She leaned back in the bus seat and closed her eyes. How had she fucked this up so badly? She’d been so careful up until now, and one careless slip and everything was exposed. Her mother knew about Kovit. She would find him and kill him and think she was doing Nita a favor.

The bus rumbled beneath her, and she looked up at the escape hatch on the ceiling. She needed to escape. She needed to grab Kovit and run, far and fast. That Buenos Aires flight tonight couldn’t come soon enough.

Her chest hurt when she thought of how she’d added another person to the list of threats against Kovit. She was the worst friend. Every time she tried to help him, all she did was make everything ten times worse.

Swallowing, she looked out the window as the bus turned onto the highway and carried her far away. As her heart rate slowly calmed, she considered the story her mother had told about a woman conned by a monster. To Nita, the hardest part to believe was that her mother actually had a friend. She couldn’t picture the calculating, manipulative woman who’d raised her befriending someone. But there were a lot of things she didn’t know about her mother.

There was one thing she did know. Whether the story was true or something her mother made up to try and keep Nita away from Kovit, she wasn’t going to let her mother win. If it came down to a choice of her mother or Kovit, well, Nita knew who she would pick.

By the time Nita got back to the apartment, it was almost time to leave for the airport. Kovit was waiting in the reception room, pacing. His hair was mussed from running his hands through it too much, and his eyes had shadows under them. He sagged in relief when she came in.

“I was worried. Did you get my messages?” he asked.

Nita shook her head. She hadn’t checked her phone on the last bit of her journey. “No, I’m sorry.”

“We need to get going.”

She nodded, all business. “Do we have everything we need?”

She looked around and realized they didn’t really have anything. No clothes—everything they weren’t wearing was bloody. Just passports, some money, and their phones.

He smiled as though he was thinking the same thing. “We’re good.”

Nita sighed. “I suppose we should untie Fabricio.”

“Oh, I did already.”

Nita raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“We can’t have him going on a plane looking like he just got kidnapped and tortured. I got him some new clothes and some bandages and antiseptic. He took a shower and is just changing now.”

Nita tilted her head to one side. “That was . . . nice of you.”

Kovit shrugged. “I didn’t see the harm in letting him have a shower.”