Flicker & Burn: A Cold Fury Novel (25 page)

“Do it now or it’s gonna be your ass,” I said, blinking once, grabbing his cool green gaze with my cold furious one, seeing his worst fear—it was his parents waving good-bye to Tyler from the steps of a private jet that would soon crash. I blinked it away, too ashamed to watch, and when he was able to face me, I said, “I’m sorry, but it’s really important. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t.” He thumbed sweat from his lip, nodded obediently, and turned toward the cockpit. Watching him go, I thought of the movies where the girl—me—would utter Tyler’s name. He’d look back, and I’d take his hands, pull him toward me, kiss him tenderly, and tell him to continue on to Rome, where the golden light of Italy awaited.

This isn’t a movie.

This is real life, where families are kidnapped, brutalized, and lost, beautiful cousins overdose, loyal boyfriends leave you, and smart friends become stupid junkies. And where the answers you need most are never out in the open but always buried, sometimes within worn notebook pages, sometimes beneath Chicago.

The Outfit concealed speakeasies, massacres, and vaults far below the earth.

Muddied and bloodied, I was about to discover its biggest subterranean secret.

“Our daughter, our sister,”
I whispered, feeling the plane make its slow, determined arc through the clouds.
“Our savior, Sara Jane.”