“Yeah, that would probably be it.”
“I thought he was just tracking my phone. My bike. I had no idea he’d… I’m going to fucking kill him.”
Link chuckles darkly. “He’ll have to find you first. Cruz is on his way. We’ll get this out and fuck off before Theo has a chance to get here.”
“You sure sound confident,” I say, resting my head forward once more.
“Because I know I’m right. We won’t lose you to a teenage punk who thinks he’s something special because of his daddy. This is probably going to sting.”
“I can hack it, Link. Just get the fucker out.”
“You got it, Shorty.”
I hiss the second the blade slices through my skin.
“He’s going to be one angry motherfucker when he discovers we’ve found this. I hope you know that.”
“I can handle Theo, Link. I just don’t want to right now.”
He keeps talking as he digs around under my skin, and I focus on the sound of his deep voice to stop me from thinking too hard about what he’s actually doing.
“That’s fair enough, Em. But you’re going to have to face him sometime. You can hardly run away from all of this. You’ve got a life.”
“Yeah, sadly one that involves him. Is it really going to be that hard to get out of this?” I ask sadly.
“We’ll make it happen for you, Emmie, no matter how hard it is. They might be in charge around here, but that doesn’t mean we go down easily.”
“What about my Pops?” I ask, wondering if his response will be as brutal as Cruz’s.
“We’ll deal with Ram, Em. No one gets to hand you over like that and get away with it, Prez or not. Got it,” he says, the pressure on my neck lifting a little.
There’s a loud bang somewhere in the flat, and I jump a mile.
“It’s me. What are we dealing with?” Cruz booms, his heavy footsteps coming closer. “Motherfucker.”
“Let me patch her up and we’ll get out of here.”
Cruz walks around the front of the chair and drops to his haunches.
“You okay, kid?”
“Never better,” I say, forcing a smile onto my lips.
“We’ll get you away from all this. You can take all the time you need before you come back and knock that fuck on his rich arse.”
‘Thank you,’ I mouth as Link presses a plaster to the back of my neck.
“Right, we’re good to go.”
“Ready to outrun this prick?” Cruz asks.
“More than ready.”
In only seconds, we’re back out the front door and in the thankfully empty hallway.
Although, something tells me it won’t be that way for long.
“He’s going to try to get in here to get me, you know that, right?”
“My security system can hack it. Don’t worry, Shorty.”
Link pulls his cell out of his pocket and taps on the screen.
“Look,” he says, showing me the camera feed. “Recognise that Maserati?”
“Motherfucker,” I mutter, watching as he pulls up out the front of the building.
“Come on, we’ll take the service lift and go out the back.”