Part 14 (1/2)

I turned back to Vee. ”That should confuse Tony for a while.”

She was giving me that look, as though she didn't know if she should hug me or hit me. ”What if Tony realizes we've tricked him? What if he kills Nickie just to pay me back? You know he's capable of it.”

”We'll get to her before Tony realizes anything is wrong.”

”I don't know ...”

I could see the worry in her dark eyes. ”You have to trust me.”

She shook her head. ”I can't do that.”

I couldn't expect her to, either. Not after everything she'd been through, but she didn't have much choice, and I told her so.

”Fine,” she said resolutely. ”Let's just keep moving.”

I looked around again. An old station wagon that had seen better days was parked on the far side of the lot. ”Grab your bag,” I told her, ”and follow me.”

She did as I'd suggested and we hurried over to the other side of the parking lot. I kept my eyes peeled for anyone who looked like the owner of the car coming out of the restaurant, but so far everything was quiet.

I spotted a small rock on the ground not too far away, and s.n.a.t.c.hed it up. With a sharp smack of the rock against the driver's window, I smashed a hole in the gla.s.s. Reaching in through the hole, I pulled open the lock, which disengaged all the locks in the car, and then yanked open the door.

”Gotcha.” I turned to Vee. ”Jump in, but stay low.”

She climbed over to the pa.s.senger seat and slid down into it, so only the top of her head was visible through the window. I bent down, under the steering wheel, and located the wires I needed. This kind of older vehicle was easy to hotwire, and within a minute, the engine revved to life.

”Let's go.” I jumped behind the wheel, wincing at the pain in my thigh the movement caused, and before the owners had a chance to even notice the vehicle missing, we were back on the road. I figured the old banger was worth more in insurance than anything else. The owners would probably be happy to have the money to buy a new car.

”Now what?” asked Vee, glancing over at me, her bag of guns held primly in her lap.

”Have a look in the glove compartment, see if there's a map.”

She did, and pulled out a ma.s.sive map, badly folded, so when she tried to unfold it, it filled half the car. ”Jesus. No wonder they invented sat-navs.”

I laughed, a sound so foreign to me. I'd been lucky if I so much as cracked a smile before meeting her. ”We need to find the road they're going to meet us on, and see if there's another way. If we can come from the wrong direction, chances are they won't see you coming.”

”Me? What about you?”

”We still need to split up. I'll cover you from the side of the road.”

”What if they just shoot me as soon as they see me?”

I hated to think that was a very real possibility.

”That's the reason I need to watch things go down from the side. The minute it looks like someone's going to pull a trigger on you, I'll shoot the son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h.”

”Okay, looks like I don't have much choice.”

I turned to her, as much as I could while still driving. ”Yes, you do. You don't have to go and try to get your sister back. You could just take off, go and lose yourself again.”

”And what kind of person would that make me? I hate myself enough already, without adding 'abandoned sister to mobsters' to the list.” She shook her head. ”It doesn't matter anyway.”

I frowned. ”What doesn't?”

”If they shoot me. If I die. It's not like anyone is going to miss me.”

”Vee-” I started, but she cut me off.

”If you have the choice between Nickie or me-which of us you're going to save, I mean-choose her. Okay?”

I shook my head. ”I can't do that.”

”Yes, you can. It's simple. Just pick her. Take her away somewhere to start a new life-h.e.l.l, take her to the cops, if you think that's the best thing. Just make sure she's safe. She's got more chance of living a normal, happy life than I have. My life ended three months ago. I'm just going through the motions.”

I didn't know what to say, but I wasn't going to promise her anything.

Chapter Twenty-one.

V.

I located where we were on the map, and then found the road Tony the Hound told us to take.

I wondered if he was getting suspicious yet. Had the car with the tracker gone past the turnoff, or had the young men already come off the main road somewhere along the route and gone in completely the wrong direction? Even worse was the possibility the other car had taken exactly the same route Tony had told us to, in which case there was the chance a car of young men were about to get their heads blown off by a bunch of gangsters.

I was tense, waiting for the phone to ring to find out what we were playing at, but, for the moment, it remained silent.

X leaned across to take a look at the map. Having him so close sent s.h.i.+vers through my body. I could still feel the dull ache of him between my thighs, the wetness in my underwear. I didn't know what had come over me-that proximity to death making me cling harder to life, I guessed. I wanted to lean into him, to lay my head on his shoulder and close my eyes. I was tired of fighting with everyone and everything, and I just wanted to let someone else take the strain for a short while. But I couldn't. I needed to prepare myself for the biggest fight of my life, and I couldn't let my guard down again.

”There,” he said, stabbing his finger down on the map. ”There's a little back road-possibly not much more than a farm track-which leads further south, adjacent to the route Tony wants us to take.”

”But we don't know how far down the road they're going to be.”

”We're just going to have to take our chances. I don't think we have any other choice.”

He was right.

”You need to take the next turn,” I said. ”Then a couple of miles along, we'll come across the farm track on the right hand side.”

Why there? Why had they chosen this place, in the middle of nowhere, as a meet-up spot? I guessed we were in the middle of nowhere, so less chance of pa.s.sersby reporting the gunshots that were bound to come. It also wasn't too far from the town where I'd been relocated by Witness Protection, so that must have come into play. It was a far cry from New York City, though, and I experienced a sudden and unexpected pang of homesickness.

X took the turn and we found ourselves on an unpaved road. The old vehicle b.u.mped and jolted its way down the track, creaking and moaning its protest. We should have stuck with the truck.

The cell phone buzzed.

”He's figured out we're no longer with the tracker.”