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“Who does?”
“I don’t know, but whoever it is has something to do with those two.” I gestured toward the pile of bodies.
X took a breath. “Right. That’s it. You need to let me go now.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“I’ll help you get her back, but you need to cut this damned tape.”
“I can’t let you go. You’ll kill me.”
“No, I won’t. I’ll help you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because if your father finds out I was here and that I let someone take your sister, he will cut off my hands and feet and leave me to die somewhere no one will find me.”
That was exactly the sort of thing I could imagine my father doing.
I stared at him. “Oh.”
“Your father wanted Nickie back,” X continued. “He wanted you dead, too, but he also wanted her home again. I already told you that he thinks you were a bad influence on her.”
I couldn’t help the cold laugh that burst from my lungs. “Oh, yes, of course. I’m the bad influence.”
“Listen to me. Tell me exactly what they said to you on the phone.”
I took a breath. “He said, ‘what did you do to my men?’ and something about it not being in the plan. Then he put Nickie on the phone, but only long enough for her to ask me what I’d done—” My voice broke. Even when I’d tried to save her life, she still blamed me for everything. I paused, composing myself. “Then he said, ‘come and get her, and then you’ll find out where she is.’”
X nodded. “Okay, so they want you to find her, or at least come looking for her. Maybe they’re considering you to be more of an adversary than they first expected, so they’re putting you in an unknown situation rather than the other way around. They want to be the ones in control.”
“You keep saying ‘they,’” I said.
“This isn’t down to a lone wolf,” he replied. “Think about it. There are already two of them dead over there, and now someone else is calling you, and I doubt that person is working alone either. There are two ways to be in this job—solitary, like me, so that you slip under the radar and you have little contact with anyone, and that’s what keeps you safe. Or else you surround yourself with likeminded people and watch each other’s backs.”
“So, a gang?”
He nodded again. “Yeah, a gang—most likely a rival mafia outfit.”
“And now they have my sister.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I turned on him. “No, you’re not. How could you be? You don’t give a fuck about us. Why should you? You don’t even know us, and it was barely twenty-four hours ago that you were planning on shooting me!”
“A lot can change in a day.”
“Yeah, you got that right. This time yesterday, we were safe, and I didn’t have a hit man and two dead bodies in my cellar. Yesterday, I’d thought I’d get to testify against my father, and that we’d go on to live our lives. Now I don’t know if we’re even going to be alive in another twenty-four hours.”
The question was, if I released X, was that likely to increase our chance of survival or decrease it? If I didn’t release him, what would I do? I could drive to New York and start asking some questions, but chances were I’d end up dead within a few hours. Word would get back to my father quickly enough, and even if it didn’t, there were still enough of his guys around who would know he wanted me dead and would carry out the job for him. I’d most likely end up with a bullet through my mouth, a sign that I was a rat.
That thought made my heart hurt. A lot of those guys had seen me grow up, had bounced me on their knees when I was little and twirled my pigtails and called me sweetheart. That they would see me dead hurt almost as much as what my father had done, or made me do.
If I released X and he turned on me right away, I’d be dead and there would be no one around to help my sister.
If I didn’t release him, I would most likely end up dead anyway.
But what if I released him and he didn’t kill me? Then I’d have backup, and someone who knew his way around this business. The thought of having this intense, blue-eyed man on my side also tugged at something in my soul. I’d never had a confidant before, someone I could bounce ideas off, someone who would have my back. This smart-mouthed, handsome, dangerous man attracted me, even though I knew he shouldn’t, and now he was offering his help.
