Adriano is rifling through the bag, teeth bared. “Too light.”
Sorry,” Bill says. “Lots of running around. I lost a few things, but there’s a storage bay nearby. We can stock—”
We all look to the ceiling. The sound of feet pounding on stairs, men shouting. A shudder goes through me.
“Move,” Bill says, heading for the door, and weak and still barely able to see, I fall in behind him.
“What’s happening?” Adriano shouts, fitting a clip into a Glock and tossing it to Bobby.
“They’re onto us,” Bill shouts. “I can hear them coming in on both sides. We gotta get more guns and fight our way to the underground car park if we want to get outta here.”
“What about January?” I call. “Where is she?”
“In the main house probably, hopefully heading to the car park with Archie,” Bill says.
We reach a grey door and Bill uses the metal scanner to unlock it.
“What is that thing?” Doc asks but inside is a cache of weapons we ignore him and fall on the guns like starving children on cake. I pull out a Beretta and shove cartridges into my pockets. “I’m going for January.”
“No,” Bill and Doc say at once.
“I’m fast,” I remind them. “I’m fast and I read the plans for this place when Parker was building it. Bill, is there a big swimming pool above us to the left of here?”
“I… I think so.”
“Then I’ve got some bearings. I should be able to get around.” I hold my hand to Bill. “Can you give me that…metal bar? Will it unlock the main house?”
Bill’s eyes narrow and he holds the metal clip close to his chest.
“Okay, what is that thing?” Bobby asks, fitting a handle into an AK-47.
“It’s a universal pass, isn’t it?” Doc says shrewdly. “A fail-safe in case Parker dies. I’d imagine it would open damn near everything Parker owns.”
I look at Bill who is still holding the metal clip like a childhood teddy bear. If Doc’s right and that tiny bar grants access to every safe, computer, and secure data source Parker has, it’s the key to his whole empire. No wonder Bill’s so possessive. I hold out a hand. “Give it to me. Please,” I add because he did just rescue us.
“But…I might need it.”
“And you might need legs.” Doc points his Winchester at Bill’s thigh. “Fast hands, Baskerville.”
Bill looks from Doc to the rest of us, now all equally armed and passes it over. “Sorry.”
“You’re forgiven,” I say. I point to the nearby staircase. “That takes me up to the swimming pool, yes? The one shaped like an old Nokia phone?”
“Man, you really read those fuckin’ plans,” Bill says. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Then I’m going.” I clap a hand on Adriano’s shoulder. “Kill many. All.”
Adriano’s gold tooth gleams. “Ma non c’era nemmeno bisogno di dirlo.”Like you even need to say anything.
“Be fucking careful, Morelli,” Doc says. “That girl dies, I’m going right behind her.”
“Don’t,” Bobby says, but I can see the same unspoken pledge in his eyes.
I look my brothers squarely in the face, their eyes filled with wild love and certainty. “I’ll find our future wife and bring her back to us. I swear it.”
The compound is huge, huge, and difficult to move through. It’s hard to compare my mental floor plans with the rooms full of bourgeois clutter and gamer-boy bullshit. Some of the doors are unlocked but some aren’t. The metal bar opens them all. I listen for guards, but they all seem to have surged toward Bill and the others. The house—if you can call it that—is empty. Which doesn’t mean Parker can’t see me. But the compound has multiple panic rooms and I’ve no doubt January is with him in one of them. I need to choose a direction.
“Where would I go?” I ask, spinning like a compass needle. “If I was an evil motherfucker, where would I hide?”
