I didn’t know that I could call what we had in mind a real plan.

It had been Nicco’s idea, tossed out over speakerphone. Suria had thought it through and finally said with a shrug, “It could work. Papa is arrogant enough.”

Nicco was going to play the sacrificial – or rather the distracting – lamb while Suria and I got Joelle out.

His father hadn’t seen him in over twenty years, and Nicco was going to play up a bit on discovering his roots and how he just found out how his mother ran away with him. “He’ll jump on it,” Suria admitted. “Papa loves to play the victim.”

Now, as Nicco walked to the front door, Suria and I crouched in the hedge on the side of the house. She’d told me that Joelle probably wouldn’t be in the room the two of them shared. It was too easy to get to. We’d have to get around the fence and get into the backyard. There was a window there that opened into her father’s room, and she suspected that was where we’d find Joelle.

All of this was based on her gut feelings and suspicions, but we didn’t have time for much else. Joelle didn’t have time.

I just hoped it worked.

Nicco flicked a look in our direction and gave a faint nod, letting us know he was about to knock.

Suria and I rose, keeping close to the house. We’d circled around the block earlier to make sure there weren’t any cars that might signify members of the clan were here, and we hadn’t seen anything. I wasn’t betting it would be that easy but for now, it seemed the only people in the house were Joelle and maybe Suria’s cousin, Trice. Suria had told me her aunt would be working late. She had a shop a little closer to downtown, and it stayed open until midnight. I didn’t bother asking what kind of shop.

I already knew.

As we drew closer to the window, I swung the backpack I was carrying off.

Suria went to tap on the window, but I caught her wrist and shook my head.

She frowned but watched as I withdrew a small tool from the bag. It was a glass cutter. As I went to work, she kept watch. All was quiet, save for the scratching sound made by the glass cutter itself.

Once I had a circle large enough for me to slip my arm through, I pulled out the small piece of glass then unlocked the window. It was almost ridiculous, how easy this had gone.

I started to ease up the window but froze as somebody abruptly jerked the curtains back.

For a moment, the three of us stared at each other, Joelle, Suria, and I.

Then Joelle’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to speak.

Suria cut her off with an adamant shake of her head. “Come on, let’s go,” she whispered.

Joelle hesitated, casting a look back over her shoulder. “Papa will be so angry.”

“Papa is about to make you marry a mean old bastard who has been known to beat his wives,” Suria countered. “Come on, baby.”

That decided it. Joelle eased the window up, and I caught her as she came through.

It took less than five minutes. We stayed in the shadows of the nearby houses until we were several doors down, then we moved to the sidewalk and started to run.

“It can’t be that easy,” Suria said. “It can’t.”

“Let’s get in the car,” I said, not wanting to jinx us when we were just a few yards from freedom.

We made it to the car, and I started it while Suria locked the doors and told Joelle to put her seatbelt on.

“Somebody is at the house with Papa,” she said to us.

“We know.”

Suria dug out her phone, and I watched from the corner of my eye as she sent a text. It would be to Nicco, to let him know we were done.

She hadn’t even hit send though when we heard a door slam shut.

Whipping our heads around, we saw a tall, lean shadow burst out of the house where Suria and Joelle had lived. It had to be Nicco. He was running toward his own car – he’d insisted he bring it. He jumped inside and fired it up.

Suria didn’t bother sending the message. She called him instead.

As she put it on speaker, I pulled away from the curb.

Nicco’s voice came through loud and clear. “He wanted me to meet Joelle,” Nicco said. “So I got the hell out of there. I was betting on you two having already done what needed to be done because he started shouting her name. Man, let me tell you…he sounds pissed.”

“Who is that?” Joelle whispered, hovering in the backseat.

I met her eyes in the rearview mirror and tried to give her a reassuring smile as Suria spoke to Nicco.

“Suria will explain everything, honey,” I told her.

I whipped the car into a three-point turn as the door to the house blew open again. Nicco chose that moment to peel away from the curb, and the two of us sped away into the night.