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“Go ahead, do it,” he said, a sad s with the corners of his mouth “Shohat you’re made of”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered “You’ll never kno ”

“Then don’t do it Whatever it is, we can work through it I’ll help you”

“You can’t”

He sighed, then looked past me and jerked his chin

“It’s over, babe,” I heard a uess it was Fortunately, I had just enough tier before he hit me

CHAPTER ONE

EIGHTEEN DAYS EARLIER

LONDON

My back was killing me

It was nearly two in theshift at the pawn shop I’d been letting et soft the past couple of h tiotten just howa toilet really is

Well, scrubbing toilets, floors, dusting, vacuuht not be the cheapest crew in toere the best I knew this because I turned down more accounts than I took these days Thanks tonew clients was easy Workers? Not soup after others, and even withpay, people flaked on me

Tonight, for example

I’d gotten a call from Anna—one of my crew leads—to say she had two no-shows Because the life of a cleaning lady is nonstop gla dried pee off the floor in a men’s bathroom

Charmed existence, I know

At leastback and I could crawl into bed soon

I pulled up to the house and noticed a blue Honda Civic parked in front Mellie’s car—ht with Jessie, I realized I bit back the surge of annoyance On the one hand, I really preferred it when Jess cleared stuff like this with me ahead of time

On the other, there orse things than having the girl home on a Friday Most of them orse, actually God, I loved her so ain that it wasn’t entirely her fault—the counselors told me over and over that I needed to help her learn to cope with her lirow out of them

Decisionsuit

According to the experts, that part of her brain just hadn’t developed quite right, thanks to herchemical romance I wasn’t sure how I felt about that I knew she wasn’t like other kids But you knohat? We all have to learn to get along in this world Nobody’s born with a clean slate, and she wasn’t a little girl anymore

I unlocked the front door to find Mellie sitting on the couch Her knees were drawn up, her eyes were huge, and she clutched a can of Diet Coke like a shield

My parent radar crackled to life

“What did she do now?”

“We were at a party,” Mel whispered “It was around ten o’clock She ran into soo—Terry Fratelli and her friends—and they invited us out to the Armory for a party with the Reapers motorcycle club”

I swayed, grabbing the back of -backed chair to catch myself

“Fuck”

Mellie’s eyes got even wider I didn’t cuss She knew I didn’t cuss Ever

“What’s the rest of it?”

The girl looked away, biting her lip

“I’uilt written all over her face “But there was no way I’d go out there and she didn’t listen to ot kind of …”

Her voice trailed off and I filled in the gaps Jessica liked tolike a well-trained puppy Classic Jess Such an idiot child—I wasn’t quite sure how she iven the shit she pulled

“Anyway, she pro as long as she stayed in touch But she stopped texting ht and I could tell she was really drunk Hersense I’m really scared for her, London”

This last was said with a sniffle, and I realized the poor girl was terrified I ca Mel spent so much time over here that she felt like my own sometimes

“She’s gonna be so pissed I told you”

“You did the right thing, baby,” I said, running a hand across her hair “She’s being a selfish brat, putting you into this position”

“Well, on the bright side she’ll forgiveup atsmile “She always does”

I srim Mel was too nice Sometimes I wished she’d ditch Jessie and find a new best friend Then I felt guilty, because even with her issues, Jess was my heart

“I need to go find her,” I said “Do you want to stay here or head home?”

“I was thinking I could sleep here tonight?” she asked I nodded, already knowing the rest of the story Friday nights at Mel’s house weren’t pretty, especially on paydays Her dad liked to celebrate the end of the week a little too much

“Sounds good”

I tried calling Bolt Harrison froed Pawns, the saht It happened to be owned by the Reapers MC Bolt was their vice president

I’d had the cleaning contract there for about sixone ofa second contract for The Line, their strip club We’d already coh hopes it would grow into soinally ran the Pawns crew o I’d turned it over to Jason, an older guy who’d been with me for alreat jobthe people under him

The MC paid well, and they paid in cash, which was convenient In return, we kept our ht see, which honestly wasn’t as ht be so in the back roo forced

Notadults what to do with their bodies

Even so, I irls ever came out with me Just because I didn’t call the cops doesn’t

Anyway, I figured Bolt was the first place to start if I wanted to extract Jess frootten herself into this time I liked Bolt and felt relatively comfortable around him—and he was my only choice, really My other contact was Reese Hayes, the club’s president That man scared the heck out ofabout him … The way his eyes followed me Like he wanted to eat me, and not in a nice flowers and candlelit dinner kind of way A hint of gray at his temples said he was probably just a little older than me, but his body was built like a man in his twenties I don’t knohat bothered me more, his inherent scariness or the fact that his scariness sort of secretly turned me on (Pathetic, I know)