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He sighs and tucks the gun back into his waistband, and a watery kind of relief goes through me, making me feel as shaky as a virgin on stage for the first time.
Logan’s face predictably gives away nothing, and Dante has a look on his face that I don’t even want to try to understand. Maddoc clenches his jaw as he stares down at me, but then finally gives a single, curt nod, as if he’s come to a decision.
“We can’t keep wasting our fucking time trying to stop you from escaping.”
“Then let me go. I need to—” My voice cracks with emotion, but I lift my chin and silently dare them to call me weak as I swallow and go on. “I need to find Chloe. I need to find my sister.”
Maddoc’s face shutters, his voice grim. “So do we, so we might as well work together.”
I narrow my eyes. “Never.”
“She’s on her own,” he says, going on as if I never spoke. “Out there in the city, hiding from West Point. Do you really think she’s safe out on the streets, all alone?”
My eyes well up, and I look away, scrubbing at them furiously. “Fuck you. She’s on her own because of you. In danger because ofyou.”
Maddoc crouches down and turns my face toward him, keeping a tight grip on my chin so I can’t look away. “Then let’s find her,” he says, his gray eyes boring into mine. “Help me, butterfly. Let’s call a truce and bring Chloe home.”
I laugh in disbelief. I don’t know what the fuck he’s playing at, becausehome?
Chloe and I don’t even have one anymore.
8
RILEY
I ignorethe pang in my heart from Maddoc’s careless, casual reference to “home.” A side effect of missing Chloe, and how fucked-up this whole situation is.
“Why the hell would you ever think I’d help you find my sister?” I demand instead, biting my tongue before I can add,after I shot you to make sure she got away.
No need to remind him about his gun when he could all too easily pull it out again. I hate how much I’m at their mercy right now. I’ve got no options left at all, but I’m still stunned at Maddoc’s arrogant audacity in asking me for help after the way they’ve used and betrayed me.
“You’ll help me because her safety matters to you,” Maddoc says as if it’s already a done deal, holding my gaze as he adds, “and she’s in a hell of a lot more danger out there on her own than she would be here.”
I almost lash out with a denial, but I can’t. No matter what it is the Reapers want with Chloe, I don’t deny the dangers that exist for her on the street. I just don’t know which is worse, because he still hasn’t told me anything.
“What do you want with her?” I ask, looking past Maddoc to take in Dante and Logan with the question. “Why are you doing all this? What could you possibly want with my sister? You didn’t even know she existed before West Point took her!”
“But you always knew we were going to help you because it would help us strike a blow against McKenna’s organization,” Dante murmurs.
I send him a death glare. “Of course I knew that. And you told me that fucking up West Point’s drug deal with Capside was how getting her back would help you with this gang war of yours.”
I was okay with that. This is something different.
Dante looks like he’s going to argue the point with me, but Maddoc sends him a look that quiets him. “You’re right,” he says, turning back to me. “We thought that would be enough. But then we found out that she can be… useful to us.”
“The fuck she can.” I glare at him. “Up until our father showed his true, spineless colors, I’ve managed to keep Chloe away from the gang activity in this city all her life. At least out there on her own, I know she’s not going to be used byyou.”
That muscle in Maddoc’s jaw starts twitching, and he looks murderous for a minute, but then it’s like he suddenly comes to a decision, and a wall comes down. He straightens up from his crouch and nods to his seconds, and they all take seats around me.
“Your father did sell her out,” Maddoc says, an urgent intensity in his voice. “But it could have been worse.”
I blink. “How?”
“Frank Sutton was not a faithful husband. Chloe is your half-sister. The product of an affair.”
A rushing sound fills my ears, and I stare at him for a moment as I process his words.
The product of an affair…
