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“AHHHHHGGGG!”
His scream of agony split the silence of the alley with all the impact of an air raid siren. Somewhere in the chaos the knife clattered to the ground.
“Tell me!” I snarled again, yanking him close. “Who do you work for?”
Tightening my grip, I continued twisting him unmercifully. I could feel the grinding of bone on bone.
“I— I—”
His lips formed a single, pain-induced word. I couldn’t make it out. And that’s because the shadows in the alley shifted, and my attention was diverted to the two new men bearing down on us from the opposite end.
Shit.
Even in the darkness I could see that the men were dusk-skinned and dark-haired. The same as my attacker. The same as we’d feared for nearly a month now, despite trying not to be paranoid or read into anything.
But it was reading into things that had kept us alive all these years to begin with.
“Run.”
My would-be attacker and now temporary prisoner had grunted the word, sneering evilly through a mouthful of broken, bloody teeth. He was brave, I’d give him that. Even if he was stupid.
“Fuck you.”
I jerked his arm again for good measure — or maybe revenge, really — eliciting another sharp cry of pain. Then I shoved him face-first into the filthy cobbles and took off running in the opposite direction.
Damn.
Just when we’d wondered if things could be normal again, too.
Three
QUINN
“And this other guy… you say you went out with himtwice?”
Meghan dragged her triangle of warm pita bread through a sea of olive-topped hummus. I watched as she ate it ravenously, heedless of how she looked in the crowded restaurant.
“Three times actually,” I admitted glumly. “If you count the first time we met and had coffee.”
My friend sighed in a grave disappointment that wasn’t directed at me.
“And he never made a single move on you?” she squinted.
I shook my head.
“No hand-holding? No kiss goodnight?”
“Once. On the cheek.”
“Are you sure you didn’t miss any signals, or—”
“Trust me, it was purely platonic. I know that for a fact.”
My friend tilted her head to one side. She was still skeptical.
“And how do you knowthat?”
“Because he walked me to my apartment door and shook myhand,” I said, wincing at the memory.
