Free A Secret to Die For (Secret McQueen) by Sierra Dean Page A

have stayed in his pajamas if he wanted to. It wasn’t like he’d be cold outside. But I had to draw the line at letting him wander around barefoot. Only Sig could get away with doing that, and even he tended to put shoes on when he was on the street.
    “Are we going somewhere? Did you bring your mother with you?”
    My heart clenched. Right before I’d killed Mercy, I’d called Sutherland and put him on speakerphone for her. It was a low blow on my part, meant to catch her off-guard, and I hadn’t taken time to consider the impact it might have on my dad. He was already unstable. What would happen when I admitted to him she was dead?
    And I’d killed her?
    Perhaps now wasn’t the best moment for that particular revelation.
    “No, she’s not here.”
    “Where is she?” He wasn’t going to make this easy on me, was he?
    “She’s in Louisiana.” Her head was, anyway.
    “That’s too bad.” Turning his back to us, Sutherland walked into his apartment. I nodded Holden forward, and we both followed, shutting the door behind us.
    The gloom inside was total. Sutherland hadn’t bothered to light an emergency lamp or find candles, since being a vampire meant he didn’t need any light to see by. When he emerged again from the bedroom, he’d changed his pajama bottoms for a pair of jeans and some beat-up brown boots. His hair was still an uncombed mess, but I didn’t bother to point it out. He was the supposed parent here, not me.
    “I was watching Friends , but the TV stopped working. I waited an hour, and it still wasn’t working. So I got bored and lay down,” he explained.
    “That was good, you did the smart thing.”
    “I was going to go ask my neighbor if their TV was working, but I thought you’d get mad.”
    I really was the adult here.
    “I would have. You were right to stay here.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “Some friends and I are looking for someone, and we think you might be able to help.”
    Holden snorted, not even trying to suppress the noise.
    Whatever else he might think about my father, Sutherland was a vampire. If we could use Clementine and Reggie for help, we could certainly use Sutherland. One willing vampire was as good as the next.
    “I can help?” Sutherland seemed eager to lend a hand. It hadn’t occurred to me before, but when he was with the western council he was an active warden. They would send him on runs and make him do menial tasks for them. Since coming to New York, he’d been forced to sit in an apartment and watch dated DVD box sets. I hadn’t considered he might want to be useful, because I’d spent so much of my time trying to protect him.
    “Yes, you’ll be very helpful.”
    As we locked up the apartment on our way out, Holden’s hand went to my arm, gripping it tight enough to hurt.
    “What?”
    “Something’s happening downstairs.”
    “People are arguing,” Sutherland explained, nodding helpfully.
    “Who—”
    Pop.
    My blood ran cold at the distinctive sound of a gunshot. We’d barely been gone for ten minutes. How could trouble have found us this fast?
    I didn’t bother waiting to see if Holden and Sutherland were following me. My heart was racing as I ran down the stairs and skidded across the slick linoleum. When I burst out the front door, the scene on the street was frozen in an incomprehensible tableau.
    Keaty was lying on the sidewalk, which I couldn’t understand, and a few feet away Jock was holding a gun. He still had a handcuff shackled to one wrist, but clearly it was no longer keeping him bound to a park bench. Seven armed men flanked him on both sides.
    I looked from him to Keaty, and my pulse pounded so loudly in my ears I almost missed what Jock said.
    He smirked. “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”

Chapter Nine
    My whole body trembled, both from shock and rage.
    Keaty was facedown on the sidewalk with a puddle of blood spilling out around him. Was he breathing? Was he alive?
    He was still wearing his