Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
The world could burn around us, but I wouldn’t let her down. Not even for myself.
Chapter Ten
Tessa
In retrospect, this might not have been my brightest idea. The staging van reeked of gun oil and whatever onion laced sandwich the last person in here had chowed down on. I was already inside, my back against the wall, when Kass yanked the door open. I’d been surprised when no one had been in the van when I hid, but they’d all ridden in a different vehicle and parked a couple blocks away, if the chatter I’d heard from the driver and his passenger was any indication.
Kass paused when he saw me and just gaped for a second. I stared right back, refusing to move. Then Antonio rounded the back bumper, and his face went through a wild shuffle of emotions starting with furious. After that, I kind of quit keeping track. When he spoke to me, it was almost a growl.
“Tessa.” There might have been a warning to his growl but I didn’t let his displeasure sway me.
“Yep.”
“You told me you’d stay put.”
I didn’t look away. “Got me what I wanted.”
The tension in the van felt viscous. Behind him, Finch had gone statue-still. No doubt, he knew better than to weigh in. Hawk leaned against the wall, arms folded, gaze sliding anywhere but at us. Sully pretended real hard to focus on his phone.
“You gave me your word,” he said.
“I gave you what you needed to hear so you’d move.” I kept my voice even. “I meant to keep it. Then I thought about Mercy Raines and I knew I couldn’t.”
His jaw was tight enough to shatter. “If something happens to you in there --”
“Then something happens to me.” I met his eyes and didn’t flinch. “But you have a much better chance of success if I’m with you. Knight and I went over everything, but the possibility I missed something or misremembered something, I’ll know the second I see where we are.” I paused, then added, “You know I’m right.”
He looked at me for a long time. Long enough that Kass cleared his throat once, quietly. The muscle in Tonio’s jaw moved. He stepped back from the van door. “She stays with me. Every Goddamned step.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“Oh, make no mistake, little girl. I could give a good Goddamn if you agree to that or not. If you try to take off on me, I will pull the Goddamned plug. I don’t care how many people I have to sacrifice, you will not be harmed in any way. Not even a Goddamned scratch.” He turned to Kass.
Nobody else said anything else about me being there. Knight’s voice came through the earpiece Kass had given me a minute later, steady and low. “Good to go, guys. Rourke’s badge is active. First door will accept it for the next forty minutes before the system cycles. After that, we’re relying on the biometric.”
Rourke sat in the front passenger seat, sweating through his shirt. Two of Antonio’s men flanked him as he climbed out of the van. I had no doubt both men could and would take out the other man if Tonio gave the word. I wanted to spit in the guy’s face. Or slash his eyeballs.
Without further comment we all went out on foot, keeping to the shadow side of the block. The building ahead was dark at street level, the import business shuttered for the night, but I could see the amber glow leaking under the upstairs windows. Same as it always had.
Antonio walked at my right shoulder and slightly ahead of me the whole way. It was a protective gesture I recognized he did occasionally. He put himself in the best position to intercept anything coming at me. I kind of felt bad about defying him, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to be here. I gave them an advantage more than I hindered.
Rourke’s hands shook when he pulled the badge. He pressed it to the reader and the light went green and the lock clicked open, and for a half second none of us moved.
I pushed the door open and walked back into the place that had nearly broken me, except this time I walked in with a small army at my back, and I walked in by choice. What I hadn’t prepared myself for was the visceral reaction I’d have to the scent of the place. Cedar and the smell of new paper money made my stomach churn hard. I had to swallow several times to keep from vomiting while I kept moving.
The zig-zagging corridor opened up past the second door and I paused. I smelled something, underneath the cedar and the recirculated air. Antiseptic and something sweet I couldn’t name but knew didn’t belong. My body knew it before my brain caught up. Then I moved, because stopping was not an option I’d given myself.