Page 57 of Whips and Chains
Honestly, dying in a flipped car or one that had crashed into a pole had not been on my bingo card for the week.
How on earth could I have survived the warehouse, and the psychopaths who had all come out of the woodwork, only to be killed by the cute little brunette who looked like she should have been a school teacher?
Nyah ran a red light, and I squeezed my eyes shut, praying not to hear a horn blast or the wail of police sirens.
But neither happened. We straightened up after taking a corner at a pace that rolled my stomach, and I finally dared to peel open my eyes.
Nyah backed right off the pace and pointed at the car ahead of us. “Found them.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. Then glanced over at her. “Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?”
“Uh, Oklahoma?”
“Why did you say that like it was a question?”
She sighed. “Fine! You busted me. I didn’t grow up in the country. I grew up in New York.”
I had no idea how that related to the way she’d just driven the car.
She glanced over at me. “I might have spent my teens stealing cars and running from the police. It’s no big deal.”
I widened my eyes at her, remembering something she’d said at work earlier that day. “You said you didn’t have a car…”
She gave me a sheepish smile. “I don’t.”
I gazed around the interior of the car like maybe I’d dreamed it. But no, we were very definitely in one. “Then what the hell are we driving?”
She gave a laugh that clearly told me she was on a high she couldn’t get down from. “I saw this couple park their car and put the keys in the visor while I was standing in line.”
“You’re driving a stolen car?”
She shrugged. “Only until we ditch it.”
I stared at her. “Is it me? Am I just the magnet for all people with no respect for the law?”
She laughed. “It’s fine, Vi. Seriously. The people who own this car will be in the club for hours yet, getting their freak on. You wanted to stalk, let’s stalk.”
I didn’t have it in me to argue. At this point, I’d been exposed to so many illegal things that stealing a crappy old car and taking it on a joyride through town seemed almost innocent.
She peeped little looks at me as we followed Whip’s car from a distance, letting several other cars sit between ours and his. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
I sighed. “I wish I could. But honestly, all of it is insane and illegal, and I’ve already implicated you in too much of it just by bringing you tonight. I don’t want to make it worse.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “I can guarantee that whatever it is, I’ve been there, done or seen that.” She gave me a half-smile. “Let’s just say my parents aren’t very nice people, and I grew up surrounded by their friends, who are also not very nice people. So there’s really nothing you can tell me that is going to shock me. I’ve seen it all before, and probably worse.”
I bit my tongue, knowing that stealing a few cars had nothing on murdering a few people.
Was “few” even accurate? How many people had the three of them taken out between them? Five? Ten? A hundred?
I was suddenly reminded that getting involved with any of them was completely insane.
And yet here I was, chasing them around town, because I couldn’t fucking quit any of them.
Nyah tapped the brakes, slowing us down for a red light, and we both ducked in our seats, closer to Whip’s car than we’d been yet. I could see X’s head through the back window, him sitting in the center of the back seat while Levi and Whip rode up front.
Nyah swiveled to face me. “My dad is in the Mafia. He kills people with a click of his fingers. And so do my brothers and my uncles and my cousins, and pretty much everyone I know.”
My mouth dropped open. “Holy shit.” I blinked at her. “You’re an honest-to-God Mafia princess? Do they actually exist outside of TV shows and books?”
