Chapter 3 #3
Diablo’s hand moves to the back of my neck. Not to hold me still. To keep me standing.
On the phone, Shady exhales.
Not relief.
Recognition.
He got her clue.
“I heard you,” he says.
Three words.
The whole clubhouse goes still.
Not because he called.
Because Lady got through.
Toro says, “You come alone. 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 voice loses polish. “Do you want her breathing or not?”
Shady ignores the bait. “Lady.”
“Yeah?”
“You still with me?”
Her voice tries to shake.
It doesn’t break.
“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.”
Shady’s nostrils flare. “If that was Darling on that phone, would you wait for church to vote?”
Diablo’s eyes go black.
For one second, I think they might come apart right here in front of us, president and road captain, grief and authority, love and violence wearing the same patch.
Then Diablo leans in close.
“No,” he says quietly. “And that’s why my brothers would stop me.”
That lands.
Diablo lowers his voice more. “You want Lady breathing when we get there? Then be road captain, not just her man.”
Shady holds his stare.
I don’t breathe.
Finally Shady looks away first.
Not submission.
Strategy.
“Fine,” he says. “But we leave right fucking now.”
Vice turns to Diablo. “Teams.”
Diablo doesn’t hesitate. “Magic, Six, Shady with me and Vice. Dune and Tubbs take back road two and watch for decoys. Key Rat stays on comms. Alpha keeps eyes on traffic cams and finds Amour Reyes. Crypt follows money through Reyes and Eclipse. Finn and Dusty guard the doors. Gville and Stick on Darling.”
“No,” I say.
Every man in the room looks at me.
Diablo’s face tightens before I even finish.
“No,” I repeat. “I’m not being guarded by prospects while my best friend is tied to a chair.”
“You’re not coming,” Diablo says.
I laugh.
It sounds ugly.
His jaw clenches. “Darling.”
“Don’t Darling me.”
“You just got out of the hospital.”
“And Lady is in a warehouse because she stood next to me.”
“Which is exactly why you stay here.”
“I can help.”
“You can stay alive.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
The room is too quiet now, pretending not to listen and listening to every word.
I step closer to Diablo, close enough to smell leather and anger and the soap from his shower.
“You told me I was not your secret,” I say.
“You’re not.”
“You told me I could choose.”
“You can.”
“Then hear my choice. I’m not sitting upstairs like a doll while men decide which parts of me survive.”
His face shutters.
His hand lifts toward my face.
He stops before touching the bruise.
Then, slowly, he lowers his hand.
“What are you asking for?” he says.
Not ordering.
Asking.
“I’m asking to help Alpha from here. I know Lady. I know her rhythms. I know her references. If she sends another clue, I might catch what you miss.”
Alpha speaks before Diablo can. “She’s right.”
Diablo turns his head slowly.
Alpha doesn’t even pretend to care. “Darling has context none of us do.”
Shady’s voice comes from near the table. “She stays with Alpha.”
Diablo looks at him.
Shady’s eyes stay on me. “Not prospects. Alpha. Key Rat on the door. Two guns outside. She helps from here.”
Diablo exhales through his nose.
“Fine.”
It is not happy.
It is enough.
The room explodes into movement. Guns checked. Cuts pulled on. Phones ringing. Bikes roaring alive outside until the stained glass trembles. The Saints Outlaws wake like a beast let loose.
Cherry starts crying again when Magic hauls her up.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks.
Magic’s smile isn’t kind. “Somewhere you can explain your choices without an audience.”
She looks to Shady.
He doesn’t look back.
Good.
Let that be the first door he shuts.
Shady moves toward the exit, but I step in front of him before he reaches it.
He stops.
For the first time, up close, I see how bad the blood is. It has soaked the side of his shirt and dried dark near his belt. His face is gray under the calm. Pain lives in the tight set of his mouth, but he is too stubborn or too broken to admit it.
“Bring her back,” I say.
His gaze holds mine.
“I will.”
“Not as your pride.”
Something moves in his eyes.
I force the words out even though they might be cruel. Maybe because they need to be.
“Bring her back as Lady.”
His throat works.
“I know what she is.”
“No,” I say softly. “You know you want her. That isn’t the same thing.”
Behind me, Diablo goes still.
Good. He can hear it too. Maybe every man in this room should.
Shady takes the hit without flinching.
Then he nods once.
“You’re right.”
I didn’t expect that. It hurts worse that he means it. He turns toward the door.
Lady’s frozen face watches from the screen as the men she trusted leave to find her.
Diablo comes back to me for one second. Just one. His hand slides to the back of my neck, careful, grounding, warm. He presses his forehead to mine like he is giving himself a breath he doesn’t have time for.
“I’m coming back,” he says.
“You better.”
His mouth brushes mine.
Not a kiss meant to start anything.
Then he is gone.
Vice follows. Magic. Six. Shady last, because even now he checks the room before he leaves it.
Road captain to the bone.
When the door shuts behind them, the sudden quiet feels cruel.
Alpha sits back down at the table and rewinds Lady’s video again.
I walk to his side.
On the screen, my best friend looks into the camera with blood on her lip and fire in her eyes.
I press my bandaged hands flat to the table.
“She hates roses,” I whisper.
Alpha’s fingers pause over the keyboard.
“What?”
I stare at the white bloom in her lap.
“She hates them. Since high school. Some boy sent them after he cheated, like flowers could make betrayal smell better.” My throat tightens. “She said roses were just apologies with thorns.”
Alpha looks at the screen again, then at the buckets in the background.
His expression changes.
Not much.
Enough.
He starts typing faster.
“What is it?” I ask.
“White roses are expensive in bulk outside wedding supply, especially this clean, especially fresh. If Reyes is moving that many under contract, there will be a purchase trail.” His eyes sharpen.
“And if Amour Reyes hates attention as much as her records suggest, someone using her flowers as a murder signature might make her very angry.”
“Angry enough to help?”
Alpha pulls up Amour’s photo again.
His gaze rests on her face for one second too long.
“Angry enough to make mistakes,” he says.
I look at Lady’s frozen face until the blood and roses blur together.
Diablo finally chose me in front of Miami, and Carmen answered by putting my best friend in danger.
Fine.
Carmen wants chosen women to bleed.
She is about to learn we bite back.