Page 78 of King of Cruelty

They blow in, jump out, lock the doors behind them, leaving me and Laurel trapped inside, and then—

BOOM!

I jumped, my scream blasting against my clenched teeth. Bolting off the seat, I grabbed Laurel’s stroller handles and half ran down the path into the park just as the green car I saw in my vision turned the corner and headed for us.

“Wait?” someone called. “Excuse me, you with the stroller! I need directions to— Shit!”

I picked up the pace, heart shotgunning into my throat and choking me.What do I do? What do I do?!

I always trusted my visions. Always. Ever since that day Mackenzie left on her bike to the grocery store and came back with ten stitches holding the vicious gash in her arm together.The guilt I felt at not stopping her from going that day, ate me alive for weeks.

Now when I saw something, I didn’t waste time questioning it. I acted. And what I saw was that if there was any place in the world Laurel and I shouldn’t be that day, it was the Fairfield.

But that’s where Kenzie is, and she’s not answering her phone! She has to get out. They all need to get out!

I craned my head around, peering up, up, up at the forty-floors-high skyscraper towering over Cinco City. The Fairfield was still there. It was still standing, but the frustrating thing about my visions were that I didn’t know for how long. That explosion could be timed for an hour from now or a month. It might not even be a literal explosion. Could just be a warning of certain danger awaiting me and everyone in that building, and lots of terrible weapons could achieve that.

“But none of them are fucking getting near my niece!”

Just as the words left my mouth, I flicked down... and looked right into the eyes of selfie girl.

She spun away, quickly veering to the right and stopping at a water fountain like that’s what she meant to do all along, but it was clear. She was following me with whatever was in her oversized tote bag. The only thing stopping her from pulling it out was a park full of witnesses.

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no.”

Thanks to that rotted pile of fish guts, Luca, I wasn’t a stranger to running through the streets, trying to get away from shady people. But Mackenzie and I never had to do it with Laurel. By the time Luca’s thugs caught up to us, Laurel was safely with the woman who kidnapped her—which was still weird to say.

Charlie Mayberry was a kidnapper, but she also protected and cared for Laurel when we couldn’t, and I’d hate and appreciate her for that for the rest of my life.

But now there is no Charlie, and Kenzie’s not here. Laurel is depending on me to protect her. Kenzie is depending on me to protect her. And I’m fucking depending on me to protect my niece, so I have to think of something. Think!

A group of joggers came down the path toward us. I opened my mouth to ask them for help, then cut myself off—tossing my head. I couldn’t do that. If Selfie Lady really has a gun, then what was an innocent Good Samaritan going to do to stop her, other than get seriously hurt? Or killed.

No. I had to keep far away from her so that pulling out that gun at all would be pointless. Her targets are already gone.

“Come on, come on,” I hissed.

Another park entrance loomed ahead of me. Through the scant amount of distance between a kissing couple, I saw that green car parked right outside—waiting.

“Oh, Hera, no...” I white-knuckled the handle, sweat beading on my forehead. I wasn’t getting away from Selfie Bitch. She was herding me exactly where she wanted me to go. “Oh, gods, what do I do? What do—? No, what would the Merchants do? Neither Sunny, Bane, nor Liam would run from some skeezy Brotherhood bitch, so think! If they were here, they’d—” I snapped my head from side to side. “They would—”

I glanced at a little girl blowing bubbles, and a thought came to me. I scrambled inside my purse, pushing Laurel’s stroller with my stomach.

Mackenzie was a typical type-A, do-everything-herself eldest sister. Even though she was dating a whole bunch of filthy rich guys, she refused to take money from them. Matter of fact, she was already talking about opening an online shop for clothes, now that she’d been fired from Caddell House for the second time. She didn’t like the idea of getting money for nothing.

But I was one hundred percent fine with it.

Before we left for New York, Sunny slipped me a fat wad of hundreds. Either it was to make sure we had a place to stay in case River’s plan fell through, or it was to pay for the hitman to take Damien out. Didn’t know, but I damn sure didn’t do the “oh, no, I couldn’t” dance. If the right hitman came along, I wasn’t going to let lack of funds give Damien one more day to live that he didn’t deserve.

“And look at that...” I gave that bitch the side-eye as I plucked out the money. “A hitwoman did come along.”

Slipping off the rubber band, I raised the money in the air and let the wind whip and pull at it, snatching the money away from my fingertips.

Hundreds rained like confetti, falling all over the path, and landing on the joggers—

“Hey! Hey, look,” one of them shouted. “It’s money! There’s money everywhere! Look!”

It was like being in kindergarten when the bell rang for recess.

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