He stared at her, waiting.
She finally broke first.Sure, they could sit there in the car all night staring at each other, but she knew that was pointless.“I took care of Abundio’s baby momma, Jacinta, who was getting nosy.”
His eyebrows arched.“Youkilledher?”
“No, she’spregnant,duh.Give me a little freaking credit, huh?”Dewi picked at her nails.“I gave her achoice.Which way she chooses is up to her.”
“Sooo… the situation isnottaken care of?”
“Either she stays silent, or she dies by her own hand.”
“Dewi!”
She snapped.“Listen, you didnothear that woman, how she talked.You didn’tseeinto her brain.She was totally and completely fucked up, and if she’d gotten her hooks intous, it wouldn’t have been easy to take care of like we did Manuel Segura.She is flat-outevil.But she’s also way smarter than Miranda and Manuel put together.Hell, I’m certain she’s smarter than Abundio.She’s certainly outfoxed him so far.”
He glared at her.
Lying to Peyton would do no good for a variety of reasons, and words didn’t adequately explain it, so she reached over and grabbed his wrist andshowedhim.His face went blank as he absorbed the info, then he looked sick.He twisted his wrist free of her grip and didn’t speak for several minutes.
Then he blew out a long breath, tipping his head back against the headrest, eyes closed, and pinching the bridge of his nose.His dark mental rumblings were so loud she heard them clearly, even though they were no longer touching.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “I have had a recent forcible mental readjustment about the cruelty of people.”He finally opened his eyes and looked at her.“There wasn’tanyother way, huh?”
“No,” she quietly said.
“Now what?”
“I—” Her cell phone rang, and she looked at the screen, her heart dropping.
“Answer it,” he said when he saw the caller.“On speaker.”
She thumbed into the call and Peyton didn’t even let her speak.“Alvarez, it’s Peyton Bleacke.I’m here with Dewi.You’re on speaker.Status report.”
He didn’t respond at first.“I’m here,” Dewi wearily said.“Go ahead.He already knows.”
“Situation is resolved,” Alvarez said.“Parameters met.Boy, you weren’t fucking kidding that I’d know.”
“What’s that mean?”Peyton snapped.
“Uh, sorry, sir.Subject confirmed deceased.”
Dewi couldn’t look at Peyton but felt his gaze drill into the side of her skull.“Do we know if she said anything to anyone?”he asked.
“I followed her into the church, where she went straight after work.There were maybe twenty of us in the sanctuary, where the priest was hearing confessions.She walked into the booth and, about a minute later, there was a gunshot.It was chaos, but I was able to run up and see because the priest had jumped out and was trying to pull her out to do CPR.”
Dewi swallowed the bile threatening to rise in her throat.
“But you’re sure she’s dead?”Peyton asked.
“Yes, sir.I slipped outside in the confusion and waited where I could watch with the crowd.She was rolled out in a body bag on a gurney.Abundio Segura showed up and screamed his fucking head off before they loaded her into the coroner’s van.I was kind of hoping the guy would stroke out, but I don’t think he did.”
“Okay.What are you doing now?”
“I’m heading to the airport, as per Dewi’s instructions.”
“What about your apartment?”
“All my stuff’s in a shipping container arriving in Port Galveston sometime tomorrow.I am completely mobile.You tell me where you want me, sir.”
