“Where you headed so early?”he asks, smiling.
My heart slams.My vision sharpens at the edges.
Jagger shifts half a step, putting himself between us without breaking stride, and lowers his voice.“Call Silas.Get out while you can.”
Cold rushes through me.I shake my head once, useless.He steps fully forward, cutting me off from him.
“Man can’t get a little peace before breakfast?”he says lightly.
Laughter answers him.Too easy.Too rehearsed.
I scan the street, breath shallow now.There are more of them.Spread out.
A black SUV screeches to the curb.Tires scream.The sound punches through my chest, and I flinch despite myself.
“We’ll take you back,” the man says to me, humor gone.“We need to talk to him.”
“No,” I say.The word is useless the moment it leaves my mouth.
Jagger doesn’t look back.“Handle her careful.”
The door slides open.
I step forward again, hands curling into fists.“Jagger?—”
He hears it.I know he does.
He still gets in.
The door slams.The engine revs.The SUV pulls away, swallowing him into traffic like he was never there.
I stand frozen, breath trapped high in my chest, the world rushing in to fill the space he leaves behind.Voices, engines, footsteps.Ordinary life reclaiming the sidewalk.
Jagger Rourke is gone.
And the weight of it hits with sickening clarity that whatever comes next, I’m facing it without him.
Twenty-Three
Jagger
I control the reflex to react when the metal door slams behind me, the echo ricocheting off concrete and corrugated steel.
Gravel crunches under approaching boots as the men who picked me up fan out, silent and efficient, their formation tightening the air around me.
They’ve brought me to the perfect place where screams die before they ever reach daylight.
Numbness starts to creep in as a voice slides out of the shadows—smooth, familiar, wrong."Vegas suits you, hermano."
My stomach knots before my eyes find him.
Paco.Smoking a cigarette and eyeing me.
I keep my tone even.“You trying to take my spot?That what this is?"
He spreads his hands."Things change.Marquez likes initiative."
"Does he?"I take a step forward."Or are you confusing your own ambition with your ability?"
