Page 120

“Número uno.” Alex raised one finger. “I found vials with blood and chemicals in that old lab at the Nest.” Manny’s face twitched. “So if the Garras are making it themselves, where are they cooking it? Because it ain’t at any HQ I know.”

Manny raised his head slightly with wide eyes. Got ’em. He leaned in closer, his smirking lips twitching in excitement. “So, if y’all are making it, then it’s gotta be at some place that’s not obvious.”

Alex hummed dramatically, drumming his chin with his fingers. “¡Número dos!” He announced with two fingers. “If it ain’t being made at any of the HQ, it has to be at some random ass place. Maybe… away from society?” He wiggled his eyebrows. Every piece of intel Jun had brought back was paying off now. “Like… A farm?”

Manny tried to roll. Ken shifted his weight and drove his heel into Manny’s wrist, pinning it to the tile. One wrong move and the bones would snap.

A laugh punched out of Alex before he could stop it. This was almost too easy.

“Oh, I know about the farm.” His smile dropped. He leaned in closer, voice going flat and cold. “We’re still playing the game, homie. I can start naming every Garras in the roster. One by one. All. Night.”

Manny bucked hard—enough to nearly unseat Ken despite the size difference. Ken shifted fast, grinding his heel deeper into Manny’s wrist. Manny howled. “Try that again,” Ken said, “and I break it.”

Alex continued, “Is it—”

The coffee table screeched across the tile under Alex’s foot. He stumbled. The chrome case slid off the glass and crashed, Durden bars scattering like pick-up sticks.

A flash of metal.

Alex jerked his head back as a blade sliced the air where his nose had been. Ashley, knife in hand, eyes wild above the mask. She slashed again. Alex caught her wrist and crushed it until she screamed. Her other fist cracked against his cheek—once, twice—a mix of battle cry and shriek. He slammed his palm around her second wrist. The knife clattered to the tile. He kicked it behind him.

“Feisty, aren’t we, kitty-cat?” Alex taunted as she writhed under his grip.

“Don’t call me that, Junior,” she sneered through clenched teeth.

Alex spat blood onto the tile and forced her backwards onto the couch next to Manny. She fought him the whole way. He released one hand long enough to draw his gun and press the barrel between her eyes. “Imma call you whatever I want unless you tell me who’s making the Durden.”

Ashley laughed—short, sharp, nothing cute about it. The sweet cartoon girl from the garage stairwell was gone. The eyes behind the sweat and smeared makeup were feral. “Over my dead body.”

Alex snorted. “You asked for it.” He snapped his forehead into her nose. A crack. Pain detonated behind his eyes. The room swam, but he blinked it clear in two seconds. Ashley wasn’t as lucky. She crumpled back onto the couch, blood streaming from her nose, eyes unfocused. Alex ripped the mask off her face, tossed it, and pressed the barrel against her forehead before she could reorient. “Maybe this will get you to talk—”

The door flew open. In came Hal, arms out, gun ready. His eyes first landed on Manny. “What in the fuck…?”

Manny’s eyes went wide. “Halcon?” His voice cracked. “Why are you here?”

“The fuck you mean ‘why am I here?’ Why you here?” said Hal, his lips pulled up in a scowl. He pointed his free hand at Manny. “… Who the fuck even are you?” he mumbled.

Hal swept the room—Ken on the floor with Manny pinned, Alex with blood on his lips and a gun in a girl’s face. His scowl deepened. “You wanna explain this?”

“Getting answers,” said Alex, barrel steady against Ashley’s forehead.

“Keep dreaming, Junior,” Ashley snarled through the blood on her lips.

“Motherfuck—,” Alex swore under his teeth.

“Oh my God…” Snowy crept into the room like she was entering a crime scene. Kana hovered behind her at the threshold. Snowy edged closer, back pressed to a tower of boxes, craning to see past Alex—and froze. The sound that came out of her was something between a gasp and a strangled scream. She stumbled backwards into Kana, who caught her by the shoulders.

Alex watched Kana’s face change. Her eyes moved from Manny to Ken to Hal to Alex to the girl on the couch. The gun. The blood. The unmasked face.

Kana’s lip trembled. Her hands shook. Her whole body went still—the kind of still that comes right before something shatters.

“Sunny?”

27

Regret

When Jun woke, he saw nothing.