“Your secret don’t tell Casey text got read aloud by Ella’s Bluetooth, so yup, I heard it all. I decided not to give her a chance to ignore my bullshit.”
“Fuuuuuck,” he said. “Casey, please—”
“He’s my brother, Rio,” she said. “I am not going to let you do this by yourself!”
“I wasn’t... gonna,” he shot back at her. “I’m not... insane.”
“Are you... running?” His phrasing was strange and his breathing was weirdly labored.
“Fuck yeah, I’m running... because you are... sure as shit... not... getting there... first! God damn it!”
“You’re on foot.” Casey realized the obvious.
“I kinda... had to... ditch the car...to get away... from the men... who were shooting at me!”
“So you were gonna what?” She was both terrified and infuriated now as she jockeyed her way back into the middle and then the exit lane. She was coming up, fast, on the exit to the Infinity, and she’d long left Ella and Taylor in the dust. But Ella was smart. She no doubt had already plugged the Infinity’s address into her GPS. “Walk into the same bar that the men who were shooting at you came from, grab Jon—who’s not answering his phone, so maybe he’s already injured, maybe he’s shitfaced drunk, and if he is, you’ll have to carry him. That’ll be easy, oh wait, no it won’t—while you stand on the corner and wait for your Lyft to show up?!”
“If you’d... let me finish...” Rio huffed back at her as she took the exit. The light at the end of the exit ramp was green and probably stale, so she sped up and pretended not to see it turn yellow and then red just before she made the left turn that would take her to the bar. Traffic was still heavy, even—especially—on these local roads. “You would know... I called... for help. The senior chief... and Lieutenant King... are both... on their way. Senior’s... bringing whoever’s around, the more... the fucking merrier.”
That calmed her down a little until she thought about the drive time from Coronado. In this traffic. “So you’re going to wait for them?”
Rio was silent for just a little too long. When he finally spoke, she was ready to start yelling at him some more, but then he went and surprised her. “No.” His voice was quiet but absolute in his honesty. “I wasn’t gonna. Wait. I just... No. I promised... myself... I’m never gonna... lie to you again.”
Emotion—fear, sorrow, longing, regret, and yeah, a solid dollop of ridiculous but blossoming hope, too—tightened Casey’s chest.
“I didn’t mean it,” she said through a throat that ached. “What I said to you this morning. I didn’t...”
“I know. And I’m so sorry... that I lied to you.”
“Please, Rio,” she said. “Don’t go in there by yourself.”
“Like you’re not going to do that... if you get there first,” he countered.
Oh, he knew her well. “He’s my brother,” Casey said again.
“He’s... my friend. Weird... as that might be. Hey, Ella just... tried calling me.”
Ella was calling her again now and as Casey again rejected the call, she glanced into her rearview. Still no sign of either Ella’s car or Taylor’s truck. Which maybe was a good thing. Fewer people to get hurt as a result of Jon’s bad choices.
“I’m just gonna do this,” she said. “Because what if it’s easy? I’ll just walk in and say Time to go. He’ll get up and we’ll go.”
“Casey, Jesus...”
“It won’t be the first time,” she said.
“Yeah,” Rio said. “But it’s the first time since one of Miller’s thugs tried to run you down.”
“We don’t know—”
“Yes,” he said. “We do. I got a bleeding... right arm... says we know. You walk in there, someone pulls a gun on you, what then?”
It was a good question, but... “I could ask you the exact same thing.”
“And I could actually answer, rather than make some... half-assed attempt to redirect... because I’m a Navy SEAL... and I’ve had a shit-ton more training... than you,” he shot back.
He was right, and yet... “What if the question is how do I walk in there and make sure no one even dares to pull a gun on me?” she countered.
“With no weapons, no training, there’s no fucking way—” Rio started.
