What if it’s not old fashioned? What if they bring machetes like they did when they jumped Saint and Alexei?
For all the good it had done them. But Saint and Alexei were gods among men. Superhuman. Me? I knew what a knife could do. How it felt when it pierced flesh, punctured muscle, and tore through internal organs. I was ready to fight, but truth be told, I’d rather face a bullet than a blade.
Mateo reached across me, handing the spare coffee to Alexei. I’d missed whatever had passed between them to clear the disquiet from Mateo’s troubled gaze, and he was calm by the time he faced me again, right?
Right?
Not knowing unnerved me more than anything. Mateo was a complex soul, but I was used to having a rudimentary idea where his head was at, even if it was a place I didn’t understand or want to go, taking comfort in his bad temper and shifting moods. In the familiar. Man, even when I’d spent three days off my nut on morphine, his voice had roused me. Kept me present in a world I wasn’t sure I wanted to rejoin.
“You’re not dying, chaparrito. Not without me.”
“Em.”
I blinked. It was Mateo who’d said my name, but he wasn’t looking at me.
Nash was, fair brows furrowed, mother-hen expression. “All right?”
“Hmm?”
“If you’re not up to a brawl, it’s okay.”
I sent him a withering look that made him laugh as much as convinced him I was good to go. Then I turned my attention to Alexei. “What’s their intelligence? Are they expecting Saint and Cam?”
Alexei’s cool gaze appraised me. “That is an interesting question, chaplain.”
“Meaning?”
“I am not sure, but which vehicle they choose to attack will tell us much about who we can trust.”
I didn’t want to repeat my question, so I looked to Nash instead. “What’s he talking about?”
“Folk,” Nash supplied. “Alexei took him on the road, fed him some bullshit about who was where.”
“It makes sense to attack the rear vehicle,” Alexei said, half distracted by his phone. “You are less visible to the others. However, I have made it known to Folk that in addition to you and Mateo, Saint and Cam are waiting in the back. Also, I believe Nash has been somewhat off his feet this week, correct?”
Nash chuckled. “Been limping up a storm, mate.”
My head spun with the influx of duplicitous information. “So, you’re goading them into attacking Nash and Rubi first by testing Folk at the same time?”
Alexei’s evil smirk returned. “Is efficient, no? But for what it is worth, I am not convinced Folk will take the bait. His grief for Rocco is real and he seems to like you all. If I had to bet money, I would count on the original plan to hold.”
“Agreed.” Nash lit a cigarette and passed it across me to Mateo, already lighting another for himself. “There’s ten of them on the road, but they won’t all engage. You just need to hold them off until we can get back to you.”
“Weapons?”
“Nothing special,” Alexei said. “I saw only bats and coshes when they left their compound.”
“You’ve been tailing them the whole time?” Mateo rumbled.
Alexei pocketed his phone and gave Mateo his full attention. “Most of it, enforcer. Why do you ask?”
The question felt loaded. A beat of uncomfortable silence flooded the cab, but we didn’t have time for games. “Do they know it’s me instead of Saint?”
Alexei dragged his gaze from Mateo to me. “Are you asking if you are perceived as a weak link?”
I rolled my eyes. “Not quite. They know me. But they also know I took a Crow blade last winter. If I was them, I’d go for me too, especially if I still thought I’d killed Frank Crow and Drummer.”
“You are not them, chaplain. And as for what they really think, it does not matter. Unless you wish to apply more Sun Tzo to this conflict.”
