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“I’m dropping y’all around Grand Central,” Dana said. “From there you can catch a train to anywhere.”
“Not if we’re broke.” My voice sounded unbelievably harsh, even to me. “Did you think to bring money?”
Dana winced. “No. No time. This isn’t going in the Rescue Hall of Fame, is it?”
“You’re doing great,” Lucas said. “Just let us out and I can take it from there.”
She pulled over on a side street. Skyscrapers loomed here, their lights blazing even at this hour. It wasn’t yet dawn, but the sky had begun to lighten. Nobody much was on the roads, just a few taxis. To my surprise, Dana got out of the van when we did and walked around to us. She and Lucas faced each other squarely.
“You still don’t know what to think,” Lucas said. “Do you?”
She shook her head. “Nope. But, Lucas, you’re as close to a brother as I’m ever gonna have. I’d rather be wrong to set you free than be right to do you harm.”
Lucas made this weird choking sound in his throat, and then all of a sudden, he and Dana were hugging each other tightly. I saw a tear roll down Dana’s cheek.
When they let go, I wanted to say thank you, but I was still angry with her. The fact that I was wrong to be angry with Dana instead of Raquel didn’t seem to have much to do with anything. I managed to say, “What will you tell the others?”
“That Lucas took me hostage.”
“Will they believe that?” I said. Milos was already suspicious of Balthazar’s “death.”
“He will once Lucas makes it convincing,” Dana said, squaring her shoulders.
I didn’t get what was going on, but Lucas apparently did. He grimaced. “I really don’t want to.”
“Let me refresh your memory on how this works,” Dana said. “I save your butt, you save mine. Do it!”
Lucas punched her in the face so hard she slammed into the back of the van. I gasped. Although Dana staggered, she managed to stay on her feet. Lucas said, “You okay?”
“Will be,” she said thickly. Blood dripped from her lip onto the pavement. “Why do you have to be so good at your work?”
“Dana,” I began. “Are you sure—”
“Why are you still here?” she demanded.
Lucas grabbed my hand, and the two of us began to run. My breath caught in my throat, and the sidewalk jarred my feet, but I pushed myself to go faster and faster. All I could hear was Dana’s voice behind us, shouting, “Get out while you can!”
Chapter Twelve
ALTHOUGH THERE SHOULD’VE BEEN AN AGENT IN the subway booth, it was empty; maybe somebody thought 4 A.M. was as good a time as any to take a break. It gave us a chance to jump the turnstiles and wait for a train.
We sat together on one of the old wooden benches, which was layered thick with graffiti. Neither of us said anything at first. I felt like everything around me was very far away, and it was hard to remember that this wasn’t some bad dream or a terrible memory. It was like my brain wanted to trick me into thinking that it couldn’t be happening here or now.
The first thing that intruded into my consciousness sharply enough to goad me into speaking was the sign hanging overhead.
“‘Downtown,’” I read. “That’s the direction we want to go, right?”
“Don’t see what difference it makes.” Lucas leaned his head against the tiled wall. “As long as we’re putting some distance between us and them, it’s all good.”
All good were not words I would’ve used to describe our situation. I thought I realized what he was trying to do. “I know you want to be strong for me,” I said softly, “but right now I think it’s more important that you be honest with me.”
“Strong.” Lucas closed his eyes tightly. “Is that what I’m being? Because it doesn’t feel like it.”
Black Cross was all he ever had in the world, I told myself. What I went through was horrible, but for Lucas, tonight was even worse. He lost his mother, his best friend—everything but me. Maybe it’s my turn to be the strong one for a while.
“We’ll be okay.” I took his arm in my hands and examined the burns from the holy water. They were thin pink stripes that looked like lines of very bad sunburn. “Wait and see.”
Just then a gust of wind blew through the tunnel, heralding the arrival of the train. I cast a worried glance behind us as we boarded, but nobody followed. Only one other person was on the car, a college-age guy who was asleep across the seats and smelled strongly of beer.
