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I couldn’t expect her to, either. Not after everything she’d been through, but she didn’t have much choice, and I told her so.
“Fine,” she said resolutely. “Let’s just keep moving.”
I looked around again. An old station wagon that had seen better days was parked on the far side of the lot. “Grab your bag,” I told her, “and follow me.”
She did as I’d suggested and we hurried over to the other side of the parking lot. I kept my eyes peeled for anyone who looked like the owner of the car coming out of the restaurant, but so far everything was quiet.
I spotted a small rock on the ground not too far away, and snatched it up. With a sharp smack of the rock against the driver’s window, I smashed a hole in the glass. Reaching in through the hole, I pulled open the lock, which disengaged all the locks in the car, and then yanked open the door.
“Gotcha.” I turned to Vee. “Jump in, but stay low.”
She climbed over to the passenger seat and slid down into it, so only the top of her head was visible through the window. I bent down, under the steering wheel, and located the wires I needed. This kind of older vehicle was easy to hotwire, and within a minute, the engine revved to life.
“Let’s go.” I jumped behind the wheel, wincing at the pain in my thigh the movement caused, and before the owners had a chance to even notice the vehicle missing, we were back on the road. I figured the old banger was worth more in insurance than anything else. The owners would probably be happy to have the money to buy a new car.
“Now what?” asked Vee, glancing over at me, her bag of guns held primly in her lap.
“Have a look in the glove compartment, see if there’s a map.”
She did, and pulled out a massive map, badly folded, so when she tried to unfold it, it filled half the car. “Jesus. No wonder they invented sat-navs.”
I laughed, a sound so foreign to me. I’d been lucky if I so much as cracked a smile before meeting her. “We need to find the road they’re going to meet us on, and see if there’s another way. If we can come from the wrong direction, chances are they won’t see you coming.”
“Me? What about you?”
“We still need to split up. I’ll cover you from the side of the road.”
“What if they just shoot me as soon as they see me?”
I hated to think that was a very real possibility.
“That’s the reason I need to watch things go down from the side. The minute it looks like someone’s going to pull a trigger on you, I’ll shoot the son-of-a-bitch.”
“Okay, looks like I don’t have much choice.”
I turned to her, as much as I could while still driving. “Yes, you do. You don’t have to go and try to get your sister back. You could just take off, go and lose yourself again.”
“And what kind of person would that make me? I hate myself enough already, without adding ‘abandoned sister to mobsters’ to the list.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
I frowned. “What doesn’t?”
“If they shoot me. If I die. It’s not like anyone is going to miss me.”
“Vee—” I started, but she cut me off.
“If you have the choice between Nickie or me—which of us you’re going to save, I mean—choose her. Okay?”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can. It’s simple. Just pick her. Take her away somewhere to start a new life—hell, take her to the cops, if you think that’s the best thing. Just make sure she’s safe. She’s got more chance of living a normal, happy life than I have. My life ended three months ago. I’m just going through the motions.”
I didn’t know what to say, but I wasn’t going to promise her anything.
