Chapter 33 · Hostage at the Breakers

Mia screamed again, and my hands stopped working.

"Bianca!" Her voice came out of the intercom speaker, tinny and cracked. "Bia, don't, he's got a—"

Then a wet crack, and nothing.

"Sweet girl," Silvio said, nice and warm, like he was tucking her in. "Your sister's a screamer. Just like your mother."

I was on my knees in the vault, and Lucian's blood was all over the master key in my fist. It was sticky and still hot. It ran down my wrist and into my sleeve.

He lay against the gun rack with one hand clamped under his collarbone. Every breath he took whistled. Pink foam bubbled at the corner of his mouth.

"Don't," he rasped.

"Shut up."

"It's a trade, Bianca. He wants you out there." He coughed, and it sounded like tearing cloth. "You walk up those stairs, you don't walk back down."

"Then I don't walk back down."

He grabbed my wrist. His grip was still strong, which scared me worse than the blood. His fingers were ice cold.

"Listen to me." His eyes were a little glassy, but they locked on mine. "He needs the ledger codes. That's the only reason Mia's breathing.