“One worthy of a one-hundred-million-dollar hit? Absolutely.”
“And Lucinda?”
Matt sits back in his chair. “She seems to have bitten off more than she can chew with our little sister.”
Oursister. I keep forgetting that part.
“Are you thinking a pardon for dear old Mom?”
He scrubs his face with his hand. “Maybe … Maybe instead of her head, we ask for her to be brought to our physicians alive. Provided Emily hasn’t made that impossible, of course.”
The sounds of argument dim on the other end of the line, and the camera swivels back to Emily’s face.“What are you mumbling about?”
Matt sighs. “Listen, Emily, if you guys stay there, we can have a Syndicate car pick you both up in … Aron?”
“Forty-five minutes.”
“In forty-five minutes.”
Suspicion flashes across her face.“Why a Syndicate vehicle? Why not Empire?”
“It’s this or nothing, Emily.” Matt’s finger hovers over the button that will disconnect the call. “We can’t hand you back to the Empire. Do you agree or not?”
“No.”
The camera image pans again, finally zeroing in on a bloody key fob.
“Looks like I have a Syndicate car here right now. Why do I need you two to rescue me when I can just save myself?”
Shit. If she bolts, we might never find her again.
“Emily, you know we can track that car.”
“True, my love, but only as far as I drive it. I’ll just take a page from my big brother’s book and switch cars. Easy peasy.”
“What about Mom? You said you can’t move her.”
An ominous sound echoes through the phone line just before the call drops, and my blood runs cold.
The distinctiveclickof a lighter.
Chapter 12
Matt
Mom …
“Aron—”
“Already on it.”
His phone beeps as he types a frantic message. Seconds later my phone buzzes, along with every phone in the Syndicate. The message is simple: a set of coordinates, along with the words“We want Lucinda alive.”
Resting my elbows on the desk and my head in my hands, I groan with frustration. “I just wanted some fucking sleep.”
Aron’s hands grab my shoulders, kneading the tense knots forming there. “How’s the headache? We have at least a couple of hours before your mother’s brought back here, and they’ll probably rush her to the doctors first thing. There’s no telling how long it will be then. Turn off your phone, lie down, and get some rest.”
“Rest? Our nutjob of a sister is at large, and my mother lies on death’s bed. From the looks of that wound, it’s a gamble if the smoke from the fire will kill her before the infection does.”
