“It’s her.”
“Let me talk to her.”
When I heard the transfer, I blurted out, “Stan? What the fuck is going on? Where are you?” Now wasn’t the time to ask about him not texting, right?
“Neither of us informed the local faction about our arrival on their turf.”
Consoled by the straight answer, even if his voice was gruffer than I’d ever heard it, and that included his time in the ER, I still whimpered. “I checked the State Department’s website.”
Thiswas the moment I should have realized how fucked I was.
That I viewed him as safety.
That I knew he’d protect not just me, but my sisters too.
That I leaned on him when I leaned on no man. Not even my brothers.
Butagain, see above:drunker than I cared to admit.
“Yes, well, the State Department doesn’t regularly update their citizens about the gerrymandering of gang warfare.
“Kitty, you’re safe. Just do as you’re told. I know that goes against the grain,gattaredda,but the man who’s there is supposed to bring you to theLobos Rojos’compound.”
“But I don’t want to go!”
“I know you don’t,duci. Trust me, we were supposed to be having a nice meal right about now—” I sincerely regretted putting this call on speaker when Neev cackled. “—and I’d have given you your reward much earlier than this, but we don’t exactly have a choice. If you do as he says, I’ll make it up to you.”
One mention of that word ‘reward’ and I completely forgot where we were. The implication thatIwas the nice meal he should be having made me purr, “Oh, yeah? How?”
“For God’s sake, Kitty.” Raisin eyed the finger I twirled in my hair with disdain. “This isn’t the time for flirting!”
With Miguel snickering like he was watching a great episode ofSNL, I scowled at them both for killing my buzz. “Never mind, Stan. Tell me later. You sure this dude’s safe? He shot someone and they’re bleeding out on the floor.” Nightingale Pledge forgotten, I kicked the would-be Lothario with the toe of my shoe. “He’s, like, a minute away from being dead.”
“What?!” Stan boomed. “Put him on the line.”
His anger didn’t exactly inspire confidence, but it did fill me with the warmth of knowing we weren’t alone.
Stan would fix this.
I passed the phone to Miguel and smirked when Stan roared: “You killed someone in front of her?”
Ooof.
Hot.
“He was coming onto her?—”
“You better not have scared her.”
“Did you hear her? She’s not scared. It’d be impressive if it wasn’t weird.”
“Takes more than that to scare me,” I asserted, but it was a total lie.
Why the fuck did we come here again?! Key West would have been a great time.
“Hear that?” Miguel reasoned. “Look, are they coming with me or not?”
“We are. But only because Stan asked me to.”
