“We’re not just talking fight nights here. We’re talking to the death. Like some kind of fucked-up gladiator-esque macho nonsense that—” Her cheeks gusted out. “Barbaric.”
I dipped my chin in understanding, even if I was still perplexed as to how this went down under our nose.
But my fear swiftly morphed into outright terror.
If Kitty was in this hellhole?—
“Wonder if the Irish know about it.”
Luc’s statement had me focusing on her microexpressions, hoping she’d give us a clue.
“I’d say yes.”
Contrary fucker—the Irishdidn’tknow.
Luc rubbed his temple. “This is an Albanian operation?”
“As far as most people know.”
“But not you.”Cristu, this was like getting blood out of a stone.
“No.”
“Stan said you were dead.”
That earned us yet another sniff. “Takes a lot more than some C4 to kill me. Someone didn’t realize what andwhothey were fucking with. I’ll be sure to correct that oversight.”
Luc cleared his throat. “So, that explosion has nothing to do with this?”
“Not everything’s about you,” was her brisk retort.
Despite the gravity of the situation, despite my own worry, my lips almost twitched.
Luc and I were used to dealing with strong women. Everyone from our grandmothers to our mother to Rory and now Luc’s wife, Jen, had bigger balls than some of our men.
In factions where women were denigrated, not celebrated, someone like Dead To Me would never earn the respect we gave her.
Hence this contretemps with the Albanians, I assumed.
We were not so foolish.
“You’re certain?” Luc asserted.
“100%. My fight’s with the Albanians and their backers. Sick fucks.”
Something clicked. “Martinez seemed shocked with how many bombs went off?—”
“Sometimes, you have to smoke out a rat and I did.”
“From the news reports, you killed a lot of people!”
“Look, I’m only in the city because Star asked me for a favor and she paid my airfare to Mexico, which means this is a job. I don’t quit jobs until they’re done.”
“The Frasier girls are back home?—”
“If I hadn’t been distracted, I’d never have let them get tangled up with you,” she butted in before I could finish. “That’s on me. The only reason Kitty Frasier is in that shithole is because ofyou. So damn straight this is my fuckup to fix, and then I’ll be on myfuckingway because women don’tfuckingleave other womenfuckingbehind.”
I’d have preferred for her to fire a full round of bullets at me than to condemn me like that.
