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Was I really going to turn my back on his offer and leave him here, most likely, to die?
Perhaps it was what he deserved, but by doing so was I also robbing my sister of her only chance of getting out of this alive? I couldn’t stand the thought of what might be happening to her at the hands of those men. Yes, she was seventeen, and acted tougher and more independent than she actually was, but she was still mentally not much more than a child.
“You can keep hold of the gun.”
X’s voice broke me from my thoughts.
“What?”
“If you’re worried about me trying something, you can keep hold of the gun to protect yourself.”
I looked over to the two dead bodies. Both men had had weapons which were now on the shelving unit upstairs. The people we were going after would be as fully armed as those two had been, if not more so. If I was going to trust X enough to help me, I’d need to trust him with a gun as well. He needed to be armed if we were going to stand any chance of getting Nickie back.
“What about my father?” I asked. “If you were frightened of him enough to take on the job to kill me, why aren’t you afraid of what he’s going to do when he finds out you helped me instead?”
He’d straightened at my accusation of him being frightened. “First of all, there’s a difference between being protective of your own life and being frightened. Secondly, I think the ship has sailed on being concerned about what your father will do. I’ve already failed on that front, by you still being alive and by Nickie being taken. Any retribution coming to me will arrive whether I help you now or not. In fact, saving your sister might be the only thing that will stop seven bells of shit falling on my head when he learns about this mess.”
I studied his face. He held my gaze, unflinching.
“Why don’t you just run as soon as I cut you loose?” I threw out, wanting to make sure I had every base covered. “I’m sure you know how to go into hiding—and you’d probably do a better job of it than the damn U.S. Marshals did for us.”
“Because if I did that, I would never get to see your face again.”
His words caused my heart to flip, and my breath caught. I searched his expression for any kind of insincerity, but he just continued to watch me, as though wanting to judge my reaction to his words as much as I was trying to figure out his. No, I couldn’t let this man get to me. He’d say whatever he could to get free from that chair, and I couldn’t allow myself to be drawn into fantasy.
Forcing myself from the moment, I lifted my eyebrows. “You’re fucking with me, right?”
He grinned and the tension broke. “Can’t I just say I want to help you now, and leave it at that?”
I might be making the biggest mistake of my life, but I reached for the knife still in my jeans pocket from when he’d tried to escape, and then, hoping I wouldn’t live to regret it, bent to cut his ankles free.
