“Based on what?” Nix asked.
Mitch had no time to answer because his phone vibrated. It was sitting on his thigh. He glanced down at it, grabbed it, and shot out of his chair. “I’ve got to take this.”
“An emergency with Hank? Andrew?” John asked.
“No, but it’s important.”
John stood up. “This meeting is pretty damn important, too, Mitch.”
“And this is pertinent to it,” he said in a raised voice. “I’mtaking the call.” He flung open the door, stepped out, and brought the phone up to his ear. “It’s me. What?”
Jim Tucker said, “Raid was a success. Three truckloads of product seized. A much larger haul than we even estimated.”
“Casualties?”
“Not a single nick on our side, but three of Oz’s men and two of the Caballeros are in body bags.”
“El Paso?”
“A no-show.”
“What?”
“Two of his compadres escaped capture, but the rest are in custody and being interrogated. They’re playing deaf, dumb, and ignorant, but one spat when the agent asked about David Rodriguez aka El Paso. Apparently he was expected on the battle front, but went AWOL. Anyway, he’s still unaccounted for.”
“Fuck!”
“Right. Gotta go. Later.”
When the overhead light came on in Dylan’s inner office, the young man sitting behind her desk with his muddy sneakers propped on a corner of it smiled with insolence. “Hi.”
She turned and ran, but he was on her before she got halfway through the sessions room, grabbing her around the waist, pulling her back against him, and placing the blade of a knife—she knew it to be a switchblade—against the top of her neck directly beneath her chin.
He said, “He told me you’d come here today, and hell if he wasn’t right.”
“Who told you that?”
“What he didn’t tell me is that you’re a looker.” He blew hotbreath into her ear, then laughed when she shuddered. “Don’t like that? I can always think of something else to do.” Then his tone changed as he asked, “Is the detective with you?”
“I’m alone. Can’t you tell that?”
“A looker full of sass. I like it.” He squeezed her waist. “There must be an elevator back there, right? I heard it coming up. Only one set of footsteps between it and the door you unlocked to let yourself in. So it’s just you and me.”
His insinuating tone made her shiver on the inside, but, as though she had the upper hand, she asked, “How did you get into my office?”
“Came through your lobby. Very nice. Magazines, water cooler. I helped myself to several pieces of candy. Hope you don’t mind.”
“That door was locked.”
“Oh, I know. I had to pick it. Locked it back up after I came in.”
Mitch could pick locks. She thought of him with yearning and desperation. Thought of his last kiss and his adamant promise to come back. She thought of how forlorn Andrew had looked when she’d dropped him and Beth at the Bowies’ house.
“Where’s my daddy?” he’d asked in a whine. “When’s he coming?”
“As soon as he and your uncle John get finished with their work.”
“Will you?”
