She bit her bottom lip. "I told you that my boss knows where she is. If I don't bring the Eye to him, he's going to kill her. He'll make me watch, and then he's going to kill me, too. He mentioned something about evisceration."
Her throat felt thick. She wasn't going to cry. She wasn't.
Quinn didn't say anything for a moment. "That's not going to happen."
She shook her head. "We're never going to find it. Maybe it was just a wild goose chase Malcolm's had us on. Maybe he's had the real map all of this time and he's playing us for fools."
"We're going to find it. And even if worst-case scenario, we don't, nothing is going to happen to your sister. Or you, for that matter. We'll go to Vegas and find her and protect her."
"You don't know my Boss."
"I don't give a shit about your Boss."
She snorted quietly at that. "Brave words for somebody who's never even met him before."
"Call Lenny. See if they've made any progress yet."
"They're probably not even in Vegas yet. They're in a Mustang, not ateleporter ."
"Call him anyhow."
She looked down at the cell phone and laughed, just this side of hysterical. "Well, I probably have service now, but the battery's dead." She shook her head. "Nothing is going right today. Nothing."
"We're here," the cabbie said as they came to a stop.
"Here where?" Quinn asked.
"You wanted to go to desert ridge, right? That's where we are. That'll be ten bucks."
Quinn paid him and they exited the taxi, looking blankly at where they'd been dropped off.
Desert Ridge Marketplace. Which happened to be a huge outdoor shopping mall, complete with a multiscreen movie theater flanked by tall, groomed palm trees.
A half hour later, Janie and Quinn had searched Desert Ridge Marketplace and had come up with zero clues about where the Eye might be. They stopped very briefly at an outdoor cafe, where Janie choked down a sandwich since she hadn't eaten all day.
Quinn hadn't ordered anything at all. He simply sat there waiting patiently for Janie to eat.
"Let's go." She slapped enough money on the table to cover the meal and a generous tip, and walked away from the restaurant, the food sitting heavily in her stomach.
If she was the praying type, she would pray that Barkley and Lenny found Angela. Her throat felt tight.
Why hadn't she tried to contact Janie in the past five years she'd been missing? What was wrong with her? Didn't she think her sister had been worried about her?
Maybe she knew Janie was a coldheartedMerc who was no better than a hired killer.
She glanced over her shoulder at Quinn. Was that howhe saw her?
Her boss snapped his twig-like fingers and she came running. She always thought it was out of fear, but maybe she was just as evil as he was.
However, she did have nicer skin. And when it came to fashion, there really was no comparison at all.
"Janie…" Quinn said from behind her. She stopped walking and turned to look at him.
"What?"
He was frowning. "That's strange."
"What is?"
"I thought the Eye would be hidden somewhere. Maybe buried like the stone in Malcolm's backyard."
"And you think it isn't?"
He pointed behind her. "Take a look at that."
She turned. The building next to the Marketplace was thePhoenixNativeArt Museum . The structure, she noted, had a rectangular shape similar to the last drawing on the map.
But so did a lot of other buildings. Like, all of them.
She shrugged. "So?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "X does mark the spot."
On the side of the building, a shape was designed using colorful red and orange tiles that shone under the bright sun. It was in the shape of a large, unmistakable X.
"Huh."
"Yeah."
She shook her head, hardly believing what she was seeing. "If I ever meet the person who drew that map, I think I'm going to beat them senseless."
"I will hold them down for you."
She turned to look at him. "Do you really think it might be in there?"
"Only one way to find out."
They stared at each other. This was it. Were they supposed to race for it now? Fight for it? All bets were off? Whoever got the Eye first was the winner?
He voiced her thoughts. "Let's just find it and take it from there."
She nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
They walked up to the building and went in through the front doors. There was a five-dollar charge to get in.
The museum was practically deserted. Only one employee was out front. ThePhoenixNativeArt