He held up a hand, cutting me off. “When you get olderyou will work for me.”
My dad moved me around his body, stepping in front ofme. “Roman, that is too generous. Your offer is very kind, but she’s—”
“She will come work for me, Leon,” Roman insisted.“When she is thirteen. That is how many years?” I opened my mouth, but Romanquickly added, “The truth this time,krasivayadevushka.”
“Th-three,” I whispered.“I’m ten.”
“Three years then,” Roman agreed. Then he turned awayfrom me and resumed his discussion with his brothers.
I sucked in a deep breath that felt like life anddeath all at once.
“Are you an idiot?” My dad hissed against the top ofmy head as he pressed another kiss there. “Goddamn, Caro, how could you be socareless?”
I stepped back from him, hating him in this moment.This was his fault. Didn’t he see that? He brought me into this world. He keptme here. He regularly made me go on jobs for him. Did he really think I wassomehow safe from this life?
I was in a warehouse filled with stolen guns. Atmidnight. Because he was afraid the Irish would find me if he left me at home.
And this was my fault?
“You’re surprised? And here I thought this was afamily business. Just trying to make me dear, old dad proud.” Turning around, Iskirted along the edges of the warehouse until I was safe with my friends again—thepeople as equally forced into this ugly world as I was.
I sat down next to Frankie and laid my head on hershoulder. She didn’t say anything. Gus didn’t either. There was nothing to say.
Out of the three of us, I had been the most likely toescape this world. To get out. And now I was as tied to it as they were. Myfate was sealed. I had three years to run away or sell my soul to the devilhimself.
We eventually fell asleep, huddled together againstthe wall. We kept each other warm, and hid each other’s secrets and didn’tspeak of the future or what had happened tonight or the sorrow that filled usall.
I didn’t see Sayer again until the guns were allunpacked and loaded into trucks headed in separate directions. I had awoken tofind most of the warehouse cleared out. Frankie had left a few hours earlierwith her uncles and Gus was nowhere to be seen.
Deciding I should find my dad before he left me, Istretched my stiff legs and set out to search for him. The warehouse was eerilyquiet now, littered with trash and the peace these men were leaving behind.War. War with the Irish. We’d be lucky to survive.
Sayer was hiding behind stacks of now empty boxes whenI reached the far corner of the warehouse. He reached out when I walked by andgrabbed my hand, yanking me behind the cardboard with him.
“Hey,” he hissed. “Are you crazy?”
Too tired to defend myself, I blinked at him and said,“Maybe.” Guess, we were jumping right into it then.
“He could have killed you! Or broken your dad’shands!”
“I know,” I agreed through a yawn. “But if I had toldhim the truth he would have done those things no matter what.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Sayer snarled. “Thatwas stupid.”
Irritated with him for blaming me, I slammed my handson my hips. “No, I saved myself. That was smart. You’re the one that lostsomething important. That makes you the stupid one.”
He made an ugly face. “Yeah, well maybe I should learnto lie like you.”
My eyes bugged. “Uh, yeah! How else do you expect tostay alive? You’re already in the life, so you better figure it out fast. Don’tbe stupid anymore. And never, ever get caught.”
His expression softened at the same time his eyeslightened, like a switch had been turned on in them. “You got it?”
Glancing around to make sure nobody was looking at us,I retrieved the necklace from my pocket. It was a simple silver chain with akey looped through. Plain. Simple. Insignificant. But Sayer’s entire bodyrelaxed at the sight of it. “Thank you,” he whispered.
I dropped it into his hand and he closed his fistaround it at the same time he closed his eyes. I felt funny looking at him,seeing the relief on his face and the affection he had for this one tiny thing.Sayer felt more for this one necklace than I had ever felt for anything, evenmy dad. This weird key, necklace thing was something he loved, something hewould have found a way to get back by himself had I not offered.
Clearing my throat, I hoped to pull him out ofwhatever it was that he was doing. I felt uncomfortable. And he had a deal tosettle.
“Okay, let’s see it,” I said to him.
