Enzo shoved them forward. “Couchette. First class.”
The conductor glanced down, then up, taking in Kathleen’s bare feet, Enzo’s wild eyes, the chaos spilling toward them. He hesitated. Behind them, a scream. A woman shrieked as someone was shoved aside.
Dominic’s men were forcing their way through the crowd now, no longer pretending. One of them vaulted the same barrier Enzo had, knocking it sideways. Metal screamed against concrete.
“Now,” Enzo growled.
The conductor stepped aside.
Enzo dragged Kathleen up the narrow steps and into the car, nearly colliding with a couple fumbling with luggage. He shoved past them, hauling Kathleen down the corridor, counting doors, praying the car layout matched what he remembered.
There.
He slammed the compartment door shut behind them and threw the lock just as something heavy hit the metal from the outside. Kathleen clutched her throat and backed into the wall. Her chest heaved, eyes bright and terrified and alive. Another rap, harder this time.
“Open up!” Dominic snarled in Italian.
Enzo braced himself against the door, heart pounding so hard it drowned out everything else. He glanced at the window, too small, too high. No escape there.
The train lurched. A deep, grinding vibration rolled through the car, followed by the unmistakable sensation of movement. Dominic slammed his shoulder into the door again. The lock rattled but held. Then, nothing.
Silence.
The train picked up speed, the station lights sliding past the narrow window in a blur. Kathleen slid down the wall, breathing hard. “Holy shit,” she whispered.
Enzo stayed where he was for a long moment, hand still pressed to the door, listening. Only when the sounds of the platform faded completely did he allow himself to breathe.
“They were seconds away,” she said.
“I know.”
She looked down at her feet, raw and filthy now, then up at him. “I told you I could run.”
A sharp, helpless laugh tore out of him before he could stop it. He dropped down in front of her, hands gentle as he examined the scrapes on her soles. “You shouldn’t have had to,” he said quietly.
“But I did.” Her voice was steady. Strong. “And we’re still moving.”
He met her gaze.For now. He didn’t bother to voice this thought. She already knew it. What she might not have noticed is the fact that there was no bathroom attached to the couchette. That meant that, at some point, they were going to have to open the door. Eventually, they were going to have to leave the confines of the little cabin, and Dominic would be waiting.
“How did they find us?” Kathleen asked as she struggled to her feet. She’d flung her backpack onto the lower bunk on her way in, and now she reached for it.
“I have no idea.” Enzo snapped the top bunks upward into the wall so they could sit easily. He wracked his brain. “There’s no way they could’ve known where we were. We weren’t followed, I’m sure of it.”
Suddenly, his burner cell rang.
Enzo dug it out of his pocket. The only person who had this number was Danny. They’d used the burner he’d given Kathleen to call the Callahans. Kathleen stepped closer, her shoulder brushing his arm as if instinctively bracing for impact.
He answered, put it on speaker, and said nothing.
“I thought we had a deal.” Alessandro Vitale’s voice slid down the line, smooth and controlled, anger riding beneath it like a shark in chum-filled waters.
Enzo’s stomach tightened as his heart double-timed against his ribs.How the fuck did he find us?“We do have a deal,”he said, forcing his tone steady. “Why the hell are your people chasing us? People could get hurt.”
A soft exhale. Almost a laugh.
“My people don’t chase anyone unless I tell them to,” Vitale said. “And I don’t tell them unless someone is trying very hard to disappear.”
Kathleen’s fingers curled into Enzo’s sleeve. Her eyes were wide now, fear dark and unblinking. He reached out and squeezed her arm just as something slammed into the couchette door.
