She bit her lip, trying not to laugh. When she failed, it echoed in the hallway. “I want to know which of your brothers used that word before they started swinging.Tousle.” She made it sound prim and proper.
I grabbed her by the hand instead of the arm and squeezed. I rattled off the number Mac had given and then said, “Doubled.”
Her face showed no hint of anything, but I knew she knew. Evelina knew everything. She was as good with computers as any of her brothers, even Mac. Which gave her an advantage. She was Big Sister instead of Big Brother. She knew things even when her brothers and father didn’t want her to.
“And don’t give me the ‘stakes of the game’ bullshit line either,” I said when she went to open her mouth. I hated making air quotes, but there was no way around it. “The truth, Evie. I deserve it.”
The truth made me stumble when she flung it at me. I hit the wall, like a ghost had sucker punched me, the wolf pressed to my heart. I wanted it, but I wasn’t truly prepared for it.
“He’s the second most wanted man in the world,” she whispered.
“The first being Arsenius Bykov.”
“With the backer they have now, the supplier of the drug—” she shrugged “—money is a motivator.”
Just thinking about the way the drug had made me feel made me sweat. I hadn’t forgotten. The visions still played in my nightmares sometimes. They were so fucking real.
Dodging when things flew at me. Glass shards embedded in my skin like rubies. The smell of blood in my nose, like I’d been sniffing it. The taste of it lingered on my tongue like copper. Things that had no name slithering against my skin, leaving bites everywhere—wounds that stung like slices from steel. Standing in a bright patch of light, dark clouds moving over it, until I was running for my life. Trying to stay in the sunlight. Death. Swallowing the light. Death coming for me.
I shook my head, refusing to focus on it.
“There’s more,” she said. “There’s a bonus if he’s taken in alive. It’s gone beyond Bykov. Anyone who has big enough balls to try to take him in—they can take part in the hunt and capture.”
“The docks,” I said. “Can we still see what’s going on?”
Her eyes followed mine. Panicky. “You’re feeling something, Mia.”
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t like it.”
Before she outwardly agreed, I knew she had. I stepped into the room and placed the wolf back where he belonged. We made our way together to the office. She fixed her glasses and started typing keys faster than I could keep up. Scenes were moving across the many screens, like a bunch of movies playing at once.
“What are we looking at?” I pointed to the other side of the house. “Not that monitor. I know where that it is. The rest?”
“Different places worth monitoring. Places we know Bykov and his men have been. Or anyone that might be trying to deal with them. His weapons and the drugs go hand in hand now. Can’t buy one without getting the other.” She used her finger to swipe, moving one scene out of the way and adding another. “These are the docks. Saverio has been intercepting the shipments. Blowing them up.” She made aboom!noise with her mouth and mimicked it with her hands. “I’m sure you know that, though.”
“It’s been his cologne lately,” I said. Besides, he had told me that. He said we had to weaken the heart by hitting their pockets. A war couldn’t be financed by wishes and dreams, no matter how dark.
She punched something else in after the docks yielded nothing out of the ordinary. A street view. Sirens. Flashing lights. Trucks smoking. Water dripping from them and pooling on the cement.
“Got ’em,” she said, like she wanted to fist bump the air.
I had to temper the urge to scream,WHERE ARE THEY NOW? “Where else can we—”
“Mia.”
We both turned to the door at the same time. Mamma stood in it. Her face. It was drained of blood, and her eyes, so much like mine, seemed alien in color. I ran to her, holding her in my arms.
“Incoming!” Evelina shouted, rushing past, almost knocking us over. She was yelling for the two male doctors tohurry!
Our eyes met for a brief second before we took off behind her.
The door to the other side opened and closed right after papà andzioRocco stumbled through it.
Chapter32
Mia
Men rushed to their sides before we could, keeping them from smashing into the walls. Both men were torn up, but my eyes focused on papà.
