.:Micah:.

Tico and Pseudo were gone.

I had known there was something wrong the instant I’d set foot in the back room.

There were several guys sitting in a semicircle near the far corner—a flashlight propped up on its handle so the light was cast across their faces. They were telling ghost stories. Again. Never mind that it was morning already.

It was a stupid habit that I detested. They seemed to never tire of the ridiculous game, though I knew it was just to keep busy while times were slow. But right now, things were definitely not slow.

In the other corner, Red was curled into a ball, holding his head as he slept. I glanced past him, knowing he wouldn’t have a headache if I hadn’t nailed him with the bat the other night. Some might think I was second guessing myself.

But I never second guess anything. Especially myself.

Altogether, there were six of the gang.

I knew that Peter was in the other room, guarding the girl. He was the only one I trusted enough to watch her. The girl, Solia, was a tricky one, though Jackie had been harder to keep under control.

We’re missing two.

So where were they? And who’s missing?

I took a mental roll-call, checking off names as I looked over the guy’s faces.

Red, Shane, Levi, Nathan, Jake, Nike. And Peter.

It came to me in an instant. Tico and Pseudo.

I turned on my heel and ran from the room, crashed through the door and into the main storage garage. Light from the early morning sun filtered in through the skylight and threw the shadows into hiding.

Peter sat against the door of the other room—the cell, we called it—twirling his key-ring around his finger out of boredom.

“Is Leon here yet,” I asked him.

He shrugged. “He was supposed to come through the back, right?”

I nodded and hurried to the back door of the garage, slipped through it and left it open just for the heck of it.

I told him to be here before nine. What happened?

To keep the sun out of my eyes, I pulled my old Cardinals baseball cap out of one of the larger pockets in my jeans.

Having a robot eye didn’t help much when I needed to see well. For one, it didn’t have a pupil that could adjust how much light it received. That was a definite downside. And the other problem with it was that it had no eyelid. So I couldn’t blink or close it to adjust how much light I was seeing/not.

It really stunk, if I thought about it too much. So I tried not to. Sometimes.

There was no sign of a disturbance in the back alley, so I ran around front. Nothing there either.

Where is he?

It made no sense. I had known that Solia was Leon’s second in command. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have risked letting Jackie escape. I would have made Solia to go for Leon with the threat that Jackie would die if he didn’t show up in twenty-four hours.

But after Jackie left, the whole plan backfired.

Leon had shown up by himself—completely alone, no one to help him defend himself, to protect him.

It was exactly the opposite of what I’d expected. I had thought Jackie would come back with him. After all, she was the only one (besides Solia) that knew where our hideout was. So how had he found it in the first place.

Then he had made a deal with me.

—Reverse About Ten Hours—

Leon stood off to one side of the street, his eyes glinting in the streetlamp.

I didn’t know what to say—didn’t know if I should attack him or not. It wasn’t as I’d planned out in my mind. Jackie had been supposed to come with him.

But she hadn’t. No one had come with him and it looked as though my chances of beating him in a one-on-one confrontation were out of the question.

And there was a slim chance that my gang would hear me if I called them to help.

I don’t need help.

“What do you want,” I asked.

His glare hardened at my words. “You’re the one who ordered that I come for Solia. I think you’re the one who should be telling me what you want.”

I already wanted to leap at him and punch his face black and blue. But I held back. He had a point.

“Maybe I changed my mind about the deal.”

He stared at me for a moment, then looked off into the darkness, his face suddenly hidden from the light. “What do you mean?”

What is he looking at?

“I’m pretty sure you know what I mean.”

Leon turned to face me again, his eyes narrowed. “You’d better not be telling me what I think you are.”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking. But I have a deal to make with you.”

“What?”

“Bring me the Jackie in exchange for Solia.”

“What?!”

“You heard me,” I said. Then I whirled on my heel and was gone.

—Forward One Hour—

Peter stood against the wall, his face tilted up as his head rested on the bricks behind him. He watched me lazily, as though he were a cat in the sun. I would have laughed a e expression, but now wasn’t quite the time.

“So why is this girl so important,” he asked.

I’d been waiting for the question all day, but knew he had to work up the guts to even speak to me. He gang knew how much of an anger problem I had, though I wouldn’t usually hurt anyone.

Best they keep their distance . . .

“Leverage,” I said.

He shrugged at me and turned away. “Seems like more than that to me.”

“That’s just you,” I replied.

It wasn’t that I needed her for leverage. He knew that as well as I did. Maybe i was because I couldn’t admit it to myself that I couldn’t admit what I was feeling to him.

There was something out of the ordinary about her.

The gang had never had a . . . girl. And Leon’s gang was almost all girls.

So why was it such a big deal to me?

And something about her was different. I hated her guts just like the others, don’t get me wrong, but there was something in her eyes—the determination, maybe—that caught me as strange.

How could someone be so satisfied with a life like . . . this?

“Life like what?” Peter was looking at me now, head tilted to the side, a tiny smile stretched to one side.

I spoke out loud?

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “I have a job to do.”