Page 54 of Sinful Kingdom

“Come on, let’s hit the road,” Ant says, pulling the door open and leaving the two of them behind.

“Am I really tracked?” I whisper once we’re far enough away that they can’t hear me.

“Yes.”

“This is a really bad idea, isn’t it?”

“Wanting to help is never a bad thing, Buttercup.”

He holds his passenger door open for me like a gentleman before stalking around the bonnet to join me.

“You look like you’re about to cover my dash in vomit,” he points out helpfully.

A pained laugh spills from my lips.

He glances over with a grimace, but it doesn’t stop him from starting the engine and rolling out of Stefanos’s driveway.

The farther we get away from the house, the harder my heart pounds and the more violently my hands tremble.

I’m unfamiliar with this part of the city, so I’ve no idea where we’re going. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but staying in the city wasn’t it. When people get abducted, don’t they usually get taken to the middle of nowhere where they’re unlikely to be discovered?

Ant chuckles. “How many crime documentaries have you watched, exactly?”

“Uh…” I start, turning to look at him.

“Yeah, you asked that question out loud.”

“Right.”

“You’re right, though. People don’t usually hide in plain sight. Most are too scared to even try it.”

“But these guys aren’t scared?”

“Yes and no,” he mutters.

“Cryptic much,” I scoff, folding my arms over my chest in the hope of hiding my trembling hands.

“They’re not in the city,” he confesses. “You’re right, they’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“So why are we—” My words cut off when a sign up ahead comes into view. “What are you doing, Ant?” I ask, my voice quieter and weaker than just a few moments ago.

“I’m doing this the right way, Evie. If you’re willing to get in the middle of this, then you need someone with a lot more authority than me to agree to it. I don’t have a fucking death wish, and that’s exactly what I’d be signing if I took you to make the trade.”

“Traitor,” I mutter.

“No, Evie. That’s exactly what I’m not.”

“I asked Reid to help me,” I confess. “He refused.”

“Smart man.”

Slowing the car, he turns into The Empire’s underground car park and drives straight into one of the reserved spaces.

“Alex’s,” he explains when I narrow my eyes at him suspiciously.

I know that things between the Cirillos and the Marianos are okay now, but I’m not naïve enough to think they’re suddenly best friends who give each other personal parking spaces.

“Of course,” I whisper, desperately trying to dig up some of my inner Stella and Emmie so that I can step out of this car and face whoever Ant has brought me to see.

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