“I’m going to make you pay for that,” he slurs, and then a moment later, he’s out, snoring loudly. Nova stares at me, Ellery thrown over her strong, capable shoulder. So, she did listen to me after all.
“You good?” she asks, and I nod.
“As good as I can be. Let’s vacate the premises. I don’t want management to get involved.”
“I’m sure they’ve seen worse,” she says as she pulls open the door and steps out. “But yeah, probably best not to linger.”
We move out of the motel room and down the stairs, people turning their gazes as we move past. Perhaps Nova was right. Maybe no one here cares if someone has been abducted and held captive in a motel room, or that Nova and I are carrying two people over our shoulders.
But it doesn’t matter what they think because moments later, both are in the backseat, slumped over, and we’re headed down the road. I don’t want to take Ellery to the Costellos, but I fear I have no choice. Bane will make sure I have no peace in the matter. He’ll stalk me until he has the answers he wants.
“Head back to the Costellos,” I say as I pull out my phone and dial Anthony’s number.
“Yeah?” he answers.
“I have a delivery. I need a place to work on them until I get the information needed.”
He’s silent. “And who is this person?”
I stare out the window, watching as we pass traffic exiting the off-ramp of the freeway. “Someone who knows Henry.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me you found someone?”
“I don’t want you interfering. He hurt what is mine, and I want answers.”
Anthony is silent. “He’s been hurting this entire family. Bane included.”
“I know, but I found them first. I want the information they give first.”
“You can have it, but then I want a turn. And I want you to share anything that concerns this family.”
“Fine.”
“I want someone present while you’re interrogating them.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I don’t.”
I huff and purse my lips. “Fine. But no interference. I take this by myself until I get what I need.”
“Deal.”
I hang up the phone, and Nova peers over at me. She has piercing, knowing eyes.
“You gonna hurt them?” she asks, and I stare out the window.
“If they don’t give me what I want, I will peel them apart. Piece by piece.”
Bane wakes up furious. He’s not even groggy, which I half-expected him to be. But of course he’s not. He’s just mad.
“You are going to die, Georgiy,” he hisses as he swipes at his mouth and tries to stand from the chair I’d placed him in. He wobbles slightly, and I go to help him, but he just swats my hands away.
“Do not touch me, traitor.”
My hands recoil, and something twists in my chest. I don’t like to be touched, that much is true, but I don’t like being told I can’t touch what’s mine.
“Bane.”
