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Cecil obeyed amicably and moved over to the wall, arms crossing over his chest as he watched us.

I had to wiggle and roll free of the chair’s broken frame, the remnants of it between us.

With awkward movements, I maneuvered into a sitting position and pushed my body to the rear until my back was to the wall. While Cecil and Simone were arguing, I tested the strength of the ties around my wrists.

I had more room to move my arms, but I couldn’t free myself without doing something that would call attention to me.

I forced myself to be still and quiet as Simone hunkered down in front of me.

“You really are a dumb bitch, Tina,” Simone said. “We’d planned on leaving you somewhere near the drop site, where people would find you. But you’re so…arrogant. And stealing James…I can’t forgive that.”

I bit back the words on my tongue.He was never yours.

Simone’s lip curled, rage turning her face into a twisted mask.

Her hand flew out. I couldn’t do anything to block it, my hands still secured behind my back.

The impact of the blow stung.

As she rose, she kicked me again, this time in my right knee. “You’re a useless, miserable waste of space, Tina. And I’m going to help James by removing you from his life.”

My blood went cold as she said those words, dispassionately as if she were taking out the trash.

Turning to Cecil, she inclined her head. “Let’s go over the plan again—I want to go through everything, one step at a time, and then we’re making one final adjustment.” With a cool smile in my direction, she added, “We’ll do the drop-off, but I want you to be the first thing James sees when he walks in. Don’t worry about looking like a mess, though. Since you’ll be a corpse, it will not matter that you look like shit.”

I suppressed a shudder. “Sure thing, Simone.”

Cecil caught her by the arm as she was about to lunge at me.

“Easy there, honey,” he said. “You’ve got time for all of that later. Come on, we’ll go over the final details.”

Neither bothered to check the zip ties on my wrist.

I barely breathed as the two of them retreated from the small room. I’d been here since I woke up.

Once I could no longer see or hear them, I waited a full five minutes, counting it in my head. Only then did I begin to shift, wiggling around until I could get to my knees, then ease into a standing position.

I couldn’t wait for James to find me.

I was going to have to get out of this mess on my own.

Fifty-Nine

Maximus

Joyner returnedto Gianni’s office, where we were gathered with my sister’s best agents, a cup of coffee in hand. She pursed her lips, looked at the table where a map was spread out, then back at Gianni and me.

“Do I need to remind you that neither of you are cops, and none of your Team Wonder kids are cops? Leave this to us.”

Gianni winked at me.

I faked a smile and turned my attention to the map, sectioned into a grid.

“Gayle, you knew we would not sit on the sidelines,” Gianni said. She moved closer to me and tapped at a point on the map. “I want to pull this up on Google maps. I think it’s close to where the last signal was. There are a few areas that might be a good place to hide.”

A frustrated sigh came from the other side of the room. “I don’t know why I even bother. Gianni never listens. I don’t know why I thought her brother might.”

I looked up at that. “If it was somebody you loved?”