Page 56 of Till Death Do Us Part

“Elaine…” Petra’s face fell, and she clenched her jaw. “You don’t understand.”

“I understand well enough,” I said. “Let Caitlyn go.”

Petra relented, a little bit—she slipped the gag off Caitlyn’s face, and she gasped. “Elaine!” she called. “Are you okay?”

“Elaine’s fine,” Petra said, not taking her gaze off Vera. “The Wolf couldn’t kill her, turns out. The one and only person she can’t.”

“What about you, Petra?” Vera said. “Are you going to kill us? I’m a traitor to the family. And you’ll have to kill both of us to get the South Yard. You’ve got the gun. Shoot Elaine first, and I’ll put a bullet in your skull before you can turn to me. Shoot me first, and then you have to turn to these two innocent women and kill them, one by one. What will you do?”

“Dammit, Vera!” Petra slammed her fist down on the table. “We were counting on you!”

“You should have expected it from someone who already betrayed her family once.”

“Petra, please,” I said, and Caitlyn shuffled her chair closer to her.

“We can all be on the same side,” she said quietly. “We can work together. Just think what we could do if we did.”

Petra looked between all of us before, slowly, she sank against the table, half-folded over it. “I think I know where the leak came from,” she whispered. Vera sharpened her attention.

“What are you talking about?”

“I talked to Glenn earlier. He knew more than he was letting on. A lot more.” She squeezed her hands tightly. “Vera… I think he’s the one who leaked about us to the Whitecliffs. Leaked the information about Elaine. About the house.”

“What?” Vera and I both exclaimed it together, but Vera was the one taking it harder, her pupils smaller, leaning over the table. “What are you—that can’t be right. What would he stand to gain from that?”

“I don’t know,” Petra said, voice gravelly. “But maybe… to kill you. To get you and Elaine married, and then if you both die… killed by the Whitecliffs… then he has his South Yard. And cause to bring vengeance against the Whitecliffs.”

“But…” Vera’s eyes flashed wildly. “You can’t be serious.”

“I don’t know for sure,” Petra said carefully. “But it’s what I suspect.”

“That… I…” Vera heaved heavy breaths, clutching at the table.

“So all that is to say,” Petra rasped, “yeah. Maybe this is the family I want to be a part of.”

I choked out a heavy breath. Caitlyn welled up. “Petra,” she said quietly.

Petra shook her head. “Easy there,” she teased. “You still tried to shoot me.”

“Shoot—what? Caitlyn?” I turned to her, and she looked down.

“I got into the database and found out about the Horizon project, the project to take the South Yard and build the arms depot. I knew they were going to kill you. So I took one of the guns and I just… I didn’t know what else to do.”

“She’s got shitty aim,” Petra said. “Which is why I feel safe doing this.”

She bent down and untied Caitlyn’s arms, taking her leather jacket and shrugging it back on over her sports bra, leaning against the table with the light gleaming in her eyes. Caitlyn massaged her wrists, slowly relaxing, as Vera and I matched Petra’s posture on the other side of the table.

“So, we’re doing this,” Vera said. Petra looked at me, and she nodded.

“Between that and killing these two? I’m ready.”

“Jenna will be on board, I think,” Vera said. “We’ll station here in this house. It’s a highly defensible location. And the good news is that if it gets out that we’ve betrayed the Blackbirds, then Whitecliff will have no reason to go after us.”

“Trading one dangerous enemy for another,” Petra laughed.

“I’ve never gone without a dangerous enemy,” Vera said. “And our goal is to resolve the conflict with Glenn and make sure Horizon doesn’t happen.”

“And to protect Elaine,” Petra said.