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She nods. And I move.
Dakota raises her head. I’m aching for this kiss, and so is she. The noise fades as our lips almost touch.
“You have to do this, you started it, baby girl. And whatever happens, try to keep your shoes and bag with you. Failing that, fight to wear his necklace.”
“W-why?”
“Push me and yell for help.”
“I can’t, I love you?—”
“Do it. You’ll end up dead.”
Suddenly, she wrenches herself away and it’s like she tears my flesh from bone.
She yells for help and everything goes to shit. For me. I’m taken down hard, even though I don’t fight like I can. I don’t lift a fucking finger. I’m cuffed, then read my rights.
And the crimes read to me are all the ones of the damn fucking Collectors. Right down to the kidnapping and attempted rape of Dakota.
I’m dragged off. Bundled into a van. But there aren’t cops in the van.
I stare at Malone and Smith. “If something happens to her, I’ll kill you both and I don’t give a fuck if she’s your daughter, Smith.”
“You think I could stop this?” He rubs the back of his neck as Malone talks to someone on an earpiece. “We can take down monsters, but two girls thwarted me.”
“One.” I look at him. “Your daughter. She better make it.”
Malone hits my back as the car takes off to wherever the fuck it’s going. “She’s going to be huge after this. When that video drops.”
Huge.
It dawns on me what that means.
More fame. More attention.
While I’m pretty fucking sure they have someone my build being processed at a precinct right now who’ll get disappeared—a true crime fucking podcast waiting to happen—it means something else.
It means there’s no future, even if I wanted one. Not for me and Dakota.
“Can I get these cuffs off?”
“You’re not going to kill us?” asks Malone. “Are you?”
“I’ll think about it.”
It’s been too long. There are too many people in the new fucking van. All brilliant at what they do, and not one with military training and discipline. It makes me nervous.
We can’t get close to them. Fucking Jones’s orders.
I really want to ask why it’s worth risking Dakota, why we couldn’t take this guy down. He’ll never tell me. I could torture him and he’d take the reasons to his grave.
Maybe he’ll talk one day, maybe he won’t, but right now, whatever’s pushing him is very personal.
I should take him down anyway.
I would.
But it won’t help Dakota. Not now.
