She forced a smile for the little girl. “Sarah, I need you to stay with Rebecca. Venn will find you. Just stay here.”
“And stay silent,” Tariq added sharply. He looked to Vera. “Come with me now, or Jahdi will slit her throat.”
Sarah let out a terrified whine, and that sound is what assured Vera she was making the right choice—that fighting them here and now, when that knife was against Sarah’s neck, was not an option. Because she knew that Tariq’s threats weren’t idle. A man as evil as him would kill a child—an infant.
The time to fightwouldcome. But it wasn’t now.
Tariq grabbed Vera’s arm, his fingers biting into her flesh even as his dagger rested against her side—her recently wounded side. “Start walking.”
She did.
Sarah’s eyes were wide and wet as she watched Vera back away.Don’t leave,those panicked eyes begged.
“It’s going to be all right,” Vera whispered, everything inside her breaking. “I promise.”
“Walk faster,” Tariq snarled in her ear, his hot breath burning her skin.
Vera trembled, but quickened her step. Tariq dragged her into another street, and there was a horrible moment when his friend didn’t follow.
She tensed, but then Jahdi came around the corner—just as Sarah screamed.
Tariq cursed. “Didn’t you tell her to be quiet?”
“She’s a little brat,” Jahdi clipped back. “It’s not my fault.”
Tariq swore again and dragged Vera forward. “Keep moving!”
But with Sarah out of immediate danger—and her scream surely heard by Venn—Vera attacked.
She kicked Tariq’s shin and the man stumbled, barely catching himself. His knife bit into her side and pain flashed, but she knew the cut was superficial.
She tried to yank away from Tariq, but his grip on her arm had clamped tighter, and he slammed her into the nearby alley wall.
The blow of stone hitting her back knocked the air from her lungs and pain shuddered through her whole body.
Tariq set the knife at her throat, their faces far too close. His features were as she remembered; angular, his beard short, and his dark eyes nearly black. But this time, instead of looking at her with leering interest, his gaze blazed with fury. “Fight me again, and I swear I’ll carve you up.”
“She needs to be unmarked,” Jahdi said. “She’ll fetch the best price that way.”
Tariq shot him a glare. “Shut up. You work for me, not the other way around.”
Jahdi’s eyes narrowed. “We’re partners.”
“This was my idea.” He turned his glare back on Vera. “Salim punished me for letting you slip away. That alone makes me want to kill you.”
“Salim is dead,” Vera said, distantly proud of the bite in her voice. This man had cowed her before; she refused to be cowed again.
Tariq’s eyes darkened. “Yes, and with him gone, I thought I could take over the mercenaries, but one of my rivals moved in first and turned everyone against me—said it was my fault Salim was killed, because I let you escape and you led the soldiers to us. I was banished. When I saw you and that Zennorian leaving Krid . . . Fates, I almost killed you then. But I realized I could get far more by selling you to the slavers. I’ll have enough coin to start my own crew.”
Behind them, Sarah screamed again.
Jahdi stepped closer. “We need to keep moving.”
Tariq snatched Vera away from the wall, gripping her upper arm in one hand while the other kept the knife at her side. He pulled her forward.
“Venn will come,” she told them.
“We have him outnumbered,” Tariq said.
