Rage is written into the lines of his mouth, but he peels his lips back into a smile. “Here.” He holds out a card between two fingers. “My number. You’ll call.”
I take the card. His smile grows bigger. He knows he’s won. I lower the gun and shoot the seat directly between his legs. He jumps, slamming himself into the corner of the seat, cursing me in fluid Italian. The scent of gunpowder assails my nose and I breathe in deeply, letting it settle in my sinuses.
I climb out of the car, pointing the gun at the men outside. “It’s okay!” Rafael shouts, and they lower their guns. I turn and walk down the alley.
“You need me,” Rafael yells after me. “You’ll call. James betrayed us all. But you and I still want the same thing.”
I throw the gun in a trash can, my fist clenched around his card. “I don’t know what I want,” I whisper, and it’s true.
ANNIE
Six Weeks Before
I THROW A PUNCH. I MIGHT AS WELL THROW IT AWAY, because as usual it sails wildly through the air, connecting with nothing. “Do I look as stupid as I feel? Because I really can’t imagine how that’s possible.”
Cole doesn’t answer, but I hear a muffled laugh.
“Fia is the one who got trained to fight. For rather obvious reasons they didn’t bother with me.”
“I’m very familiar with how Fia fights.”
I smirk. “I’m so glad one of us kicked your butt.”
“I didn’t say that.” He sounds decidedly grumpy.
“Didn’t have to. Fia’s got perfect instincts. Never hesitates. Operates on pure impulse. Blah, blah, blah.” I throw my arms in the air and then sit, defeated, on the floor next to the wall. If Fia were here, I wouldn’t need to learn how to fight.
It was supposed to be the two of us, hiding, on the run. We would have made a good team. Wouldn’t we? Or would she have felt like she used to feel, like she had to take care of me all the time? Maybe if she were around, I wouldn’t mind. I let people take care of me as a default.
I’m sick of it.
My thoughts drift to the bottle of pills buried in the bottom of my bag upstairs. I still haven’t started taking them. I wanted to ask Sarah what it was like, if it helped, but she and Rafael left as soon as we got to this tiny house in Tennessee. They said it was to muddy the trail, and they’ll meet back up with us when they feel like it’s safer. So I’m stuck here with only Cole.
A foot nudges my shoulder, hard, and I twist and shove it away. Cole? Not such pleasant company.
“You have strengths, too. Good balance,” he says. “And you recognized the Keane employee’s voice after years.”
I stand, trying not to groan. “It’s not like I have superhearing or some sort of bat sense. No mystical blind-person powers.”
His voice is dry. “Other than the whole seeing-the-future thing.”
I flip him off
.
“Put your hand on my shoulder. Notice anything?”
I frown. I do, actually. His shoulder is covered with muscle. My shoulders do not feel like that. “Umm, it’s very . . . shouldery?”
He shoves lightly against my hand. “Think of the angle.”
It takes me a few more seconds, then I laugh. “You’re short!”
“We’re about the same height, which puts you at five foot six. Average for a girl. Small for a guy.”
“So you use this to your advantage?”
“Nobody suspects the little ones. I also have a very charming smile.”