“Looking for her.” Consul jerks on Piper’s arm the tiniest degree and the girl draws in a breath. “And she’ll get her. After she agrees to give me an extra million for the shitty day I’ve had.”
“Connie,” Piper begins to say.
“That’s not my name!” Consul gives the girl a shake.
“Consul.” I try to infuse my voice with calm. “She’s a kid. You can’t sell her.”
“The hell I can’t,” she snarls. “I gave up a family, a life, my name. All to babysit criminals who don’t appreciate what they’ve been given.”
“I’m sure they appreciated it,” I say.
“My last wraith shot me,” she replies.
“All right, maybe not.” My fingers cramp and I have to readjust my grip. If she doesn’t let me climb up soon, she won’t have to shoot me. I’ll fall to my death. “Consul, I don’t know what your life has been like. But look at the situation—you betrayed ISD. You sold out two informants. I don’t know what the sentence is for something like treason, but it can’t be good.” I pull myself up a little higher, edging my elbows onto the platform. “I’ll put in a good word for you. I’ll say you played triple agent, so you could lure Vale here and then capture her. You could still get out of this with your job and life intact.”
Piper gives me an incredulous look. I blink at her, then glance deliberately at Consul’s foot. Piper’s brow furrows in confusion, then she seems to understand. I hope she understands.
Consul laughs hollowly. “You think I’d take your word?”
“I’m not the liar here,” I answer. “Everything I’ve told you is true.” Which is mostly true.
“You’ll sell me out,” she says. “For a shorter sentence.”
I gape at her, open-mouthed. That possibility hadn’t even occurred to me. “I wouldn’t.”
“No.” Consul shakes her head. “It’s safer to get rid of the witnesses. And then I can tell ISD that Vale took the girl, and killed you, the boy, and the old lady.”
The thought of Consul hurting Nonna sends an overwhelming jolt of fear into my stomach. She’ll do it, too.
And I can’t stop her.
But someone else can.
I meet Piper’s eyes. Her mouth is tight with terror, but her eyes are steady.
I nod.
The girl bites down on her lower lip, takes a breath, and then raises her leg. Then she brings all her weight down on Consul’s foot.
If Consul had worn practical shoes, she might not have ended up injured. But her persona as Aunt Connie demanded flimsy ballet flats—and they provide no protection.
Consul makes a surprised sound of pain. Piper whirls on her, clawing and biting like a feral cat snagged in a trap.
I heave myself up and out of the elevator shaft.
I throw myself at Consul, hitting her at the waist. She jackknifes to the floor, gun flying from her grasp. I expect Piper to retreat, but instead, the girl has latched onto Consul’s hair.
Consul slams her knee into the meat of my thigh. I cling on, wrestling her to the ground in the world’s most ungraceful tangle. Consul reaches up to take hold of her own hair by the roots and twists her head, freeing herself from Piper’s grasp.
I need to pin her, to get her down so that Piper can grab the gun and lob it over the side of the railing. If we’re lucky, maybe it’ll fall into the pool.
But there’s one problem with my plan: I’m not an experienced fighter—and I’m exhausted.
Consul takes to violence with ease. Her body coils likea snake’s, writhing out of my grasp and bucking me off-balance. She strikes my knee out from under me and I stagger, trying to catch myself. In that moment, she seizes my left shoulder and wrenches my arm behind my back. My other leg is kicked out from under me, and then I’m on the floor.
Agony flares through my left arm, my shoulder, and my rib cage. A scream tears itself free of my lips and I’m on the floor, eyes watering from the pain. Consul is on top of me, knee digging into my spine. She has wrenched my left arm up behind me, pinning me in place. If I try to struggle, she could dislocate my shoulder with a single twist.
Someone shouts, and I’m dimly aware of footsteps nearby. The world has gone hazy as my mind quietly detaches itself from the excruciating sensations of my body.
