Page 49 of Dark OZ

It had become abundantly clear that in the few days I’d known this girl, she’d gotten under my skin in a way few ever had. One day, I would make good on my promise of death. I would dust off the Scarecrowe and make the sick fucker suffer in a way I hadn’t in a long time. Orin would regret ever coming near my girl.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep inhale. She smelled like my shampoo but mingled with the lingering scent of smoke and gunpowder. First chance I got, I was going to wash the violence from her skin. I’d replace it with love and kindness, the adoration she so clearly deserved and never received. Thea’s chest subtly rose and fell against mine. I should have removed my shirt before we laid down, a mistake I wouldn’t make again. When this was over, Thea and I would sleep naked…every night.

When I opened my eyes again, Danny was still watching me.

“So then, how did he know?”

“Maybe we were hacked.”

“Or The Wizard was hacked.”

I snorted a laugh. “There is no way The Wizard was hacked.”

“Unless the voice on the phone was never the Wizard.”

I mulled that idea over. Our system was top of the line. I’d written the programming myself. It wasn’t impossible to crack. The Wizard had demonstrated that. But we hadn’t just been tapped. We’d been taken over. No, that was the Wizard pulling those strings. “Maybe someone was listening in on your call to Crick Link, and they just moved fast.”

“I don’t like it. We’re being played, and I can’t figure out who’s playing us.”

“Gigi?”

“Oh, she’s most definitely playing us, but Monkeys aren’t her style. This wasn’t her.”

“Tell me again why we couldn’t just give her back to her aunt?” Nick said. “It would make things a hell of a lot easier.”

I was about to snap at him, but Danny got there first. “Because that old bitch sold her own niece. You know my thoughts on peddling people.”

“Sold her to a sadist who whipped her in the first five minutes of ownership,” I added. Danny flinched.

Nick turned and gave Danny a hard and discerning glare. “I knew thatstronzetto—” he waved over his shoulder at me. “—was pussy drunk, but you too? Shit,Leone, you were alone with her for only a day.”

“I’m not pussy drunk. I don’t do brats, and Dorothy is as bratty as they come.”

“Yes, you do,” I said, fighting back a laugh so that it wouldn’t wake Thea. He most definitely got off on the fight. He was probably smitten the second she kneed him in the dick.

“We aren’t handing her over to anybody. The Wizard is the highest payout. It makes the most sense. We’re just going to have to be more careful from here on out. That’s all.” Danny turned away from us, gazing out the nothingness beyond the window.

“Yeah, it was definitely thatpayoutyou were thinking of when you licked her fingers clean,” I said with total sarcasm.

He’d watched the entire scene from the side mirror, pretending to be annoyed. But I caught glimpses of the lust in his eyes. The memory of the way he’d kissed her in the yard was all too fresh. That wasn’t the kiss of someone who wanted a payout. It was the kiss of someone who’d been terrified of losing something precious to him.

I knew and felt that fear running like a current through me. It coursed deeper into my soul with each pump of my heart. It was why I offered a piece of her up to him. I knew Nick would never allow himself to indulge, but Danny needed her just as much as I did. Even if he wasn’t willing to admit it.

“So what? We drive straight through to the E.C., and then what?” I caressed a line down Thea’s arm with the sole intention of getting her to make that sleepy, mewling sound of contentment again. “Orin is still out there.”

“Westin will probably be pissed her sneak attack didn’t work. So she’ll start trying harder, too.”

“What if we made a run for the border?” I said hesitantly. We’d never run from anything before. Maybe I was reading them wrong, but I got the feeling they both didn’t want the risk. We had Westin Witcher, Emily Rosen, and Winged Monkeys after us, plus a Wizard to contend with, and only Ozma knew what game Gigi was playing. Whether we wanted it or not, we were tied to Thea’s fate now.

I looked down at the auburn waves of her hair, running my hand over where their satin ends splayed against her shoulder. I wouldn’t have done it differently, though. Given the option, I still would have stopped my cab. I still would have raced out of the building with her, and I still would have taken her home with me.

“We don’t need to stay here with a giant target painted on our backs,” I added. There were places we could disappear. Danny and Nick had both spent their childhoods outside of Oz’s twisted borders. A job like ours could be done anywhere. There were always people doing shady shit that needed someone shadier to save their ass. Staying wasn’t our only option.

“I can’t do that,” Danny said, still staring out the window at the passing highway. “We’re meeting the Wizard, end of discussion.”

Nick looked back at me in the mirror. His expression was carefully blank, but we’d spent enough years together that I knew he was questioning Danny’s motives just as much as I was.

“Why do I get the feeling there’s more riding on this deal than just money?” If Nick wasn’t going to call him out on his bullshit, I would.

---