“The access code.The thing they want back.The thing that could burn them to the ground.”His voice breaks.“I didn’t give it to you.I swear I didn’t.But they don’t believe me.”
Cold floods my veins.
“And you thought,” I say quietly, dangerously calm, “that the solution was to kidnap me out of my school in front of my students?”
“They already found you, Brina.Saw your picture and well, the guy in charge?He liked the look of you.”
“So, you what?Said he can have me?Sold me to pay your debts?”
My voice cracks.
“No!It’s not that bad.There’s someone else hunting for the key too.The guys I sold it to, and they’re much fucking worse, Brina.They’ll kill you.I’m trying to protect you!”he shouts.
I laugh again, bitter and broken.
“You don’t protect someone by turning them into bait,” I say.“And you definitely don’t protect me from men like that by taking me toward them.”
His silence is answer enough.
My heart hammers as I look out at the city rushing closer, at the nightmare tightening around us.
Theo is going to lose his mind.
And if he doesn’t get to us soon?
I’m terrified of what Marco’s enemies will do.
But I’m even more terrified of what Theo will do to my brother when he finds us.
Because I know one thing with absolute certainty now.
I don’t know who Marco is anymore.
All I know is this is a war.
And somehow, I’m standing right in the middle of it.
Chapter22
Ego
It’s really storming now.
The kind of late-winter fury that turns New York’s streets into slick rivers of black ice and broken nerves.
Wipers beat a furious rhythm against the windshield as the truck crawls through traffic, past twisted bumpers, and flashing lights from no fewer than six accidents.
But I don’t look away from the blinking dot on Kai’s screen.
The little pulsing signal that tells me where she is.
Where my Angel is.
She’s close.So fucking close I can feel it in my bones.
In the fire in my chest.
In the growl climbing up my throat every time I think about how scared she must be.
