The first guard shrugged. “Apparently, she still has something he wants. Something about those black blades that everyone was supposed to get. Victor’s been working on her, along with that Kaminsky guy. You know, the one who owns that tacky pawnshop?”

The other men nodded.

“Anyway, Victor will get one of them to talk . . . sooner or later.”

The guard let out an ugly laugh, and all the others joined in with him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but not before two hot tears escaped and rolled down my cheeks. I’d known that Victor would torture Claudia, but to hear the guards so casually confirm it, and to realize that he was hurting Mo too.... It was almost more than I could bear.

In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to scream, wade into the guards, grab one of their swords, and cut them all down the same way they had the Sinclairs at the mansion last night.

But I couldn’t do that. Not without getting myself killed or captured, along with Deah. Then there would be no way I could save Claudia, Mo, and the others. So I opened my eyes and forced myself to take slow, deep breaths, trying to get my raging emotions under control.

A minute later, the guards finished their snacks, said their goodbyes, and drifted away to start patrolling again. Frustrated, I whipped around and hurried over to Deah, who was still standing by that cart, trying on pair after pair of sunglasses.

“Anything?” she asked, worry darkening her eyes.

“The Sinclairs are in a warehouse somewhere, just like you thought, but the guards didn’t say which one. Are you sure you don’t have any idea where they could be?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but no. Dad has a bunch of warehouses all along the river and in other parts of town. They could be anywhere.”

“All right then. We’ll just have to keep eavesdropping.”

And that’s exactly what we did, going around and around the Draconi section of the Midway, getting close to every single guard we could. After everything that had happened last night, they were a chatty bunch, almost as talkative as Felix, but while the guards kept mentioning the warehouse, none of them said where it actually was.

My frustration grew and grew, and Deah was just as tense and on edge as I was. We both kept our hats on, and our faces low and turned away from the guards, but every second we stayed in the Midway added to the risk of someone spotting and recognizing us. Still, we kept walking around and around in circles, trying to overhear something—anything—that might lead us to Claudia, Mo, and the others.

But we didn’t hear anything useful, and thirty minutes later, Deah stopped and pulled a buzzing phone out of her shorts pocket. It was one of the cheap cell phones that I’d bought and stashed in the library basement, along with the rest of my supplies.

“It’s Felix,” she said. “He wants to know what’s taking so long.”

I sighed. “Tell him that we’ll be back soon. I want to make one more lap around the Draconi section, just in case there are any guards we missed.”

She nodded and texted him back. I waited until she’d finished, and then we started walking around again. But once again, we came up with nothing.

Just when I was ready to admit defeat and head back to the alley where Devon and Felix were waiting, a familiar, snide voice caught my ear.

“Dad didn’t like using the warehouse so close to the lochness bridge, but we didn’t have a choice with so many prisoners.”

Deah heard the voice too, and we both stopped and looked at each other. I motioned to her, and we both slid behind a fudge cart, following the sound of the voice.

“But it won’t matter. As soon as Claudia Sinclair gives up the location of the weapons, Dad will finish her off. Then the rest of the Sinclairs will have to swear their loyalty to him—or else.”

Blake—that was Blake’s voice. I looked around, but I didn’t spot him in the crowd of people, so I crept forward a few more steps, searching for him, with Deah right beside me.

“I don’t see why Victor still wants those black blades so badly, when he already has most of the Sinclairs locked up,” a guard chimed in.

“Dad wouldn’t want the blades if they weren’t important,” Blake replied. “Once we have the weapons, we can wipe out all the other Families. Then this town will belong to the Draconis, like it should have all along.”

Blake let out a low, ugly laugh. The sound made my skin crawl.

“I know what warehouse he’s talking about,” Deah whispered in my ear. “It’s on Copper Street, not too far from the lochness bridge. Dad uses it to store T-shirts, sunglasses, and other cheap souvenirs to sell to the tourists.”

I nodded. I knew the warehouse she was talking about. It was one of the few buildings in the bad part of town that still occasionally had guards patrolling outside—enough guards that even I had never dared try to break inside. It would be the perfect place to hold Claudia, Mo, and the rest of the Sinclair hostages.

“Let’s go,” I whispered. “We need to get back to Devon and Felix and tell them what we found out.”

Deah nodded, and we both walked around the opposite side of the fudge cart. We’d just rounded the corner and were about to head over to one of the cobblestone paths when a couple of guys stepped in front of us. I managed to avoid them, but she spotted them a second too late.

“Oof!” Deah slammed into one of the guys going the opposite direction and bounced off his broad, muscled body.

“Watch where you’re going,” a low, familiar voice growled.

I froze, my breath hissing out between my teeth. Because Deah had just run into the very last person either one of us wanted to see right now.

Blake.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I hoped that Blake would just keep on walking, but of course he stopped, turned around, and glared at the person who had dared to run into him.

“I said watch where you’re going,” he snapped again, obviously waiting for some sort of apology.

“I—uh—um—” Deah sputtered, completely at a loss for words.

“Sorry! My friend is so sorry!” I said, pitching my voice light and high in hopes that he wouldn’t recognize me. “She just didn’t see you standing there!”

I stepped up to grab Deah’s arm and pull her away from him, but Blake moved to the side, blocking me without even realizing it.