As I drove, I couldn’t get the memory of the gunshots and the screams of the girls who didn’t make it out of my head.

I had been terrified, absolutely terrified. Running into that burning forest felt like running into the mouth of hell. Bullets were flying through the air. Everything was chaos.

The only thing keeping me sane was Brooks. He seemed so calm as he shot his gun off at the other men, killing them when he could. And when the girls went down, he even went back to save one.

I couldn’t believe it. I knew Brooks didn’t hurt women, and I knew he was a good person underneath his shitty life, but I never imagined he was the type of man to go back for a total stranger in the middle of a hell storm.

But that was exactly who he was. He saved lives and fought for these girls when he really didn’t have to.

And beyond that, I didn’t know I had this kind of strength inside me. I’d wanted to stop, to curl down on the ground and cry, but I didn’t. I kept myself moving, pushed through the fear and the terror. I knew what needed to be done and I did it.

As I drove the bus along the empty road, not knowing where I was going, I felt terrible and elated. We had saved these girls. They had nobody else, and we had stepped up and gotten them out. A lot of people made a lot of sacrifices, and I couldn’t forget that, but I was proud of myself and of Brooks for doing the right thing.

As I drove alone, Brooks came up next to me. “Girls seem okay,” he said. “One needs a real doctor in the next hour or I think we’ll lose her.”

“What are we going to do?”

He shook his head. “We need to figure out where we are. Then we’ll drop the girl at a hospital.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’ll dump her outside the ER.”

“We can’t do that.”

“We can’t stay with her, Emma. The mafia will be looking for us, and the first place they’ll check is the local emergency room.”

I frowned and nodded. “Okay. I get it. But we have to get her there at least.”

“We will. Maybe one of the other girls will stay with her.”

“I don’t want to ask that of them.”

He grinned at me. “Look at you, so worried and nurturing.”

I laughed. “You’re the one playing nurse back there.”

He leaned forward. “I’d rather play nurse with you, strip you down, check your body over and over.”

I blushed but was distracted by the sound of a ringing phone.

Brooks’s head snapped toward the girls.

“Who has the phone?” he called out.

They stared back at him, wide-eyed and surprised. Slowly, one of the girls pulled the phone from her pocket and held it up.

Brooks quickly walked over and took it out of her hand. He silenced it and then sat back down behind me.

The phone started making that horrible noise from before, the same noise Brooks’s phone had made in his apartment. He frowned at it and then slowly held it up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Brooks,” the same altered voice said as the phone came on speaker.

Brooks sighed. “Warn me next time.”

“Sorry about that. This line isn’t secure, so we must be brief.”

“What happened back there?”

“I’m sorry. Our shared enemy hit many of our safe houses tonight. It was a coincidence, I promise.”

“A coincidence,” Brooks said, his jaw clenched. “I don’t like that sort of excuse.”

“Many girls lost their lives tonight, Brooks. It’s only because of you that your little group made it out. Many other safe houses weren’t so lucky.”

“What do you want?”

“First, do you have injured?”

“One. She needs help soon.”

“I will send you directions to the hospital. After that, I will send another location. Please drop the rest of the girls there.”

“I’m not a fucking bus driver,” he grunted.

“Please. Do this, and then I will help you.”

“Fine. Send the locations.”

“Thank you, Brooks.”

The phone hung up. He shook his head and looked at me. “I trust them now, but I don’t like them.”

“I don’t blame you,” I admitted, “but we have to drop them off.”

“Yeah,” he said, “we do.” His phone buzzed and he passed it off to me. “Get us here while I help the girls.”

I nodded and took the phone. The GPS application was already running, and a blue line stretched along a small map, showing me exactly where I needed to go.

I followed the GPS through quiet suburban streets. It was late and there weren’t any other cars on the road, but the streetlights were on and helped guide the way. I was exhausted, but there was an edge of adrenaline still jolting through my veins, keeping me awake and alert.

It took us about ten minutes to get to the hospital. I slowly pulled up the driveway toward the emergency room.

Brooks helped the girl up front. She’d been shot in the stomach, and blood was slowly dripping down from the bandage he had shoved against the wound.

“She doesn’t speak English,” he said to me, frowning, “but this is going to have to be good enough. Pull up here, open the door, and as soon as she’s out, you have to drive away.”

“Can’t we make sure she gets in?”

“Absolutely not. They have cameras all over the place.”

I hated this, but I knew he was right. I pulled up out front of the emergency room and Brooks whispered something to the girl. She seemed to understand and nodded.

I opened the doors and Brooks gently helped the girl down the stairs. As soon as she hit the ground, Brooks closed the doors.

“Go,” he said, his face calm.

I hated it, but I pulled away. The last time I ever saw that girl was in the rearview mirror. She watched us drive off, a sad look on her face.

“Come on,” he said, “we have to focus. Where’s the next place?”

I turned out from the hospital and checked the phone. It was already guiding me to a new destination. “Somewhere in the city,” I said.

“Let me drive. You should rest.”

“No,” I said. “I’m good.”

He grinned at me and sat down in the seat behind me, sighing. “How long?”

“Forty minutes, looks like.”

“Okay then.” He leaned back and sighed. “This is what this sort of work is, mostly.”

“What, running through a burning forest?”

“No,” he said softly. “Making hard choices between long stretches of boredom.”

I nodded. “I get that.”

“Leaving her wasn’t an easy choice, but it was the right one.”

“I know.”

“I want you to understand that. Maybe one day in the future you might wonder about her, but you need to remind yourself that you made the right choice today in leaving her behind.”

I nodded but didn’t answer. He was looking out the window, a serious expression on his face.

He was right. I was already having second thoughts about leaving her there, but I knew this was the right thing. They could save her life at the hospital, and we couldn’t risk everyone else for her. It was hard enough getting her there and leaving her without someone staying behind.

Besides, most of these girls were here illegally. They’d be thrown out of the country as soon as the police found them, though that would be a good thing compared to what the mafia would do to them if they got to them first.

No, this was the right choice. Like Brooks said, it was the hard choice, but it was the right one. I couldn’t start to second-guess myself.

I wished I could go back with him, press myself against his body, and feel his strength. I needed some of that strength in me, needed some of his cocky smile and his confidence.

But tonight, I had to be the source of my own strength. After what I went through, I was beginning to believe that I could make it through anything. I survived my father, I survived his killers, and I survived that house.

I was a survivor. I had to keep going.

* * *

The drive went relatively fast. Once we were in Chicago again, we had to be pretty careful. We were driving around in a small school bus full of illegal girls, most of them with small injuries. We were about as conspicuous as it got.

But we reached the safe house without any issues. It was a small place tucked in the back corner of a quiet residential neighborhood in a very nice part of town. The streets were all clean, the lights were all working, and the homes were nicely manicured. It was essentially the opposite of my own neighborhood. These houses were worth millions of dollars, at least.

I stopped outside the place. Brooks stood next to me. “You sure?”

“Look.” I showed him the phone. “See? This is the place.”

“Nice fucking neighborhood,” he said. “Stay here.” He climbed off the bus.

I watched as he walked up the stoop and rang the bell. He’d left his rifle behind, but I knew he at least had his knife. The door opened and he stepped inside.

He was gone for a few nerve-wracking minutes. The girls were looking around like frightened birds, and I smiled at them to try to calm them down. That probably just looked creepy, though, since they couldn’t really understand me. One managed to smile back weakly, which gave me hope.

Brooks came back out a minute later. He marched to the bus and opened the door. “Let’s go, ladies,” he said.

I stood up. “This is it?”

“Sure is. Get them in there.”

“Come on,” I said, gesturing. “Come on. Let’s go.”

The girls slowly got up and followed. We were a sorry-looking bunch of half-starved sex slaves, ex-junkies, and beat-up humans, but we were all survivors.

The girls walked up the steps and slowly filed into the house. I went to follow, but Brooks held me back. “We stay here,” he said.

“What?”

“We have one more stop to make.”

“Why?”

He smiled. “Just wait.”

Once the last girl was in, the door shut. We stood there together in silence, listening to the night’s quiet deepen around us. It felt strange just standing there, but I trusted Brooks more than ever.

Soon, the door opened again.

Louisa Barone stepped out.

“Thanks for coming,” she said.

Brooks nodded. “As you instructed.”

“Hi, Emma,” Louisa said, smiling at me. “I’m glad you made it.”

“Me too. Thanks for helping us.”

She shook her head and leaned up against the door. “No. I should thank you. I’m sorry this happened. Someone must have talked and given away our locations. Whoever it was will be found and dealt with.”

“I don’t care about your internal troubles, Louisa,” Brooks cut in. “I need to know what you plan on doing for us before we walk away from this forever.”

“Well, Brooks, it’s simple. I want you to come to the compound.”

He stared at her silently for a second. “You’re fucking joking, right?”

“I’m not joking.”

“What’s the compound?” I asked.

“It’s what we call the Barone family mansion,” Brooks said. “It’s like the mafia’s fucking home base. It’s the last place we’d ever want to be.”

“It’s the safest place, actually,” Louisa said. “Just listen. Nobody knows what Emma looks like except for Dante. After we took you from the museum, we went to your apartment and cleaned it top to bottom. There’s no trace of Abram in there.”

“So why not let us go?” Brooks asked.

“Dante is still suspicious,” Louisa said. “I can’t just kill him, though. He’s too important.”

“So why would we go to the compound?”

“Gian left a message for you, which I intercepted. He wants a meeting.”

“About what?”

“He didn’t say, but I suspect he wants to promote you.”

Brooks went quiet, his expression intense. Louisa stared at him, unblinking. Finally, he spoke.

“You’re up to something,” he said slowly. “I believe you have good intentions for this city, but I think you’re a liar, and I don’t trust you.”

She smiled. “Good. That’s healthy.” Louisa looked at me. “What about you, Emma?”

“I trust you,” I said, surprised. “I don’t know why, but I do.”

She looked back at Brooks. “Come to the compound. From there, I can provide you with money, documents, anything you need to escape. Meet with Gian, find out what he wants, and then the two of you can escape the city if that’s what you want.”

Brooks shook his head. “I don’t fucking like this.”

“So long as Dante doesn’t know where you are, you’re safe,” Louisa said. “Talk it over and decide soon.” She disappeared back into the house without another word.

Brooks turned to me, frowning. “I know what you’re going to say, but listen. We don’t know Louisa. Going to the compound sounds like a really, really bad idea to me.”

“I want to go,” I said. “If she wanted us dead, we’d be dead.”

“Maybe. Or maybe she wants something from me still. You’ve seen how much power that girl has.”

“I trust her, Brooks.”

He clenched his jaw. “You’re making a mistake. You can’t just trust people.”

“Like I trust you?”

“Yes, like you trust me.” He sighed, crossing his arms. “We can’t keep having this fucking fight.”

“You’re right. Maybe you should trust me the same way I trust you.”

“That’s not the same.”

“Isn’t it?”

“I have more experience with this, Emma. I know how these people work, how this sort of thing happens. And I can promise you, we’re far from the fucking norm here.”

“Nothing in my life is ever normal, Brooks. I’m going with Louisa.”

He went silent again and looked out over the neighborhood. I watched as he slowly relaxed and uncrossed his arms. “I used to hate neighborhoods like this,” he said finally.

“Why?”

“So much money here. All this money could help everyone else. It’s part of why I became the man I am today. I wanted to punish people like this. I thought becoming a hit man for the mob would let me give out some kind of justice.”

“And did it?” I asked him softly.

“No,” he said, looking at me. “There’s no justice left in this world. Being a hit man was all about the fucking money.” He sighed and shook his head. “We’ll go to the compound if that’s what you want.”

“You don’t have to go,” I said.

“I’m not walking away from you.”

I was surprised by the way he was looking at me.

Louisa opened the door and stepped out. “Decided?” she asked.

“We’re coming,” Brooks said.

“Good. There’s a car out back. Come on through.”

Brooks gave me a long look as I went and followed Louisa inside. He came after us, bringing up the rear. The door shut behind him.

I didn’t know what was going to happen from here. I had no clue if I was making a horrible mistake or if I was doing the right thing, but something drew me to Louisa. The way her fighters had seemed so willing to die to save their girls made me feel like I could trust her.

Louisa Barone was a fascinating person. The daughter of her enemy, nobody knew who she was or what she did. Brooks made it seem like she lived right under their noses, and they had no clue that she was running a serious organization.

It didn’t matter, though. I was putting my trust in her, and Brooks seemed to be putting his trust in me. That was going to have to be enough.