“Yeah,” she says. “I’m still here.”
A pause.
Then Shady says, “Stay there.”
Lady laughs, cracked and bloody and so her that my knees almost give out. “Where the hell else am I going?”
For half a breath, Shady almost sounds like himself.
“That’s my girl.”
My throat closes.
Then Lady’s voice comes again, sharper now.
“Oye, gringo. Took you long enough.”
A laugh breaks out of Magic.
Not big.
Not happy.
But real enough that something in the room breathes for the first time.
Shady closes his eyes.
When he opens them, there is blood on his shirt, murder in his face, and something unbearably gentle in the way he looks at the speaker.
Then the line goes dead.
The silence afterward is enormous.
Alpha is already typing. “Partial route confirms sector. Near MIA approach path. West industrial. Reyes cold storage is still the strongest match.”
Shady turns for the door.
Diablo steps in front of him.
“No.”
The word rings through the room.
This is not Diablo holding me back.
This is president to road captain. Brother to brother. Man to man.
Shady’s voice drops. “They have her.”
“I know.”
“They touched her.”
“I know.”
“They are waiting because they think I’ll come alone.”
“That’s why you won’t.”
