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Gracie inches forward. “Sorry, Sandesh, there’s really no time for a debrief.”
Her cheeks are flushed. Excitement? Nerves? Something else? She says, “This guy says he knows Tony. Like I said, I don’t trust him, but he’s gotten me safely this far. He also says he can get us out of here so we can reconnect with the rest of our crew.”
“I can get you out if you follow my rules,” Dusty says.
Gracie stops, bites her lip as if remembering an important detail. “I’ll follow your rules up until we kill Walid.”
I can’t get my head around any of this. I tell them, “Kill whoever you want. I’m only interested in finding Justice.”
Dusty laughs. “You and half the world’s population.”
55
JUSTICE
The yellow lights perched along the outside of the barn flick on, casting shadows across Tony. His eyes seem a thousand years old. “I can explain, J.”
He canexplain? Explain betraying The Guild? Betraying me? Betraying the entire family? Letting Bridget take all the blame?
No. My confused brain rejects the idea, but I’m struggling because his eyes, my brother’s eyes, my friend’s eyes, stay on me, stay locked on me, and they’re saying,Trust me. This isn’t what you think.
Disbelief and panic clasp hands around my neck, trapping my heart in my throat. I’ve got no reasoning left so I let my training kick in.Assess the situation. Assess options.
Four armed men stand behind Tony. They have guns trained on me. My weapon is on the ground, unreachable. Only one option is likely to keep me alive.
I hold up my hands. “What do you want me to do?”
Tony lets out a breath and says so softly that his voice floats to my ears like the airborne seed of a dandelion, “I have to search you.”
He keeps his hands spread out as he reaches forward.
A chill runs down my body, and every instinct in me warns me not to let him touch me, but I stay put.
I grind my teeth as he searches me. I can’t utter a word, but the thoughtbetrayer, betrayerechoes in my head over and over.
His face comes so close to mine I can see the regret in his eyes when he feels along my arms, my back, my butt. He takes the knife strapped to the outside of my leg, takes the rifle hanging at my back, but he leaves the knife strapped on my calf under my pant leg.
What’s going on? He obviously felt it. Hell, he gave me that knife when we’d been getting ready, watched me hide it there.
Done, he stands up. His eyes focus so intently on me that I can almost hear them telling me something.Trust me.
Can I? Dare I? What’s going on? I swallow.
Tony steps back. “She’s clean.”
He hands the weapons he took from me to the closest guard. It’s then that I realize Tony isn’t armed.
What. The. Hell?
As if given leave to move, Walid and the two big guards flanking him step forward. Walid smiles at me with beautiful, perfectly straight teeth. Like he’d taken the money from selling broken and used women and had gone straight to the most expensive orthodontist in town. I want more than anything to tear that smile out, one tooth at a time.
One of the two men flanking Walid says, “I think I should search her. I don’t trust him.”
Walid considers this and then nods. “Search her.”
The guard moves toward me. I ready to make a stand, but Tony puts a hand to the guard’s chest, stopping him. He says, “No one, and I mean no one, is going to touch my sister.”
The guard glares at him. “I’m going to search her.”
