Page 15 of Secret Weapon

I collected my hardware and injected myself with a little something to take the edge off the pain Nine had inflicted, but not enough to erase it completely because I needed a clear head for the next part.Nine’s arm was still bleeding, and I crouched to check out the wound.

“Ana, can you bandage that?”What was wrong with my sister?It was as if she’d gone into shock.“Ana?”

“I’ll do it.”

“Darya?That’s your name, right?You’re gonna need stitches.We’ll patch up the damage for now, but I’d suggest a trip to the emergency room once we’ve left.Do you want painkillers?I presume you’ve got appropriate drugs in your belt of magic tricks?”

I figured she’d refuse out of sheer bloody-mindedness, but today was full of surprises.She nodded and muttered, “Rear pouch, off side.”

She carried similar kit to ours, and I passed the tiny syrette over to Ana, who’d at least come back to life with enough sentience to assess Nine’s wound.

“Give her this.Back in five.”

I’d barely taken two steps before a voice stopped me in my tracks.And it wasn’t Ana’s, but Nine’s.

“Wait.”

I turned.Did as instructed.“Well?”

“There’s someone out here with a knife.Other than me, I mean.Watch your back.”

“How do you know?”

“A local woman ran into the store with her dog, and the dog had a knife wound.”

If that was true, it went some way to explaining why Nine was out here.She’d come to look for the offender, only to stumble across us first.But was she lying?Nine was smart, and like me, she must have realised that Ana wasn’t herself today.

As proven by Ana’s next words.

“If there’s someone out here with a knife, we can’t leave Dasha tied up like this.”

No, we couldn’t.And we couldn’t dump her back at the store either, because that would blow her carefully constructed cover.I was a bitch, but I wasn’t enough of a bitch to ruin Nine’s life.If Zacharov had treated her half as badly as he’d treated Ana, then she’d been through hell in Russia.She deserved her retirement.

And besides, there was a simple way to confirm Nine’s story.I pulled out my phone, then swore under my breath when I saw the cracked screen.Dead as a desiccated dormouse.I had a spare in the car, but that didn’t help right now.

“Ana, can I borrow your phone?”

She handed it over, and Hallie answered on the first ring.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Emmy?I tried calling you, but your phone went to voicemail.”

“It broke.”

“Is everything okay?I was in the craft store, and this girl ran in with a dog, and she said it got attacked by a cougar, but the cuts looked more like knife wounds to me.”

Okay, so Nine wasn’t kidding.

“Where are the woman and the dog now?”

“Three of the people from the store took them to the veterinarian.And there was quite a mess, so the owner closed for the day, and we figured we’d find you in the car, but you’re not here, and Bradley’s freaking out.Where did you go?”

Of course he was freaking out.Bradley was a man who freaked out if he spilled coffee on his sweater.

“Just keep him calm.And can you quietly, quietly get out the first aid kit and changes of clothes for Ana and me?Oh, and the spare phone from the glove compartment.”

I broke so many phones, I bought them in bulk.

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