Outside, in the dark night, the streets of downtown Stone Fell are silent. The party is over with the beginning of the weekday, I guess. But for Lele, it’s just starting.
And for whomever sold him the drugs that fucked him up, death is coming. It’s not solely personal, I tell myself.
Dead users are bad for business.
I shift on my feet, strike again.
And again.
I’m breathing hard, but I keep my mouth closed, inhaling and exhaling through my nose as I attack the bag and put my guard up, bouncing on my toes. My fists are loose, and only partially for technique. My Russian gel manicure doesn’t want to be trapped too tightly, either.
“You’re looking tired, Lydia.Faster.”Eve is right in my face, at my side, and a muscle in my jaw ticks.
If she was a man, I’d have the tactical knife strapped beneath my loose blue boxer shorts in her face. Something about men talking down to me I can’t fucking stand. But me and Lele pay Eve for this, and I don’t think she’d take it too well if I cut her in the gym she owns. Not to mention despite the fact she’s an inchshorter than me, she could do some serious damage. Probably to Lele too, and he’s six foot one. I think it’s why he’s always so nice and respectful to her. She scares him a little. He’s never even tried to sleep with her, which is a feat for him.
When I told her the news, she went perfectly still. But she hasn’t been any softer on me, and I’m grateful. I need the hardass approach. Especially now. It helps turn my brainoff.
I lift my chin and roll my shoulders back, then strike again.
Again. I bounce around the bag but keep my core tight, my body locked in, elbows close to my sides.
I hit again. Again. The bag creaks, then slams against the wood mounted on the wall behind it for that purpose.
Another strike.
Sweat blurs over my eye.
I blink it out of the way but hit again.
Again.
I think of Lele in my arms Friday night. Two hits. Another. I’m using both hands now but retracting them one at a time, bringing them quickly back into my body.
One, two.
One, two, three.
“There you go,” Eve says, and those three words are the most praise I’m gonna get from her.
My pulse pounds hard in my chest, sweat slick down my elbows.
I hit again, and again. All I have is Lele. Uncle Lynx sees money far more than he sees family and while I’m grateful to him for taking us in, I know in his head, I’m nothing but a weapon. Whatever Lele feels for him, he simply doesn’t understand what Lynx wanted us for. Touse.It’s not personal; it was just business, and I’ve conducted business well. I’ve always imagined the blood I crawled around in of my mother’s was thebirth of the real me. The Lydia Flynn meant for this move to Stone Fell, this stronghold of Lynx’s empire.
My childhood wasn’t exactly a picnic. I was raised for this, but it made me better, and for that, I’ve already forgiven my uncle for everything he did to me.
I slam the bag again and try to blink Lele’s cries from Friday night out of my head.
I strike again.
Fox and our team are looking into who the girl was the escort mentioned, and the guy who made the drug.
We’ll find them.
We always do.
Flynns don’t falter.
Lele and I are council, meaning we rank high in Stone Fell. There’s one other family close by who does anything remotely similar to what we do and Hawthorn and Cassia are worse, because they deal in bodies. We steer clear of them. If we didn’t, it would start a fucking war, and my uncle has always made it very clear that the unsteady truce we have with those two keeps us all from collapse.
