She snorts. “I figured not. Lucky for me, I was way too low-levelfor Kilpatrick to sniff me out while he was wiping out everyone else. I changed my name, covered my tracks, and then just kept my mouth shut and my head down.”
“Until you could make a plan.”
“Exactly.”
“And that plan apparently included me.”
That makes Dani pause. I see her shoulders rise and fall in a deep, slow breath before she finally straightens, dragging her eyes up to mine. “I barely knew anything about you at the time, ghoulie. I just wanted revenge. I needed a way to get close to Kilpatrick, and you were very convenient leverage.”
Orion huffs out a humorless laugh. “So you arrange a way to meet the Butcher—”
Dani shrugs. “Steal some paper, hire them for a job, turn up at that job, and there you have it.”
“—and convince them you can be their frontperson. Just like that, you’ve got a line on Kilpatrick.” Orion raises an eyebrow. “And an opening to take out his new hitperson as well.”
Dani swallows hard, her amber eyes on the ground. “Yeah, that was kind of the plan. At first. But then I got to know you, Val, and you… you weren’t anything like I expected. I figured you’d be this mindless, heartless killer, but you weren’t. You were a survivor, just like me.” She tucks the high-caliber pistol she took off the body into her shoulder holster and then comes forward, stopping right in front of me. Looking into my eyes. Shifting forward until our faces are so close that I can feel the tickle of her breath as she speaks in her soft, low voice. “For what it’s worth, Val, I really did end up liking you. Still do, actually. Even though you messed everything up—”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Imessed things up?”
She narrows her eyes. “Yeah, you. Big Haul could’ve changed this whole town for the better if you hadn’t taken that job and thrown in with the first asshole who offered you a load of cash. Bloody Bill was trash—”
I launch myself at her, my hand going to her neck, and we tumble to the ground in a tangle of limbs. She struggles, but I manage to pin her against the ground, straddling her hips, Reason out and angled against her throat.
“I think you’re overestimating how much of a shit I give about this gang, this town, or your business,” I tell her, and my voice is the low growl of a magnastorm building on the horizon. “You set me up. Youusedme. You put my sisters’ lives in jeopardy!”
Dani goes very, very still beneath me, her hands held up in surrender. “What sisters?”
“Mysisters!” I tighten my hand on her throat. “I thought you kneweverythingabout me. Did you miss that little piece of information somehow?”
She flicks a look over at Orion, who nods and says, “They’re playing you straight. Two sisters—Halle and Kelda. Gold Towners took them when they blew up V’s lodgings.”
Dani sucks in a sharp breath, looking back at me, her stupidly big, wide eyes like concentrated gold. “I didn’t know—”
“Bullshit! You knew where I lived! Youtoldthem—”
She cuts me off, her voice hot with vehemence. “I wouldn’t tell a Gold Towner the goddamntime of day. You’ve got to be a special kind of naive if you think I’m the only person in all of Covenant who could suss out where you live.”
She watches my face very carefully, and when I don’t sayanything or dig the blade in any deeper, she plunges ahead. “I’m not a monster, ghoulie. I’m not in the business of letting innocent people get hurt.”
“But they did. Theydidget hurt.” How long had I been so blind? Letting her in, letting her get close only for her to plunge her knife so deep it’s scraping my spine. “I’m surprised you didn’t turn me over to the chapels. Tell them you’ve been working with a saint.”
“I’d never do that.”
“Why not? You obviously don’t have a problem with breaking a promise.”
Her lips press together in a thin, bitter smile. “Technically, I never promised you I wouldn’t kill Kilpatrick. Or set you up to do it for me. So I’m actually one-for-one on promises I’ve kept.”
I bare my teeth, bending low enough that my breath brushes across her face. “I don’t care about any of this. I just want my sisters back.”
“I don’t know where they are. I’ve been all over the Old Clock Tower already; I haven’t seen them.” She tries to swallow around my grip and manages it only barely. “But I can help. I can find where the Gold Towners are hiding them—”
I press my blade down a little harder, cutting her off. “What makes you think I would trust you now?”
Orion eases forward, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Take it easy, V. Maybe Miss Information here can come in handy. She’s already started looking through their records, and there’s got to be something here that mentions where they like to keep hostages.”
He’s right; there probably are records in this maze of roomsand hallways, and that’s the whole reason why he brought me here. But now, with betrayal burning hot in my chest, that doesn’t seem anywhere near good enough. I don’t want to paw through drawers and drawers of records, looking for clues. I want answersnow.
And I want to stab things.
