“He already has. But I hurt him back.”

“I know,” he said, and I could practically hear the smile in his voice. My father was satisfied that I would do as I was told. And I would. But the matter sat on my conscience like a stone at the bottom of a river.

“Call me when you get close to the nest.”

“Okay.” I raised my hand to stifle a yawn.

My dad sighed. “Boys, make sure she gets some sleep.”

“No problem,” Marc said, though he was at least as tired as I was. Maybe more.

Half an hour later, Lance woke up, his consciousness heralded by a series of angry grunts and kicks against the side of the van. Jace raised a single brow in grim amusement, then leaned over the back of his seat to peer into the cargo hold. “Hey.”

I twisted in my seat to watch, and Marc kept glancing in the rearview mirror until I smacked his shoulder and pointed out the windshield. He was dangerous enough with his eyes on the road.

Jace glanced at me and I shrugged, so he leaned over Lance, then came up a moment later with a strip of duct tape.

“Where am I?” Lance demanded. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Balancing the scales of justice,” Jace said, his usual grin conspicuously absent.

“What does that mean?”

I closed my eyes, steeling myself, then unbuckled and climbed onto the backseat, where I leaned over next to Jace, trying to keep the left side of my face angled away from our prisoner. “Hey, Lance.”

“Faythe?” He clearly didn’t remember my awesome countertop-assisted kick to his skull.

“Yeah. Listen, I’m just gonna get right to the point.” Because I had to be sure. I was perfectly willing to hand him over to the thunderbirds to save Kaci’s life, but I needed to know that he was actually guilty, for my own peace of mind. Though, peace hardly seemed possible, after the week we’d had. “Parker’s worried about you. Brett told us you were the one who killed the thunderbird, and Parker’s afraid that if the truth comes out, Malone will throw you under the wheels of the political machine to save himself. So we’re here on behalf of my dad, to offer you sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary? You’re serious?” His brows furrowed in skepticism.

“Yeah. Sorry about the whole snatch-’n’-grab. We didn’t think Malone would let you just walk out.”

Lance shook his head, his hair catching against the carpet. “He wouldn’t have.”

“So, I just need to clarify a couple of points, then we can let you ride up front with the rest of the grown-ups.” I smiled, hoping he could see my friendly, reassuring expression in the fading daylight, but not the new slice across my face, which hurt with each word I spoke.

“Okay…” He was hesitant to trust me, and I didn’t blame him. But I stood a much better shot at convincing him than Jace did.