The door shuts.
The office goes quiet except for Disco’s angry chirps and Darling’s breathing turning shallow.
Rico watches the door like he’s suddenly remembering he’s alone with the devil.
Darling’s voice is quiet behind me.
“Don’t.”
I glance at her, and the plea in her eyes hits me harder than her anger ever has.
“Don’t do it for me,” she says. “Don’t make me the reason you cross a line you can’t uncross.”
I almost laugh because I crossed that line a long time ago, just not where she had to see it.
I turn back to Rico, and he finds courage in the space she gave him.
“He wants you to stop me,” Rico says to Darling, voice smug. “He wants you soft. He wants you begging.”
Darling’s eyes harden, and she takes a step forward, Disco’s cage between us like a fragile hostage.
“You don’t know him,” she says. “But you sure as hell don’t know me.”
Rico tries to smile bigger. “You think you’re special? You think he’ll pick you over his little princess downstairs?” His gaze flicks toward the door like Carmen is his shield. “You’re a consolation prize.”
I move fast and controlled, pinning Rico back to the wall with my forearm at his throat. His breath cuts off, eyes going wide, bravado draining like blood.
I lean in close, voice soft and deadly.
“You don’t get to speak to her,” I tell him. “You don’t get to breathe her air.”
Darling steps forward, voice shaking. “Stop.”
I hold Rico there another beat, long enough for him to understand the only reason he’s still alive is standing right behind me.
Then I loosen my grip just enough for him to gasp and cough.
I turn my head toward Darling.
“Tell me,” I say, and the words hurt on the way out. “Tell me to kill him.”
Her eyes go wide, wet and furious. “Diablo.”
“Tell me,” I press, because part of me wants permission, wants to make it clean in her eyes, wants to tie my violence to her survival.
Rico coughs out a laugh, still choking. “He wants you dirty too,” he rasps. “He wants you to say it.”
Darling’s gaze snaps to Rico, sharp and cruel.
“You’re not winning,” she tells him. “You’re just still breathing.”
Then she looks at me again, voice dropping into something steady and sure.
“No,” she says.
I freeze, breath catching.
She steps closer, not scared of me, not backing down.
