Page 33 of Warped

If it wasn’t X who had been shooting at us, that could only mean one other person, or group of people … my father’s men.

And they would come after me.

He took me by the hand and tugged me away. “We need to get out of here.”

I shook my head, and pulled back on him. “I can’t. I can’t leave my sister.”

“Your sister?”

“Yeah, she’s here somewhere.”

“We can come back for her. We need to go now, Verity.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him.

“What?” he hissed.

“You never call me that. It’s always Vee.”

He lifted his eyebrows at me. “We don’t have time for arguing about names. We need to get out of here.”

I shook my head. “Please, just let me look. I have to find her. I think I know where she’ll be.”

X and Harvey exchanged a glance.

“We need to get out of here,” said Harvey.

X looked back to me. “Two minutes.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

The men were able to cover me now, as they were both armed. I ran for the library and shoved open the heavy dark wood doors with both hands.

Nicole stood with her tutor, his arm protectively around her shoulders. She stepped forward when she saw me, her eyes widening. “Vee, what’s going on?”

“Someone’s shooting up the front of the house. We need to get out of here.”

She caught sight of X behind me and her brows drew together in confusion. “Is that …?”

I nodded. “Yes, he’s come to get us away from here. Now let’s go.”

But frustratingly, she shook her head. “No, I’m not going anywhere. Tony is protecting us, remember? And besides, I don’t want to leave Mateo.”

Mateo? The tutor!

I stared at her in disbelief. “Tony is only protecting you because he thinks he can benefit from having you around.” I turned my attention to the tutor. “And as for you, she’s seventeen years old. I should put a fucking bullet in your head if you’ve touched her.”

“I’m not a little girl, Vee,” she snapped. “I’m going to be eighteen in two days, and it’s not like you were some innocent at my age. Mateo and I love each other. I’m staying with him.”

I rolled my eyes. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

X’s voice came from behind me. “We have to go, Vee. We’re running out of time.”

“Please, Nickie. Come with me. We will protect you. You can’t live your life under Tony’s thumb. It won’t end up well for you.”

“Nothing’s ever ended up well for you, though, has it, Vee? I hardly think you’re someone who should be giving out life advice.”

I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to smack her around the head and drag her out of there by her hair. Not since the day I’d been forced to choose between her and our mother about who was going to die had I been so torn. I didn’t want to go without her. But she refused to leave. I wanted to be with X, and I was sure Tony would kill me soon.

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