Page 17 of Dark OZ

“Sorry, beautiful, but they would have learned that information regardless when we cleaned up your back. Despite his bedside manner, Nick is best at wound care.”

Of course, I’d seen the blood staining her filthy blue shirt. I just hadn’t expected it to be hers. Although, now that I was looking, I could see where the fabric had dried to her back.

She gave a wary nod. “What happens next?”

“Gigi’s up to something,” Nick posited while rubbing the scruff of his jaw.

“That’s what I’ve been saying this whole fucking time. It’s nice to know you decided to finally start listening. How could she have known Thea would kill Eastin? She came to us two days ago with this pick-up? I saw it happen. It was lucky Thea got the hit in when she did.”

“Unless Gi had her own plan, and Thea beat her to the punch.”

“Hmm. Maybe.” I ran a hand along the bar. There were too many pieces missing.

“Gigi got me out of the building.”

“Actually, I got you out of the building,” Crow retorted.

“No. The emerald got us out of the building, and Gigi gave me the emerald. You just drove the car.”

“I did a bit more than that.”

I froze. “Emerald, as in a Witcher Emerald?”

“Regardless of Gigi’s agenda, I know what I want,” Dorothy said, sitting upright and folding her hands neatly on the counter. “I need The Wizard to hack Em’s business and transfer it to me or untie whatever she’s done to make it look like it’s hers. Then I’m going to take my shiny new identity and leave the nightmare of Oz far behind me.”

“And you just expect Emily Rosen to take this lying down?”

“No, but when I’m a ghost, and she’s penniless, what can she do? Like you said, she’s nothing more than an old shrew.”

“Nobody sees The Wizard.” I waved off her plan.

“No one even knows what they look like. What makes you think they’ll help you?” Nick added.

“Gigi seemed to think he would,” Dorothy snapped back.

“That’s hardly a guarantee,” Nick replied with a metallic bite to his tone.

“And you were what? Going to walk your naked, fine ass to the center of Oz?” I added.

“That $50K won’t go unnoticed. The moment you walk past these walls, you’ll have a dozen hitmen on you,” Crowe added.

“True. Which is why we’re bringing Dorothy to The Wizard,” I said coolly. We would take her right to him, just not the way she was thinking.

“I’m sorry, what?” Nick said, almost laughing out his disbelief. “Danny, I mean, come on. You’re going to let an easy payout walk away?”

“We’ve smuggled harder things into the Emerald City,” Crow said.

“The Wizard is going to give us what is in those accounts, and in exchange, Dorothy doesn’t get handed over to Westin.”

“That’s my money. You don’t get to make that decision.”

“Nothing isyoursanymore. Make no mistake, Princess, Eastin might have paid the bill of sale, but we collected the merchandise. You wereoursthe moment you sat your sweet ass in our cab. That air you’re breathing might feel like freedom, but it’s not. If I wanted to tie you up and mail you off like a pretty little package, I could. You can make all the demands you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that you don’t have any control here. I do.”

Nick cleared his throat. “What makes you think The Wizard will even bother with her.”

“Because she has that.” I reached out, running an index finger from the base of her neck to where the emerald lay nestled between the valley of her breasts. It glittered in the industrial lights hanging over the island. Green rainbows shot out from it with each rise and fall of her chest, a cadence that sped up the longer my hand lingered.

Thea snatched my finger, twisting it just shy of snapping the joint. “The next time you touch me without my permission, you better be prepared to lose something precious.” The fire in her eyes was damn near enchanting, and lethal. No wonder she’d been able to take out Eastin. There was something ruthless living at her core. Any woman raised by Emily Rosen would have to be. I had no doubt she would make good on that promise, or at least try to.

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