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from the start, helping me find Miguel. He wasn’t exactly the helpful sort. I’d been so focused on my own feelings in that club that I hadn’t seen what was right in front of me. Sergei hadn’t been surprised. He’d been triumphant. I’d come to him exactly the way he’d planned.
    The shit Miguel and I were in was so much deeper than I’d imagined. Whatever Sergei’s end game was, I was somehow a part of it. I needed to come up with something to throw a major wrench in the works.
    “Why didn’t you go to the police?” I asked again. This all could’ve been avoided if he’d just gone to the cops in the first place.
    “Why would I go to the police?”
    I punched him in the arm. “To save yourself from being killed, ya dumbass.”
    “Hey! I didn’t move up here just so you could get in a better shot.”
    “You have no idea what I’ve been through in the last two days because of you. I went to see fucking Sergei, for God’s sake.” My vision got all watery, which pissed me off even more. “And you could’ve been killed.”
    “Aw, jeez, Maggie. You’re not going to cry, are you? Shit. I’m sorry.” He put his arm around me and laid his head on my shoulder.
    I swiped at my eyes, trying to see the road. It hadn’t really hit me until this moment—with him here safe beside me—just how bad things could’ve turned out, how bad they could still be. And it was more than the blame my mother would crash down on top of my head. I’d miss the big dumb oaf.
    “I thought I could work things out on my own,” he said quietly. “My name’s on all the documents. This was supposed to be my big break into legit business. I’d even gotten a couple of clients on my own. Of course Sergei took all their money too so all that’s down the shitter.” His sigh was full of regret and defeat. “Even if we can get the money back, the cops are already looking at me, aren’t they?”
    “Yeah.”
    “There’s no way to get that Fed you’re sleeping with to take care of that for me, is there?”
    “He might’ve been able to help if you’d gone to him instead of running off. Seriously, dude. What were you thinking ?”
    He sat up in his seat. “I wasn’t.”
    “Well then thank God one of us finally is.”
    Before I’d left with Sergei, I’d filled Super Agent in on our plan to get Miguel back. He’d added a twist—I was supposed to meet agents from the Portland FBI office in Eugene and deliver Miguel. But with my sudden realization about Sergei I knew I couldn’t follow Super Agent’s plan exactly the way he’d laid it out. Knowing how Sergei’s mind worked, I had no doubt he’d planted some kind of listening device in my apartment. It’s what I would’ve done.
    And if he had indeed bugged my apartment, he not only knew about Super Agent’s plan, he knew I’d planned to double-cross him from the start. Which meant he probably had guys in position to nab us before we could get to the outskirts of Eugene. I was going to have to think way outside the box to stay one step ahead of Sergei and still deliver Miguel to Super Agent as promised.
    The one thing that had driven Sergei nuts when we were together was his inability to control and predict me.
    He was going to fucking hate what I was about to do next.
    I pulled off the freeway and into a busy shopping center.
    “Get out,” I told Miguel. “And pick out a new car for us.” I was sure Sergei had put some kind of tracking device on this one.
    My brother was a genius at a few things. Breaking into and hot-wiring cars was one of them. And also, apparently, was knocking up his girlfriend. He was going to be in for a shock when he finally talked to Alice.
    He chose an older-model Ford and worked his magic. I said goodbye to my probation. Jacking a car would get me a cell right alongside my brother. There was no way Super Agent could gloss this one over, especially since I was no longer following his plan. And grand theft auto hadn’t ever been part of