Chapter 2 #3
I hate him a little for making me believe he will come.
I need him to come.
Both can be true.
I look straight into the red dot.
“Shady,” I say.
My voice drops without permission.
Boca shifts behind the camera.
“Baby, you’re going to be so pissed when you see this.”
Toro’s face darkens. “Say the line.”
I do.
Kind of.
“You chose wrong,” I say. “By choosing me.”
The room goes quieter.
Toro steps toward me.
I talk faster but not scared.
“You hear me? Or can you hear me over the sound of that plane?”
Toro grabs my hair and yanks my head back so hard pain sparks down my neck.
The camera keeps recording.
Good.
Let it.
My laugh comes out broken but real.
“Where do you get all these roses? Too much?”
He slaps me.
This one is harder.
My head snaps to the side. My ears ring. The chair rocks but doesn’t tip. The room swims for a second, roses turning into white smears.
“You hear me?” I say. “Don’t get lost. Count the beat. Two left, three right. Flowers don’t grow where planes scream and trains cry.”
“Cut it,” Toro snaps.
Boca fumbles with the phone.
The red dot disappears.
I breathe through my mouth and taste blood again.
Toro crouches in front of me, all that calm finally cracked around the edges.
“You think you’re clever.”
“I know I am.”
His hand closes around my throat.
Not enough to stop air.
Enough to remind me he could.
Fear floods me then, fast and cold. My body doesn’t care how brave my mouth is. It knows hands on throats. It knows men in rooms. It knows the math of tied wrists and locked exits.
I force myself not to buck.
He leans close. “Clever women still break.”
My voice comes out thin. “Then bring a better man.”
His grip tightens for one second.
I can’t breathe.
Panic claws up my chest, wild and animal. The warehouse tilts. My vision spots.
Then he lets go.
I suck in air, coughing hard enough to make my ribs ache.
Toro stands. “Send it.”
Boca looks unsure. “All of it?”
Toro’s gaze stays on me. “All of it. Let the road captain hear his little clue. Let him think he has control.”
My stomach drops.
He knows.
Of course he knows.
“You’re still sending it?” I rasp.
Toro smiles. “We want him to come.”
That is worse.
So much worse.
Because a trap you see is still a trap if the person you love is inside it.
Love.
The word appears in my head like a spotlight snapping on in an empty club.
Not after one too many nights and a morning fight and another woman’s texts and a parking garage full of blood. Eso no es love. That is adrenaline. That is sex.
Except my body doesn’t believe me.
My body believes Shady’s hands.
Boca sends the video from one of the burners. I listen to the swoosh sound and hate technology with everything in me.
Somewhere, Shady’s phone is about to light up.
Somewhere, Darling is about to see my face.
Somewhere, Diablo is going to get even more blood on his hands.
And somewhere inside this warehouse, these men are smiling because they think they are leading wolves into a pen.
Toro walks to the table and picks up the knife.
My muscles lock.
He sees it.
“Relax,” he says. “If I wanted you dead, you wouldn’t have woken up.”
“That your version of comfort?”
“No.” He tests the blade with his thumb. “This is.”
He steps behind me.
The knife slides between my wrists and the zip tie.
For one insane second, I think he is cutting me loose.
Then he cuts only the old tie and replaces it with metal cuffs.
Cold.
Heavy.
Locked.
He threads the chain through the back of the chair and snaps it to something I can’t see. More secure. Less chance of me using sharp plastic. Less chance of me getting lucky.
“You’ve done this before,” I say.
“A few times.”
“Women?”
“Enemies.”
Toro comes back around, pocketing the key.
They leave me alone, but not long enough for my breath to even out.
The burner on the table rings.
Every man in the warehouse freezes.
Not pings.
Rings.
Toro turns slowly.
Boca looks at the phone like it turned into a snake. “Already?”
The screen glows from across the room.
I can’t see the name.
But I know.
I know before Toro picks it up. I know by the way the air changes. By the way my own body reacts, pain and fear and something bright twisting all together.
Toro answers and puts it on speaker.
Nobody speaks for one second.
Then Shady’s voice fills the warehouse.
Low.
Calm.
Terrifying.
“You touched her.”
My whole body locks.
He sounds too controlled.
That is worse than shouting.
Toro smiles and looks right at me. “Road captain.”
“You got one chance to tell me where she is.”
“Only one?”
“After that, I start taking from you.”
Boca frowns like he doesn’t understand.
Toro does.
His smile thins.
My pulse hammers so hard it hurts.
Toro steps closer to me, holding the phone out like a gift.
“She’s listening.”
Silence.
Then softer, not gentle, but meant only for me.
“Lady.”
My lips part.
I know better than to answer.
I answer anyway.
“Shady.”
Boca curses and moves toward me, but Toro lifts a hand to stop him.
On the phone, Shady exhales.
Not relief.
Recognition.
He got it.
Thank God.
“I heard you,” he says.
Three words.
That is all.
They hit harder than any promise.
Toro’s gaze sharpens. “Touching.”
Shady ignores him. “You hurt her again, I don’t kill you first.”
One of the younger men shifts by the loading bay.
Toro notices.
So do I.
“You come alone,” Toro says. “No Diablo. No Vice. No club parade. You come alone and maybe she leaves breathing.”
Shady is quiet for a beat.
“You want me alone because you’re scared of the Saints.”
Toro’s jaw tightens.
Then Shady speaks again.
“Lady.”
“Yeah?”
“You still with me?”
My voice tries to shake. I don’t let it.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’m still here.”
A pause.
Then, quieter. Rougher.
“Stay there.”
A laugh breaks out of me, cracked and bloody and real. “Where the hell else am I going?”
Shady almost sounds like himself.
“That’s my girl.”
My throat closes.
The words should scare me. They should sound like a claim I didn’t agree to, leather thrown over my shoulders while I’m tied to a chair and bleeding in front of men who think women are messages.
They don’t.
Not from him.
Not like this.
My voice breaks on his name, so I force a smile he can’t see. “Oye, gringo. Took you long enough.”
For one second, there is silence.
Then Shady breathes out, and I know he heard the woman under the blood. Not cargo. Not bait. Me.
Toro’s eyes gleam, like he heard the same weakness I did.
He ends the call.
The silence afterward is enormous.
I stare at the dead phone in his hand.
My heart is still racing, but something inside me has changed shape. Fear is still there. Pain too. But under it is something harder.
Shady heard me. Road captain. Smartass. Liar when it suits him. Mine in all the ways I am still too mad to admit.
Shady knows.
And now these men have a problem they think they understand.
Toro turns the burner off and sets it on the table.
“He’ll come,” he says.
“Yes,” I whisper.
Toro looks at me.
I smile with blood on my teeth.
“But not the way you think.”