He took something out of his pocket and checked it. "So you figured out the tracker? According to this, you're still on the move."

I shrugged. "Wasn't so hard. You kept knowing when-" I caught myself. I'd almost said 'we." "When I stopped, and I knew I wasn't being followed. The tracker was the only plausible explanation."

"Smart. Shame you had to screw everything up and kill my men. I'm going to struggle to let that one go."

I scowled at him. "I don't care what you do with me. Release my sister, and I'll come with you."

"Not going to happen. Tell me what you did with my men."

I lifted my eyebrows. "You think I'm going to tell you anything when you have my sister?"

"How about you tell me, and I won't cut her pretty little t.i.ts off."

"Touch her and I'll ... I'll ..."

He laughed, and the sound made me want to slice him open and disembowel him. "You'll what? You're barely more than a kid yourself."

"And yet you sent two of your men after me, and here I am."

"And why have you come, just out of curiosity? You could have run."

"I love my sister. I didn't want her to go through this alone."

He gave a snide smile. "Yeah, family first, right? Well, you'll get to spend a little time together before we tell daddy-dearest that we have you both. Word is that your father actually wants you dead, and though I want to punish you for whatever you did to my men, I want to get to him first. You're going to testify against him, your own father. Jeesh, what's this world coming to?"

"He made me kill my mother," I said, trying to sound tough.

"Yeah, I heard that, too. You sure are some f.u.c.ked up kid." He shook his head at me. "The problem is, Verity, that you kind of screwed everything up. I didn't plan for things to go like this, and now I can't quite decide what to do with you. Normally, I'd just have you killed for taking down my guys, but I think that would only give your father what he wanted. Surely better to keep you alive and have the threat of your testifying hanging over his head."

"Why wouldn't I testify against you at the same time?" I snapped.

"Because you know I'd kill your sister."

"The police are going to know something is wrong if she isn't with me."

"Witness protection is completely voluntary. You come out of WITSEC but still promise to testify, and we'll be the ones who offer you protection."

I knew what this meant. I would be owned by the mob, as would my sister. But we would both still be alive, though we would live every day in fear, terrified my father would send someone after us-or at least me. How could I live like that, and what would happen after the trial? Would my testimony still be taken if I was seen to be under the protection of my father's rival?

But if I turned down his offer now, would he just shoot me?

"Let me talk to my sister," I said, avoiding answering the question, trying to buy some time.

He paused and then jerked his chin at the guy who'd been smoking. The other man opened the back door and reached in and yanked Nickie out. She staggered, but he held her upright.

"Nickie!" I cried.

"Vee?" She blinked at me as though she couldn't believe I was there.

"It's going to be all right, Nickie. I'll fix this."

Tony laughed again, and I balled my fists. My gaze flicked to where my sister was held in the grasp of one of the men, his fingers digging into her upper arm. Her head was bent, and I wanted to tell her to be strong, but I didn't know what they had already done to her, what they'd put her through after everything she'd already suffered.

Come on, X. Where are you?

I hoped he was just waiting for the right moment. I fought off the fear that he'd taken the opportunity and fled, leaving me to it.

"I'm sorry, Vee," Nickie sobbed. "I didn't mean for it to turn out like this."

"I know, Nickie," I said. "Neither did I."

"No, I don't-"

"Enough talking!" said the man holding her, and he lifted his free hand and slapped her in the face.

That was enough for me. I couldn't wait for X any longer. I reached to the back of my jeans to pull my gun.

The other men saw what I was doing and pulled their own weapons, but before they had the time to shoot, bullets smacked them like punches from behind. The guy holding Nicole released his grip and fell forward, and one of the other men spun in a pirouette before landing, slumped across the hood of the car. Tony the Hound and his remaining sidekick swung around wildly, unsure of what direction the gunshots had come from.

I ran forward, fully intending to grab Nickie, who crouched to try to shelter from the gunfire, but Tony got there before me, the muzzle of his gun pressed against my sister's temple.

"One more step and I'll blow a hole in her head." He stared at me. "Why do you have to make everything so f.u.c.king difficult?" he said, as though I was the one who'd started all of this. "I only wanted to make you an offer, but now you're going to have to suffer the repercussions."

"No, wait!"

I watched in helpless terror as he shoved her into one of the cars, the other mobster covering them both. X couldn't take a shot-they were too close together now. Even he couldn't guarantee his aim to be that good and he wouldn't hit Nickie instead, especially in the dim light.

They climbed into the car and started it, and I stood helplessly as they drove away. I wanted to shoot at them, but I couldn't, knowing they still had my sister and anything bad I might do to them would also affect her.

I started forward, willing to chase the car and take whatever was coming to me, but X appeared beside me, his hand around my wrist, and yanked me back. "You can't help her like this."

"I should have taken his offer. I should have gone with them, and then Nickie wouldn't be all alone again." All I wanted to do was protect her, yet I always seemed to f.u.c.k up at every step. "We failed!" I cried. "You promised me it would be all right."

He shook his head. "We lost this part, but you're still alive, and so is she. Tony the Hound is starting a war, not just with your father, but with you, too. I have people I can ask for help. We can make a d.a.m.n good guess at where he's going, where he's taking her."

There was only one place I could think of. Back to New York.

"What's he going to do to her in the meantime?" I dropped to a crouch and punched the ground, not caring if my hands bled or I broke bones. "f.u.c.k!" I took a breath and then looked back up at him. "If she dies, that's it for me. If I can't testify against my father, and I no longer have Nickie to watch over, there's no point in me even being on this planet. If we don't get her back, you might as well kill me anyway, because I have nothing to live for. If all I have are my memories of what I did, I won't be able to live with that."

"Stop it, stop it." He grabbed my arm and pulled me back up toward him, holding me tight against his chest.

I trembled, my body rigid with anger and fear. The future-however small amount I might have-suddenly stretched out before me.

I was going back to New York.

The place my father would learn I was still alive.

Chapter Twenty-two.

X.

That I had failed her sat like a lead weight in the pit of my gut.

The car containing her sister had vanished down the road, the headlights disappearing into the burgeoning darkness. Bodies lay like broken dolls, slumped across the hood of the other car. There was no point trying to chase after them. We knew where they were going.

Back to New York.

"I can't believe it. I was so stupid," Vee cried against me. "I actually believed we might get Nickie back."

I held her closer, my hands on her back, my nose against her hair. "We still can. This isn't over. He wants something from you, which gives you leverage, and he's not going to harm Nickie while he still thinks he might get what he wants."

She turned her face up to me, her dark eyes almost black in the moonlight. "You think us shooting at them wasn't enough to make him think he's not going to get it?"

"Guys like him are used to being shot at. They're also not going to give up on their plans so easily. This might feel like a big deal to you, but this is barely a blip to someone like Tony."

She nodded against me. "I hope you're right. I hope we're not going to find Nickie's body in a ditch farther down the road."

I squeezed her tight, hoping to provide some comfort. "We won't. She's too important for that to happen."

Even as I said the words, I worried she was going to call me out as a liar and fraud. I'd been wrong about getting Nickie back this time, hadn't I? I should have acted sooner. I shouldn't have let Tony the Hound get so close to Nickie. I should have killed Tony instead of taking down the guy who'd been holding her. I should have yelled at Nickie to run.

So many mistakes.

"So now what?" she asked, peeling herself out of my arms.

I nodded to the black car. "We have a ride, at least. They're taking her back to New York, so that's where we need to go."

"And then what?"

"I think it's time you paid your father a visit."

She inhaled a breath and stiffened.

I continued. "You said your father loves your sister, right? That he doesn't blame her for anything, but holds you responsible?"

She nodded.

"So you have a shared goal at this point. He's going to want to get her back as much as you do."

"He's in jail," she pointed out.

"Yes, but his contacts aren't, and he might know where Tony the Hound likes to take people he wants to hide."

"So you're saying we ask for his help?" The bitterness in her voice was impossible to ignore.

"Is your love for your sister greater than your hatred for your father?"

"I guess it's going to have to be."

"Listen to me," I said. "We need to get out of here before someone spots those bodies. When they do, this area is going to be swarming with cops. But we can't go trying to reach New York tonight. We need to find a motel and get some rest. We're both exhausted and when you're this tired, you're going to think irrationally, and make mistakes."

Vee nodded in agreement.

I hauled the body off the hood of the car, and then dragged him to the side of the road, so at least it wouldn't be noticed right away, then I helped Vee with the second body. I debated removing the police signs but figured they might buy us some time.

Checking inside the car, I was pleased to see the keys still hanging out of the ignition. "Looks like we're riding in comfort from here."

Vee gave a tight smile, and I regretted my remark. She'd just lost her sister for the second time. This wasn't the time for small talk.

She seemed smaller somehow, shrunken, her shoulders rounded in and narrowed, her frame suddenly thinner. The b.a.l.l.siness I'd loved about her had deflated, and I would have done anything to bring it back again.

Without saying anything, she picked up her bag from where she'd dropped it and rounded the car to slide into the pa.s.senger seat.

I got behind the wheel and tried not to focus on the way she was huddled into herself, her arms around her waist, her head down. Instead of doing what my heart demanded-that of wrapping my arms around her and pulling her to my chest-I focused on driving.

Not wanting to head the same way as Tony the Hound, I turned the car around and drove back the other way. We would take the back roads, just in case Tony had people waiting around a corner with high power machine guns to wipe us out. Though I'd told Vee that he needed her, I wouldn't put it past him to do such a thing. After all, we'd taken out four of his men now, or at least I had, though he held Vee responsible.

I drove the gangster's car through the night, heading in the general direction of New York. It would take us hours to get there, but there was no way I could do the whole drive tonight. The past twenty-four hours had been insane, and that was saying something, considering I was used to this way of life. Of course, usually it was an in and out job, and occasionally needing to get rid of a body. I didn't normally end up involved with the target.

Not normally, anyway, though there were exceptions to the rule.

My stomach cramped, and I tried to push memories away that were threatening to resurface. It was good that I was leaving this area, though I wasn't sure I'd be going to New York if I could avoid it. Too many people there wanted to see me dead.

I drove for an hour, fighting my eyelids slipping shut and my head nodding from the monotony of the drive. For a while, I thought Vee was sleeping, but then I realized she was just sitting, unmoving and in silence.

The bright lights of a motel gave an unnatural glow to the skyline. I sagged in relief. I had a credit card and a driver's license slipped into an inside pocket specially sewn into my pants. It had my photograph, but of course wasn't in my name. Same with the credit card. I avoided using them as much as possible, as if anyone got an idea of the name I was using on it, it would create a paper trail for them to follow. Things like the meal we'd had back at the diner were always better paid in cash, but something like a motel stay normally required identification, even if it wasn't my own.

I pulled the car into the lot.

"You can wait here," I told her. "I'll get us a couple of rooms."

She nodded, staring at her hands in her lap.

A young, skinny guy behind reception yanked his feet down from the desk as I walked in and reached out to turn the sound down on the television he was watching. He paid little attention to me as I checked us into two rooms, side by side, and handed me the keys for both rooms.

I took the keys back to the car. Vee saw me coming and climbed out, bringing her bag with her, the guns back inside. I would take one for protection, just in case, and leave her with the other two. I hoped I didn't have to worry about her being alone. Her current state of mind concerned me, and I didn't want her to do anything stupid.