Page 39 of Split Decision

"You should tell her about the escalation."

"Yeah, I know that too."

"Luke—"

"I'll tell her," I say. "I'm not keeping it from her."

"Okay."

I hang up and stand in the parking lot until the cold becomes purposeful. Then I go inside and find Mack in the equipment room, inventorying hand wraps with the particular focus he brings to things that don't require focus, which is how I know he already knows.

"Brandon tell you?" I ask.

"Marin did." He doesn't look up. "She's thorough."

"What do you think of her?"

He stacks a set of wraps and picks up another. "I think she's very good at her job."

"That's not what I asked."

He does look up then. "I think your instincts are usually right. And I think you've had an unsettled feeling about this for the last six weeks and haven't said it clearly to anyone." He goes back to the wraps. "That's what I think."

I don't have an answer for that. So I go back to the rig and add another set of pull-ups.

ANDI

The second hit to the youth center comes on a Thursday.

I'm in Charlotte when Mrs. Alvarez texts me—not calls—something that tells me she was afraid a call would go badly and that she needed to choose her words first.

The text reads:The board received an inquiry from the city's community development office. Asking about the center's licensure under the current operational review. Everyone is calm. Wanted you to know.

I read it twice in the venue's green room, still in my performance clothes, the crowd noise from Sound Bar's set bleeding through the walls.

Then I call her.

"Talk me through it," I say.

Mrs. Alvarez is steady. She's been at the center since before it had a proper front door—she was there when it was a rented room in a church basement, and I was twenty-three and operating entirely on determination and a spreadsheet. She's watched every version of this organization become the next one, and she doesn't scare easily.

"They want documentation on our operational continuity plan," she says. "Specifically around leadership succession during a review period."

Leadership succession.

"They're asking if we have a plan to function without me," I say.

"In more diplomatic language, yes."

I press my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose. "Send them the continuity documentation we filed in October. It's allthere."

"I already did."

"Good." I pause. "How are the kids?"

"Wonderful," she says, and there's warmth under it that nothing procedural can touch. "Marcus finished his college application essay. He wants you to know."

Something loosens in my chest that I didn't realize had been clenched. "Tell him I'm proud of him."