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That one word carried enough command to make me wonder how she’d sound using that tone with my hands on her.

“Yes, ma’am.”

I returned to the chair before my leg embarrassed me by proving her right.

She handed me the water bottle. After several slow swallows, I lowered it, and she passed me the remaining bread and banana.

“There’s another complication,” she said.

“All right. Let’s hear how much worse this gets.”

“Isabeast has been buying loyalty inside the compound. Mateo and several of the guards answer to her as much as they do Father now.”

I stopped chewing.

“Does Ciro know?”

“I don’t think so.”

Interesting.

Men with guns couldn’t answer to two masters forever. Eventually, somebody started shooting.

“If they turn on each other…” Her voice rose with excitement. “That could give us the distraction we need.”

“Aye. It could. But if Ciro catches on first, he’ll lock down every inch of this place.”

She absorbed the warning without flinching. “Then we need to be ready before he does.”

That was the kind of mind I’d need beside me when we ran.

I finished the water and set the bottle down.

“What happens to you when we get out of here?”

Isabella went quiet.

For a moment, I thought she hadn’t understood the question.

“I leave El Salvador with you.”

“I know that, Mouse.” I leaned back carefully against the chair. “I mean, after. Where do you want to go? What do you want your life to look like when Ciro isn’t deciding it for you?”

Her fingers twisted together in front of her.

“I don’t know.”

The answer came so softly that I almost missed it.

“You’ve never thought about it?”

“All the time.” She gave a small, uneasy shake of her head. “But imagining freedom is different from believing I might actually have it.”

That answer caught me off guard.

Her gaze moved toward the hidden door.

“I’ve spent years thinking about how to get outside these walls. But I never let myself think very far beyond that.” She swallowed. “It hurt too much.”