“Fine. Miguel. You decided to save us, why? What the hell is going on? I feel like you’re here for a reason?—”
“Can’t I be a gentleman?”
“No. Not if ‘you run this city.’” I used air quotes and everything.
“Touché”
“That’s how I roll.”
“You have an affiliation.”
“No,” I was quick to correct. Shit. Shit. Shit. “We don’t. Our brothers do.”
“Then that means you do too. You should have warned my boss that you were entering our territory. He’d like to meet with you.”
So, this was what palpitations felt like. “Are you for real? I’m a nurse and Neev is barely getting through college?—”
“Hey!” Neev protested.
“—and my sister is a wannabe esthetician who can’t get her colors right! We’re hardly Thelma, Louise, and Sue too.”
“What are you talking about? Who the hell is Sue?” Miguel frowned in confusion. “Look, would you come with me, please?”
I stood my ground. “I’m not afraid to bite you.”
“Kitty,” Raisin warned, but the whisper of fear that threaded my name further pricked my temper. “Maybe we should go with him.”
“And never see the light of day again?! This guy just shot someone in public! Do you know how much power he must have?—”
Neev moaned.
I glared at her. “Neev! I know the adrenaline is making you loopy but purlease, keep your hormones contained.”
Miguel’s brows lifted, but he reached for his phone and then handed it to me. When I saw it was ringing, I put the call on speaker.
A flurry of Spanish came at me, but high school had been a long time ago, and I might have passed the class without sucking off my teacher—unlikesomeof my siblings—but that didn’t mean I had any fluency in the language.
“Um… Hello?”
There was a pregnant pause. “This is Miguel’s phone.”
“He passed it to me. Who are you?”
More Spanish sounded in the background, then there was a change of gender and nationality as a wholly American voice answered, “You are safe with him.”
“Well, thanks for that, random woman on a phone. But I don’t have a clue who you are so why would I trust you?”
The woman chuckled. “Miguel is my husband’s cousin?—”
“And? I have some jerk cousins. That’s no reassurance.”
“I’m sure you do,” came the amused retort. “But in this instance, I’ll cut his balls off if he hurts you?—”
“Is that Kitty?”
My brows lifted at the interruption. “Stan?”
I didn’t know whether to be shocked or relieved.
