He snorted. “That’s either clever or cruel, I can’t decide.”
“You just described Agent Wallace in one sentence.”
He looked up at the evening sky, and I traced the long line of his jaw and throat with my eyes. “What do you think it means?” he asked. “Did he put the diamond in there the night you met? Or was it never in there at all, and none of this is connected?”
“I unfortunately have no idea.”
He looked back down at me with a sad half smile right as a man walked up behind him. Bray lurched toward me as if something had been shoved into his back.
“Hand it over, and I won’t kill the girl,” the man said.
I instantly recognized the accent. One of Olena’s ghosts.
My blood froze over. I took a step back and bumped up against a wall. Except it wasn’t a wall, it was another man.
Two ghosts.
Maybe we hadn’t been followed, but they knew we were coming.
The ghost behind me wrapped his arm around the front of my shoulders like he was hugging me from behind. “Don’t even think about reaching for your gun, princess,” he said in the same accent the other ghost had.
I looked at Bray, suddenly racked with terror and trying to keep calm. His wide, gray eyes stared back at me as he swallowed hard. He slowly lifted his hands.
“We don’t have it,” he said.
We weren’t making a scene yet. To anyone passing by, I was being hugged and he was being patted on the shoulder, not held at gunpoint.
“Bullshit,” the first ghost said in his thick accent. “You don’t fly halfway across country to secret bank for no reason. We have been waiting for you. Hand it over.”
My ghost gave me a shake and gripped me tighter. I sucked in a hard breath and felt the power of his body behind mine. I couldn’t see him, but he was at least as big as the other ghost.
“There’s nothing to hand over,” Bray said calmly. “Why don’t we go somewhere and talk before anyone gets hurt?”
“Oh shit. What’s happening?” Ramesh said in our ears. “Erin—I mean Katherine, cough if you guys are in trouble.”
I coughed.
“Shit, shit, shit. Okay, I’m working on a satellite feed based on your position so I can see. Hang tight,” Ramesh said.
“No time for that,” I muttered.
“What’s that, princess?” my ghost said and leaned over to see my face. He smelled like thick cologne and cigarettes. I coughed again, both because the scent was choking me and in signal to Ramesh.
“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying,” Ramesh said. “Corner of Walker Street and …”
My body hummed with the urge to flee. I knew I could get away; I’d done it many times before out of this exact hold. But I didn’t want to leave Bray to fend for himself—or worse, risk him getting shot.
I met his eyes again, conveying as much as I could with mine.
I can take him, I said silently.
It’s too risky, he said back with a subtle shake of his head.
I’ll go get help.
Erin, no.
The plea in his eyes almost broke my heart. I couldn’t let another person sacrifice themselves for me, but Bray was looking at me like it might kill him if they killed me first.
