Chapter 21 · The Code in the Wall

“Don’t you fucking die on me.”

I dragged Sienna across the floor while blood soaked both my hands. My knees slipped through it. The knife Marcus had dropped lay inches from my palm, close enough to grab and too far to trust.

“Val,” Sienna rasped. “Let go.”

“Shut up.”

Her red timer blinked above her head.

Four minutes. Maybe less.

I hauled her against the wall and pressed both hands over the wound in her side. She made a sharp, broken sound.

“Talk,” I said. “Where’s Mia?”

“Can’t.”

“You can. You’ve got four minutes. Use them.”

Sienna’s fingers closed around my wrist. Her nails dug into my skin, weak but deliberate.

“You don’t get it.”

“Then explain it fast.”

“I don’t know where she is.”

“Where was she?”

Sienna stared past me. “Why? So you can leave me here?”

“Tell me, and I’ll get you out.”

“Liar.”

“Maybe. You’re bleeding out either way.” I pushed harder. “Pick the lie you like.”

She coughed. Blood spotted her lips.

“Mia left six years ago,” she said. “After the job.”

“What job?”

“The one Marcus buried.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t give me that.”

“She did it to herself.