Tears welled in my eyes, but I refused to let themfall. “No, I did the opposite.”
Before he could argue with me, I spun around andheaded into the crowd. I realized I forgot to ask Sayer where Atticus had putthis key on a chain, which was a stupid mistake. But I couldn’t turn aroundnow.
I ducked behindboxes and blended into the walls until I was closer to Atticus. He was standingwith some of hisboyeviks—hissoldiers. They were talking in low tones with the occasional low rumble oflaughter between them.
As I approached I realized they were talking about agirl. A young girl and what a beauty she was going to be when she got older.
Oh God, I hoped it wasn’t me.
I didn’t want to be on any of these guys’ radars.“She’s already too good for us, yeah? A real fucking princess. Just imagine herin another six or seven years,” Atticus snarled. I breathed a sigh of relief. Theywere talking about Frankie.
Loyalty to my friend overrode my temporary relief and Ihad the strongest urge to knee him in the balls. And then knee all of them inthe balls.
No, better yet I would turn them in to Roman, let theboss know they were talking about his niece. He would murder them all for me.
But first I had to get this chain.
Three secondsbefore I opened my mouth I had the awareness to get really freaking nervous,but I couldn’t let the panic stop me. I pushed it down, way, way down andlaunched into the con.
“Hey, Atticus?” I continued to approach the table theywere standing at, although I was cautious. He lifted his head, barelyacknowledging me. Some of the guys around him backed up so I could approachhim, but nobody really looked at me. Deciding I couldn’t wait for aninvitation, I launched the first layer. “Gus is wondering if we can go back toyour house and wait this out there?”
Atticus lifted his head, furious and annoyed. “How thefuck should I know? Go ask Ozzie, little girl.”
“He’s with thepakhan,” I said quickly, meaning the bosses. “I can’tdisturb him.”
“Yeah, well you can’t disturb me either. That’s a rulenow.” A couple of his friends laughed at his assholery, but most of them continuedto pretend I didn’t exist.
I set my hand on the table, implementing stage two,and leaned on it, knocking off several rounds of ammunition to the floor. WhileAtticus threw his hands up in the air and started cursing me, I scanned hisbody for signs of the chain.
When he started to bend over to pick up my mess, Icaught sight of it poking out the back of his t-shirt. With zero time to waste,I bent over too. “Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry. Let me get those.” Thrusting myhead forward, I managed to clip the side of his head, our temples colliding.
“Son of a bitch,” he growled at the sharp pain.
“Ow!” I hissed, bringing my hand to my face—but notbefore my fingers brushed the back of his neck as he hunched over, unclasping thechain. If it had been a more complicated locking mechanism, I wouldn’t havepulled it off, but luckily it was just a simple insert. I cupped my hand overmy head and winced. “I’m so sorry, Atticus. It was an accident.”
He stood up and the necklace slipped through his T-shirtand landed on the floor. I slid my foot over it before he noticed. Sure, mystance was a little wider than what was comfortable, but the key was to actcool.
“I don’t care that it was an accident,” he barked.“You’re in the way, Caro. And now you’re pissing me off. Just go wait overthere with the other kids and leave me the hell alone.”
“Are you sur—”
“Seriously. Go away before I hit you.”
Well, on that note… The sad thing was that I actuallybelieved him. He didn’t care that I was a girl or a child compared to him. Hewould lay me out. No doubt.
“Just let me help—” I bent over again to pick up therolling shells and managed to discreetly pick up the chain. Sure enough, therewas a key at the end of it. Closing my fist around it, I stood up and slippedit into my pocket unseen.
Thankfully, Atticus had had enough. “Just go, already.You’re not helping.”
I took three quick steps back. “Well… okay… but onlyif you’re sure.”
He stilled and met my gaze. Nothing but black, blackanger glared back at me. “Caro, for fuck’s sake.”
Holding up my hands in surrender, I turned toward Gusand Frankie. Going to Sayer would be way too suspicious. But I had his necklacenow and he had the tattoo I was anxious to see. When the men got busy later, wewould exchange goods. For now, the necklace burned a hole in my pocket and Iwaited on pins and needles for Atticus to figure out what I’d taken.
I had only made it halfway across the floor whenAtticus bellowed my name. “Caro! Are you fucking kidding me?”
The entire warehouse ground to a stop, weapons andboxes paused in every direction. My steps faltered and I turned bright red fromthe unwanted attention.
