The Mafia's gold and the girl they all wanted

buzzing on the bathroom fl

ide by the sink with its lipstick and keys spilled across the wet tiles. The screen lit up with Vine's name, then went dark,

t a nightclub she had only agreed to visit because saying no to her friends a fourth time would

e ID. He had looked at the three of them the way a man counts boxes on a truck and said one word into his radio. Three. She

F ONLY stood slightly open. A strip of white light

knew that even as she walked toward the light.

r head lolling against one man's shoulder and her braids swinging. A woman in a black dress stood besid

n said. "Table nine had thre

et one, isn't on the list. The boss only wanted two from that table. But sh

. "Then she's o

g open with a quick creak, and every he

e

hard her teeth clacked. It was the man in the gray shirt who had stared at their tabl

nd. His palm slammed over her mouth, and he dragged her toward the

of her

tall man standing at the mouth of the corridor with his hands loose at his sides. He wore a dark jacket, and he had the tire

d a little. "This isn't your n

eather. "He asked for her himself. Take it up with him tonight, or

ingers twitch against her jaw. Doubt crossed his face, then greed

re ly

d closer. "Do you want

phie barely saw it. There was a crack, a gasp, a noise like a wet bag hitting concrete, and Dario was on the floor clu

ly this time, and did not look at

voice cracked. "Th

kno

and Vine is still at t

the corridor banged open and two more men came throu

of the men glanced down the corridor and saw Sophie, and he made the other look. They turned,

ed her clean off the ground. She clawed at his arms, bit his sleeve, "let me

ehind that door, and more are coming in under a minute. If you go in there, you disappear with them, and

help

said it like a man swallowing brok

y that stank of rain and rotten waste. Somewhere along the way she stopped fighting. It was not that she had given u

ly in the passenger seat, then went around and slid behind the wheel. The doors locke

behind them into a smear of amber light, and she realized she wa

are

ie Gr

that. "They knew you. You told that man I was Victor's, and he believed you. So you work for th

took a corner so sharply that the tires squealed. Then he pulled into the shadow of a shuttered

umping in his jaw, and she noticed him looking at her as though

s are," he said, "I need you to tell

d the door handle, and it would not move. The loc

For four years she had kept her real name in pencil and her face at the back of every room, and i

know you're