint had made one mistake. They believed Ronan’s job was to stop Elliot from being a monster. It wasn’t. Ronan’s job was to remind Elliot that he still had a choice. And if Saint had taken Rebecca expecting Ronan to fail, they were about to learn just how stubborn Elliot Mercer could be when the person he loved asked him to stay good.

Chapter Twenty-Nine — Be Good for Me

ELLIOT

TUESDAY · 11:34 A.M.

Elliot did not remember getting into the car. He remembered Ronan’s hands on his face. He remembered the photograph of his mother. He remembered Saint’s message.

I TOOK THE WRONG MOM.

After that, the world became pieces. Vance shouting into her radio. Storage-unit alarms. Smoke. Ronan keeping one hand locked around Elliot’s wrist as if he expected Elliot to disappear the second he let go. Maybe he would have. Probably. Now Elliot sat in the back of an unmarked police SUV with Ronan beside him and Detective Vance in the front passenger seat while Bellweather disappeared behind them. His knee bounced. Ronan put his hand on it. Elliot looked down.

“Stop.”

Ronan’s fingers tightened.

“No.”

“I’m fine.”

“You are vibrating.”