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“No, he escaped.” She moved a shoulder in an apologetic shrug. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you earlier, but I had reasons. Anyway, he’s free. Believe it.”
She sounded satisfied, like we were on the same side, which made no damn sense.
I frowned down at her. “You’re happy Rafe got away from Moreau? I thought he was a target.”
“Fuck that.” She gripped my arm, her brow furrowed in an earnest, believe-me expression. “This isn’t what I signed up for. We don’t torture our targets. We take them out cleanly.”
I studied her. So the slayer had a code of ethics.
“The important thing,” she added, “is this buys you some time. He’s free, Zaq.”
That’s when it hit me. Rafe was free. He’d escaped from that thrice-damned dungeon.
Relief shuddered through me. Ridley was right, it bought me some time, or at least eased the pressure.
“Okay. Okay.” I blinked, rubbed a hand over my face. “What now?”
“There’s still your father. SI isn’t going to release you from your promise. As long as he’s alive, you and your brothers are still targets.”
“Yeah.” And there was the reminder—if I’d needed it—that Ridley No-Name and I weren’t on the same side. “Let’s go, then.”
We got on the subway and took it to Times Square, where we found a quiet corner. Earlier, while she was in the shower, I’d retrieved the burner phone I’d purchased earlier in the week from its hiding place. Now I punched in Father’s most recent number, hoping it still worked.
I was still looking for a way forward and had decided to ask for a meeting. Somehow I’d ditch Ridley and talk to him, face to face.
And if I had to, I’d stake him.
What I didn’t expect was for Tomas Mraz to answer.
“Who’s this?” he asked suspiciously.
I opened my mouth, then shut it. My thumb hovered over the End Call icon.
Hadn’t Spider said Tomas had gone missing? But Tomas wasn’t just my father’s lieutenant, he was a family friend. Almost like an uncle.
“It’s me,” I said. “Where’s Father?”
“He’s not available.” He didn’t ask how I’d escaped Moreau or if I was okay. But then, he wouldn’t. The big blond lieutenant was old-school. If I’d survived, that meant I was okay.
“Why not?”
“He’s gone dark.”
Frustration gripped me at Tomas’s short, uninformative sentences. “This is urgent, damn it. Can you at least get a message to him for me?”
“No,” Tomas said. No explanation. Just no. “Where are you?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and glanced at Ridley. A word to Tomas, and my father’s people would descend on us. She’d be taken into custody and I’d never see her again.
And the way the vampires in Moreau’s lair had fucked with me? She’d be lucky if they treated her that well.
She might be my enemy, but I just couldn’t do that do her.
I looked away. “Somewhere safe.”
“Where? New York?”
I shifted my feet, aware that Tomas would be trying to trace me. If I talked much longer, he’d be able to triangulate my location using nearby cell phone towers.
