“I’m falling in love with you.”
I didn’t miss a step. “Good. Because I’m already there.”
Poe had disappeared after agreeing to the plan. I’d tried to talk to him, to make sure he knew that whether he helped or not was his choice, and that he shouldn’t feel pressured. He’d just shaken his head and walked away, carrying blame on his back like fully stacked free weights.
I stared out the window at my studio, my usual solace in times of stress, and grabbed my toe shoes. I slipped downstairs and outside in less than a minute. I’d just passed the courtyard when the bottom dropped out.
The wrought iron gate made a clanging sound, and I stopped dead.
“Hallie! Get down!”
Carl, head of security, had followed me out of the house. I remained frozen as he lurched toward me. The sound of a silenced gunshot echoed three times, and he clutched his chest and hit the ground.
Memories broke free from my subconscious. Benny’s blue eyes, wide open and empty. The devastating feeling that it was my fault.
The blood.
It covered the pavers now, just as it had covered the gray stones outside Jackson Square. The difference was that Carl still had light in his warm brown eyes, and he was talking to me. I dropped to the ground beside him.
“Run. Your dad will never … forgive …”
“I’m not leaving you.” I searched the dark, hoping for help, but fearing more violence. “Someone heard the shots, they had to—”
My head jerked back as a hand wrapped around my hair and pulled me to my knees. I looked up, expecting to see a guy holding a semiautomatic, some thug my father had crossed finally getting his revenge.
It was my mother, holding a handgun. A shadowy figure stood behind her, but I couldn’t make out any features.
I stopped caring when two more shots fired, one to the back of each of my ankles.
Pain exploded through my Achilles tendons, and then everything went black.
Hallie was gone.
In an unthinking panic, I covered the whole house twice before I thought to wake up Michael and Kaleb. “Hallie’s gone. None of the guards have seen her, and the lights are off in her studio.”
“I’ll go get Lily. Hang tight, brother, and we’ll find her.” Kaleb threw on clothes and headed for the girls’ room.
Michael didn’t inflict small talk on me while I waited. I paced. My skin felt too small for my frame.
“Dune.” Lily entered the room, followed by Kaleb. She had a US atlas in her arms.
“Please tell me you found her.”
“I did, but …”
When she hesitated, I growled, “Tell me.”
“She’s alive, and she was near the river. By the warehouses behind the French Market.”
“Who she’s with?”
Lily bit her lip. “Her mother.”
“Wait—you said she ‘was’ near the river. What does that mean?” I asked.
“Now I think she’s in it. They must be on a boat.”
I cursed and punched my fist into the nearest wall. Teague had thrown my vulnerability in my face at the park, and now she was using it against me. What if Hallie encountered a rip world? What if she couldn’t get out? My thoughts scrambled for purchase before finding a solid place to land. “Send Poe. He can get to her quick.”
“Problem.” Kaleb scrubbed his hand across his chin. “Poe is missing, too.”
“Let me look for him.” Lily opened the atlas and searched. “Nothing. It’s not good, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s dead.”
“He could be in a veil. That would keep Lily from being able to find him.” Michael clapped a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Maybe he’s already trying to find Hallie. Hang tight. We’ll all go get dressed so we can head down to the wharf.”
“Dune.” Emerson appeared in the doorway, a blanket around her shoulders, tears in her eyes. “They found the head of security in the courtyard. He’s been shot and he’s on his way to the hospital. It doesn’t look good.”
My body went numb. Em was holding back. “What else?”
She crossed the room and put one hand on my arm. “It wasn’t just Teague. Jack. And he didn’t bother wiping Carl’s memory. He … as he was going into the ambulance, Carl told us that Teague shot Hallie. Twice.”
Emerson’s tears streaked down her cheeks as she held up a pair of toe shoes. They were splattered with blood.
“Meet me at the river.” I took off at a run, and stopped briefly at the door to look back at Lily. “Keep ahold of that atlas. I’ll call you for an update when I get there.”
Two levels of windows, plus an observation deck. The paint was a graying white, and the blue and yellow trim was mostly peeled away. Dull wood, dingy brass, and the smell of dead fish. A riverboat, its shipshape days long past.
There was an echoing pain in my ankles that wouldn’t dull, even though the open wounds were healed. The irony that my mother had chosen my Achilles’ heels wasn’t lost on me.
Carl. She’d shot him. Who else had she hurt to get me here? Where was Dune?
Black, low-heeled boots echoed across the boat deck. Her apple red coat matched the color in her cheeks, and she should’ve painted a sunny picture. But the brightness in her eyes was menacing rather than cheerful.
“Hello, sunshine. Did you sleep well?”
“Bitch.” I flexed my feet and groaned. “They’ll find you.”
“They might. I’m aware of what Lily can do. But Dune’s the one you want, and he’s going to think twice about the river.”
“He’ll handle the water.” And if he couldn’t, his friends could.
“Doesn’t mean he’ll find us. We’re only hitching a ride.” She curled her lip at our dilapidated surroundings. “There’s a speedboat waiting a few miles away. Our next destination involves a lot of open water. It’s difficult to pinpoint a location when you’re always moving.”
I felt my anxiety expand beyond the tightness in my chest and spread to the very corners of the ship,
