A cough slices through the silence.
I turn.
She’s slumped in the alley, coated in blood and ash, one arm clutched around the boy. Her other hand presses against her shredded side, trying to keep her insides from spilling out. Barely breathing, but she’s alive.
Fucking unbelievable.
Her head jerks up at the sound of my boots crunching glass. Her grip tightens around the kid as she forces herself upright.
“You. Get the fuck away.” A blade glints in her trembling hand. Pathetic.
“Drop it, you little cunt.” I move closer. “It’s over.”
Her chest heaves, and the knife wobbles as she lifts it. “Go to hell and leave us alone.” Each word drains her.
I take my time stepping in. Let her feel it.
“I will fucking gut you,” she hisses.
If my shoulder didn’t feel like it was on fire, I could laugh. She slashes—sloppy. I sidestep and drive my fist into her bullet wound. Her scream rips through the air as she crashes to the ground.
The kid starts wailing again.
“Shut the fuck up, or you’re next.” I yank her up by the throat—she weighs nothing. Slamming her into the wall, her skull cracks back with a dull thud. She goes limp in my grip.
My comm crackles with noise, but I ignore it.
“If you take the boy…to Hudson’s Law…” she rasps, blood leaking from her lips, “…I’ll tell you where Thames is.”
I freeze.
“Thames is dead.”
She coughs, glaring. “No. I heard him leave before the explosion. I know where he went.” A black beanie hides her hair, but her eyes—green and hateful—lock on mine.Lying bitch.I tighten my grip on her throat, her pulse fluttering under my fingers. I lean close, letting her feel just how easy it’d be for me to crush her windpipe.
“I’d rather watch you bleed out.”
Her pulse hammers under my grip. That flicker of fear—that’s what I want. I shift my thumb, ready to end her—when I hear footsteps behind me.
“Wait.” Raze’s voice is closer now.
I don’t look back.
“She’s bluffing. She’s wasting our fucking time.”
“I don’t think she is,” he says, stepping in beside me. His eyes flick to her and then the kid. “We got no ID on his body. If she knows where he went, we can’t risk losing her. We track him again, we lose days. Weeks. And he disappears.”
My fingers twitch with the urge to feel that final snap of bone.
“She’ll bleed out before she talks,” Raze adds. “You want answers, you better keep her alive long enough to scream them.”
I clench my jaw, but step back, shoving her body down hard. She hits the pavement choking and gasping for air.
Raze doesn’t waste time. He jerks the boy up by the arm. “I’ll take the kid to Hudson’s. You take the bitch to the nearest safe house. Patch her up. Pump her with whatever it takes to keep her talking. Just get us Thames.”
He turns with the boy in tow, barking orders at the remaining men as they scatter into vehicles. Sirens echo in the distance.
We’re out of fucking time.
