Part 14 (2/2)

”What should I do?” I asked staring at the ringing phone.

”Don't answer it.”

”Then he might kill my sister.”

”If he does that, he'll have lost all leverage, both with you and with your father. He's not a stupid man.”

”f.u.c.k.” I was torn with indecision. If I answered the cell phone, he'd want to know exactly where I was, and if I told him that, we'd lose any element of surprise.

”He doesn't know we found the tracker,” said X, trying to rea.s.sure me. ”You could have been carjacked, for all he knows. Anything might have happened.”

He was right, but the thought of him doing something awful to Nickie terrified me.

Even so, I stared at the phone with my heart lodged in my throat, my palms tingling to pick it up and answer it.

X's hand suddenly covered my thigh, dragging my attention away from the phone and to him.

”It will be all right,” he said, and I found myself tumbling into the blue of his eyes. ”I kill for a living, and taking down Tony the Hound and his men won't prove to be a problem.”

A small smile touched my lips. ”You were supposed to kill me, too, remember? You didn't do so well on that job.”

”Maybe that was because I couldn't bring myself to see you dead.”

”Not because I stabbed you in the arm and leg?”

His eyebrows lifted, his lips pursing slightly in a way that made my heart flip. ”Maybe that helped, too.”

The phone stopped vibrating, the light of the screen going dark again, and ahead of us the dirt track hit a road in a T-junction. My heartrate continued to thunder, and I took a couple of deep breaths. I needed to distance myself, emotionally, from all of this. It was something I'd been good at in the past, and I had to find that cold, dark place inside myself again. That Verity was the one who needed to face Tony the Hound and his men, not the Vee who had been awakened by the touch of the hit man sitting beside her, or the terrified sister frightened for her sibling's life.

”We'll stop the car here,” I said, straightening in my seat and taking a breath. ”We should walk the rest.”

X cast a curious glance over to me. ”You're happy to go alone?”

”I don't have any choice.”

He nodded his agreement. ”Okay. I'll stay on this side of the road, and run along parallel to you.”

”There are three guns. Which of us gets two of them?”

”I'll have to take them,” he said. ”Chances are, the first thing they'll do is search you.”

”If I let them get close enough.”

”Just try to play it cool,” he warned.

I nodded. ”I will.”

It was almost dark now, right at that moment where day becomes night, but there was still enough light to see.

We climbed from the car and stepped out onto the road, turning right, so we effectively headed back on ourselves. I hoped we were going in the right direction. I kept the phone in my back pocket with it switched to silent, and slung my bag over my shoulder. It held all my belongings in the world, and I wasn't about to abandon it. The gun I held in my hand.

”I'll slip between the trees,” said X as we walked, him checking the magazine cartridges in both guns to make sure he was fully armed. ”I won't lose sight of you if I can help it.”

”Okay.”

His touch on my arm made me draw to a halt. ”Don't do anything rash,” he said. ”Be careful.”

I nodded, and then, to my surprise, he leaned in and planted a soft but firm kiss to the corner of my mouth. Not giving me a chance to respond, he turned and ran in a slow lope off the road, disappearing between the tree trunks.

I pushed my weapon down the back of my jeans, pulling my t-s.h.i.+rt over the b.u.t.t to hide it. The rucksack on my shoulder also helped to disguise the bulge. I took a deep breath and started walking, alone.

No, I had to have faith I wasn't alone. X was right beside me, just out of view, shrouded in tree trunks and the pockets of darkness between them. From somewhere to my left, an owl screeched.

As I continued to walk, I rounded a corner and spotted something in the road up ahead. My heart lurched, my stomach cramping with a twist of fear. A familiar sign was positioned to block the way, warning of police and an accident. I didn't think for a moment there had been an accident. The sign had been positioned there to stop people from driving down the road and interrupting whatever Tony the Hound and his crew had planned. I highly suspected there would be an identical sign coming from the other direction as well. At least I knew I was heading in the right direction. I tried not to feel nauseated with terror, my chest tight, my breathing shallow. I needed to focus on Nickie and how scared she must be right now. I would see her soon, and X would kill Tony and his men, and we would walk free.

I had to believe that. It was the only thing that would keep my legs moving.

I rounded the bend and my heartrate exploded.

Two vehicles were parked in the middle of the road-both big, black, and expensive. The headlights of the cars lit the road ahead. Four men stood around the vehicles, each of them in expensive suits. They were facing the opposite way, the way they'd expected us to come. X's plan had worked.

The interiors of the cars were also lit. In the seat of one of the vehicles, through the rear winds.h.i.+eld, I could see the back of a head, s.h.i.+ny black hair, just like my own, too small to be a man. Nickie.

I suddenly wondered why I was walking down the middle of the road in plain view. Wouldn't it have been better for us both to ambush Tony the Hound from the side of the road?

The reason dawned on me.

I was a decoy, a distraction.

If the mobsters were focused on me, they wouldn't notice X coming to put a bullet in the back of their heads. I just hoped he did so before I ended up with a bullet in mine.

Though I was only about thirty feet away, they still hadn't noticed me approaching.

Briefly, I wondered if I could sneak over and just grab Nickie out of the car. But then a guy cleared his throat and threw a cigarette b.u.t.t onto the road, where it bounced and sparked, and he turned and spotted me.

A smile spread across his rotund face. ”Well, well, well. What do we have here? Looks like Mickey Five Fingers' daughter finally made an appearance.”

The other men turned at his words, and my eyes flicked over each of them, quickly ascertaining which was Tony the Hound. He was easy enough to spot. He was the one with the air of smug superiority hanging around him. He was in his mid-forties with overly black hair which was receding at the temples. Fury that this middle-aged man thought he could go around s.n.a.t.c.hing teenage girls suddenly rose inside me, and my fingers itched to s.n.a.t.c.h the weapon from the back of my jeans and open fire on the son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h. I had to hold back. If I pulled the gun now, they'd shoot me and it would be game over. I had to remember what X had said about how important restraint and control were.

”Give me my sister back,” I demanded, raising my voice to be heard, my gaze focused on Tony.

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