“We’ve got maybe ten minutes before someone else calls the cops,” Diesel said.“Maybe less.”
I nodded.“Get the one with the busted elbow into the Bronco.We’ll see what he knows, then decide what to do with him.”
“What about the others?”
“Leave them.Tell Knuckles so he can make sure to put cops he fully trusts in the area near her apartment until someone can clean it.”
Diesel nodded and hefted the man in a fireman’s carry then headed to the door.
I snagged Veda’s hand and we headed out.“Let’s go.”
The man she’d shot still lay where he’d fallen, the knife beside his outstretched hand.Veda’s eyes fixed on him for a long moment.
“He deserved it,” I said.
“I know.”She didn’t look away.“That doesn’t make it easier.”
“No,” I agreed.“It doesn’t.”
We took the stairs.Inferno waited at the exit, his gaze on the street.Tiny kept the Bronco’s engine running, even as he helped Diesel with the bastard we intended to take back to the compound to question.Diesel and Tiny secured him with zip ties.The guy didn’t move or cry out which meant he was still unconscious.
We all loaded into the Bronco.I pulled Veda close, my arm tightly around her.She turned her face into my chest as Tiny pulled away from the curb without turning on the headlights.
Nobody spoke for several blocks.Veda still had her arms wrapped around the laptop bag.The cut on her palm had started bleeding again, a thin line of red trailing down her wrist.
“We’ll get Pain to look at your hand,” I said.“He can check the scrapes on your face too.”
She glanced down and seemed surprised to see the blood.“It’s nothing.”
“It’ll get infected.”
She shrugged.“I’ve had worse.”The Bronco hit a pothole, jolting all of us.Veda sat back, turning her head to look out the window.
“We’ll be at the compound in twenty,” I said.“Knuckles will want to see what you’ve got.”
She nodded, then turned to look at me.In the dim light from the dash, her eyes looked almost black.“What happens after that?”
“Depends on what you’ve got.”
She was quiet for a moment, her jaw working.Then, “If I give you everything, what happens to my sister?Because I’m not stupid enough to think I’m going to get anywhere with the cops, and I can’t help her by myself.”
I didn’t have an answer, not one she’d want to hear.“I can’t promise you we’ll find her, Veda.But I promise we will do everything in our power to find her.I can’t speak for Knuckles, but I can speak for myself.”I held her gaze, needing her to know I meant what I said.“I will help you with every resource I have at my disposal.”
She held my gaze a moment longer, then nodded once and turned back to the window.The city slid past outside, streetlights and storefronts and the occasional late-night pedestrian, all of them oblivious to the violence we’d left behind.In the front seat, Tiny and Diesel talked in low voices, the radio turned down to a murmur.Inferno, in the very back with our prisoner, had his eyes closed, his head tipped back against the side of the vehicle.I knew he wasn’t sleeping.
Veda’s hand found mine in the darkness between us, her fingers cold against my palm.She didn’t look at me, didn’t say anything, just held on as the Bronco carried us deeper into the night.
Chapter Five
Veda
Tiny rolled the Bronco through the gates of the Kiss of Death compound several minutes later.We parked inside one of the big garages and exited the vehicle.Griffin urged me toward the rear of the structure, and we moved through the compound from there.The camo netting overhead covering the paths between buildings turned the weak morning light a sickly green as Griffin walked me into another building and straight to Knight’s office.
Griffin rubbed my back almost absently as if to gentle me.It probably made me too stupid to live, but I not only enjoyed the feel of his big, warm palm on my back, the motion soothed me.Dawn had barely broken, but Knuckles and Knight were already waiting, a cluttered table between them.I clutched the laptop bag to my chest and the ledgers in my other hand.
“You find your building intact?”Knuckles asked, his voice low.
“No,” Griffin said.“They’d already been there.We ran into four of them.”
