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“I’ll check my account for the second half of the payment.”

“You were supposed to be discreet.”

“Is that why you armed me to the hilt for a one-man job?”

Silence. I turned the tap on low to cover the sound, and watched the water spiral down the drain.

“Walter Aldridge from the Lamar Circle ordered the hit.”

I frowned. Zero never revealed contract details.

“They aren’t happy at how it went down, and they don’t care about the gang members you killed. As far as they are concerned, the senator’s death at that location is beneficial. It lets them out his corruption as the work of others. The problem is Ibarra and Zeke, and whether Los Contadores want blood.”

“The women?”

“They are being held at an unknown location with the FBI. My source tells me one of them is singing like a canary.”

I bet I knew which one. She had not flinched when the heated barrel of my gun was pressed to her forehead.

“Could the blame be shifted to the senator?”

“Thirteen men died. It was professional.”

“Fourteen.”

“You need to leave.”

“I need one more passport.”

Zero never spoke. I could hear him breathing, a heavy, weary sound. We were both breaking the rules. He was no longer neutral.

“Come to New York. Get the passport made and leave by cruise ship.”

“Why did you do it, Zero?”

“There is a line. Women and children. You only saw the women.”

The line went dead.

I stood with the phone in my hand and my pulse in my ears. In the mirror, a tired man looked back at me, unshaven, red-eyed, a stranger I was not sure I liked.

Fuck.

Simple job, my ass.

Chapter 13

Zuri

Mm. Saucy, juicy ribs with an ice-cold, refreshing drink. Smoke curled off the meat and sweet sauce dripped down my wrist, and I could almost taste it.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Yes?” a deep, low voice asked.

One that shouldn’t be in my bedroom. My eyes snapped open. Morning light slid through a gap in the curtains, thin and white, across a stained ceiling I did not recognise. There was no food. No drink. There was only the man who had tied me—

Oh. My hands were free. I rubbed my wrists. No red marks, no ache, only a faint, strange warmth where the rope had been. I hadn’t felt him untie me.