“You would have stolen my son,” I said.

“It was business, Nora,” she said. “And it still is. Give me the drive.”

“What about the registry files?” I asked. “The ones showing the offshore accounts Apex used to fund your clinic?”

Elaine smiled, a cruel, sharp expression.

“Those files are the only things that connect me directly to the syndicate’s financial network,” she said. “With those gone, I am just a doctor who helped a scared mother. I walk away clean. Apex gets the boy, and Damon gets ruined.”

“And if I don’t give it to you?” I asked.

Elaine reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out a small, silver pistol.

The metal gleamed in the faint light of my phone.

“Then I take it from your body,” she said. “And I tell Damon that the syndicate got to you before I could.”

My heart stopped for a beat as I looked at the barrel of the gun.

But I didn’t move.

“You really think you can get away with this?” I asked.