“Really?” He followed her. “Are you sure? Corpses aren’t a pleasant sight.”
“I have to know if you lied to me.” Her hand was holding the wound in her side. It was wet with blood. Pain … She had to keep on going. “If you work for Camano, too, I don’t think you’d kill his men. It wouldn’t make sense. So I might be able to trust you to— No, but maybe I could—” She stopped again. She wasn’t thinking clearly. She whirled to face him. “But you took away that club I had. If you really want to help me, give me your gun or something else to protect myself if you’ve lied to me.”
“What?” He shook his head. “I didn’t expect that.” He hesitated an instant. “No gun, that would be too easy to turn against me.” He reached in his jacket pocket and took out a long, slender dagger. “That’s not enough to prove I’m on your side?” He gave the dagger to her. “No, I guess not.”
“I have to know that they’re dead. Then I might be able to listen to you and decide what you want from me.”
“And someone is always wanting something from you, aren’t they, Teresa?” he asked quietly. “You’re only sixteen. How long has it been going on?”
“None of your business,” she said jerkily. Don’t give in to the weakness. Put one foot in front of the other. “Where are Tantona and the others?”
“You’re my business, or I wouldn’t be here,” he said roughly. “And part of that business is keeping you alive. Will you give this up and let me stop that bleeding?”
“Where are they?”
“Behind those trees up ahead. You’re running a big risk just to see if I’m lying to you.”
“I know. How else can I find out? You could be tricking me. But you could have killed me back there. I don’t know why you didn’t. Either way it’s a risk. I can’t trust anyone. But I have to find out for sure who I have to fight.”
“By all means, go check them out. Considering the fact that your dirtbag father raised you as a Mafia princess, I’m sure you shouldn’t be shocked at a few dead bodies.”
He was angry, she realized. Were those words supposed to hurt her? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but finding a way to get away from Camano.
She faded to the left when she reached the trees and tried to creep quietly forward in case there was someone in wait for her. Her hand tightened on the dagger. She stopped and listened.
No sound.
Her gaze searched the darkness.
She went a few steps deeper into the trees.
The first body she saw was that of Georgie Sohler. He was lying crumpled beside an oak tree. His head was twisted at an odd angle.
Shock. She stopped short, then forced herself to keep on walking.
A few yards later she saw Mick Judaro lying with eyes wide open staring at the sky.
“Seen enough?” Mandak asked, behind her.
She shook her head, moving forward.
Tantona’s throat had been cut, and there was a pool of blood on the ground around him.
Dead. All dead.
“Satisfied?” Andre Mandak asked.
“Satisfied I’m safe from them.” She couldn’t take her eyes from the wound in Tantona’s throat. “Not satisfied that I’m safe from you. You’re a murderer like them. You killed them all in just a matter of minutes.” She was dizzy, and it was hard to form the words. “Maybe you’re … worse than they were.”
“Or better. It depends on how you look at it.” He took a step closer to her. “But I’m not going to hurt you, dammit. Now let me—”
Her knees were buckling. She was falling …
He caught her before she reached the ground. He took the dagger from her hand. Then he lifted her and was carrying her through the trees.
“Let me … down.”
“No way. I’ve wasted enough time already. I can’t be sure that Tantona didn’t phone a location to Camano while he was chasing you.”
“Camano already … knew I was at the cabin. That’s why he sent them.”
“How did he know?”
“She … told him.”
“Who?”
“My mother.” It hurt to say the words. “She … told him.”
He was silent. “You’re sure?”
“I’m … sure.”
“Son of a bitch.”
He was angry again. She didn’t think that it was with her this time … “What are you going to do to me?” She moistened her lips, then said fiercely, “I won’t let you kill me. I’m not going to die. Do you hear me? I’ll fight you.”
“I know you will. You’re ready to fight the whole damn world.” He was looking straight ahead. “But you don’t listen. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m your best hope to stay alive.”
“Why?” she whispered. “If you help me, Camano will kill you.”
He didn’t answer.
And she didn’t care. She was getting dizzy again. It might be okay to hope that he didn’t want to hurt her or kill her and just let go …
“You were wrong about me,” she whispered. “I’ve only saw one man who had been murdered before tonight. But he was shot in the head. Hideous…”
“Your father did it?”
Jokman’s skull exploding and blood and brains blowing in all directions.
Guilt. Terrible guilt.
Scream. She had screamed …
“No, I did it. It was me…”
Darkness.
* * *
GLITTERING STARS. TALL TREES. Wisps of smoke.
A crackling fire only a few feet away.
And Andre Mandak was kneeling beside her, his gaze focused intently on the bandage he was applying to the wound in her side. He looked up as he felt her stiffen. “Back with me? I was beginning to worry. You lost quite a bit of blood. The wound isn’t all that bad, just a flesh wound. But you probably suffered shock.”
“Where are we?”
“After I stopped the blood, I drove twenty or thirty miles down the road and set up camp to finish the job.” He was buttoning up her shirt. “You need blood, but it’s not urgent. I’ll get you to someone I trust to check my first aid within the next twelve hours or so.” He smiled. “But I don’t anticipate any complaints. I’m pretty damn good.”
She shook her head. “You’re crazy. I’m not going to take that chance. I don’t know or trust you. Why should I trust your friend?”
“No reason. Except that from now on I’m going to run the show.”
“Bullshit.”
“That’s the way it has to be,” he said as he moved a few yards away from her. “Unless you particularly want Camano to kill you or get his hands on you. Neither would be pleasant. I understand that he has certain ambitions in which he thinks you might be a help or hindrance.”
“I can run. I can hide. I don’t need you.”
“The hell you don’t. If I help you, you’ll survive. If I don’t, you may last six months.” He smiled and coaxed, “Come on, Teresa. Use me. People have been using you for most of your life. It’s your turn now.”