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“Fuck, as long as you’re here she stays breathing. Cocksucking dickless piece of shit holding you gangster hostage.”

“That’s the least of what he is. I’m a dead man. I know this. Poppy’s got a gun, if she picked it up. And Gia has a blade. He’ll know it was me because I was the only one who was with them both.”

I exhale for the first time since they slipped the blindfold on me. I kiss the top of his head. He’s the one who made that mess in the van and got her out. I kiss his forehead and he exhales.

“You’ll see your daughter again. I swear it.”

“This is bigger than you and I’m a cog, but they know how to open the safes and the vault.”

My body goes cold with confirmation I’m no longer holding my last secret. “All of them?”

“Let’s just say that they plan to kill them slowly.” They can’t know the last piece. The one that only the asshole who made the safe, Lou, and myself are aware of. And I was told the safe engineer was dead for double crossing someone else on some tech shit.

“Who knows the keys?”

“A handful. I overheard. I’m a sneaky fucker like that.” He grins a sad sick smile, and I’m thrilled he’s an asshole who eavesdrops. I put my forehead to his and he says the words that turn my world inside out. “It’s always about the blood.”

We hear the gravel crunch as a man comes around the corner. Grocer’s gun pops a couple in his head. I drag the body towards us after he is down. He reaches into his suit coat and pulls out another suppressor for the Glock I have stashed. Now we can make something happen. I was ready to fucking blast through these walls before, but not now that I know his plan.

I give Grocer the rundown. “I got a man on the other side. There’s seven here, five more over here. And the Dutch bullshit cocksucker just revealed they got an eye in the sky. You’re a sneaky motherfucker. Think you can ice peeping Tom upstairs?”

“Anything. Si tratta sempre del sangue.” I clasp his hand. We go back to the neighborhoods, running numbers for our dads. His daughter has been a secret for most of her life. He’s stayed away to keep her safe.

“It’s always about the blood.” And now they know whose blood it’s about.

Chapter

Forty-Five

Poppy

The pain is excruciating as I come to. I can barely catch my breath. Gia’s head is lolling around and has clearly been subdued with a chemical element unlike me who took another blow to the head. This time the world fell away, and I was overcome with panic and then blackness.

Our arms are strapped to a table, and they’ve sliced open my palm. My blood is pooling and there’s some asshole in a freaking lab coat sucking it up with a fucking syringe. I’m so creeped out. Why not hook us up to the blood donation bag thing in the corner? Why cut us?

“Gia. Gia. Wake up,” I hiss at her. I screamed loudly when they cut me. I hope to God, someone heard me who cares. There aren’t many men in here. The room where I danced with my husband a couple of hours ago has been transformed into a parlor of horror. There’s two hospital beds with bags hung on those metal things. There’s a doctor looking motherfucker who I don’t trust. Like Island of Dr. Moreau don’t trust him. He looks way too excited scooping up my blood from where it’s pooling on the antique inlay table.

I scream with all the volume I have which isn’t much at this point, “Gia wake the fuck up. Now. Please!”

Her head jerks up and she stares at me. Then she gasps, “Poppy. What are you doing here?” I stare at Enzo.

“You didn’t tell her.” She has no idea what’s happening. “Jesus, has she been in a dungeon?”

Enzo picks his teeth and unbuttons his shiny grey suit jacket. “Slipped my mind. Why don’t you tell Mommy?” She winces as he calls her that.

Before Gia can say anything I ask, “What is Dr. Creepenstein doing?” Gia nods her head toward the guy, putting the blood into vials.

“Si tratta sempre del sangue,” she utters.

I know this phrase. He’s said it to me often. Gia speaks with a voice that is cuts and rasps. There are marks around her throat that tell me they cut off her oxygen to subdue her at some point recently. Enzo smiles like the sickening Cheshire Cat he is.

Gia sputters, “I didn’t know yours was needed too, but of course it is.”

“It’s always about the blood.” I wish I could reach out to her. Then without warning Dr. McNotSoDreamy slices Gia’s arm. She cries out, and he stands and watches her bleed until there is a small puddle under her arm. He uses the same syringe and adds her blood to mine.

“What the fuck? Why not hook us up over there?”

I see his oily teeth peek out. “This is more fun. And we have to make sure it all works. Why waste good medical equipment on dumb whores if we don’t have to?”