Page 23 of Gave Proof Through the Night

Our secret.

“Eres mi héroe,” I tell him, and he laughs all the way back through the door.

I unwrap the napkin. Tortillas, still warm, a little charred at the edges. The salsa’s deep red, flecked with seeds, just like Abuela’s.

I’m not about to dip a tortilla in like some rookie. I grab one, pile what’s left of my scrambled eggs onto it, fold it up like a taco, and pour the salsa over the top, generously, because I’m a grown man, a professional athlete, and I have never once in my life shown restraint around salsa. Then I eat it.

For one second, nothing happens.

Then it happens.

My eyes go first, full-on watering. Then my nose. Then a sound comes out of me that I’d call, charitably, a wheeze.

“Oh my goodness.” Micah’s already pointing, waffles forgotten. “Precio’s CRYING.”

“I’m not crying.” My voice comes out an octave too high. “It’s, there’s pepper. In my eye.”

“That’s not how peppers work, man.”

I grab my water and drink half of it, eyes streaming, and somehow I’m still smiling, because this is the best thing that’s happened to me all morning. This is, hands down, my win.

That doesn’t stop the guys from making fun of me for the rest of the day.

7

ERICA

Chapter playlist:

Cold Comfort Lane — Holy Moly & The Crackers

The first time I’d worked with Tanya, she’d been three minutes into a job when she spotted a sixty-pound pit bull locked in a slumlord’s car in the parking garage. She hadn’t hesitated. She got him out and she kept him. Named him Waffles.

The slumlord was our mark, and after Zoe had sent refund transfers to all his tenants, she slipped into his DoorDash account and rerouted his lunch order to the tune of nine hundred dollars on his own card. She sent the food to a local soup kitchen. The slumlord went downstairs after he was notified his order was completed and found no food, a parking ticket, and his dog gone.

We have lots of stories like that. In three years of working various jobs together, Tanya had built a cover identity so airtight that Zoe was still getting job offer notifications from one of the target companies. Senior Compliance Auditor, or something like that. They’d tried to recruit her on several occasions, each time the offer getting more and more lucrative. At one point, Zoe considered it until she remembered she does what she does because she’s a free spirit.

Tanya has sourced documentation for six jobs across four states. She had contacts for things I hadn’t thought to need contacts for yet. Customs officials, overnight freight, a very discreet notary in Baton Rouge who worked Sundays. She didn’t just solve the problem in front of her. She solved the next three while she was at it. There’s no one else I trust for this job more than her. I need her specifically, and that’s why Zoe and I made the trip to Lafayette, Louisiana, currently sitting in Tanya’s kitchen while she waxes poetic about her fiancé, Dale.

Waffles rounds the corner with a drool thread hanging from his chin and Dale’s dress shoe clamped in his mouth. He walks across the kitchen and disappears through the opposite door.

“He never asked for details,” Tanya says. “That’s the thing about Dale. He looked me in the eye, said he loves me, and said he needs me to stop doing whatever it is I do. He didn’t ask what. He just wanted me to stop so he could take care of me.”

We hear a thud in the next room followed by another thud. Waffles definitely made a toy out of Dale’s shoe.

“He cried when we announced our engagement,” Tanya continues, not missing a beat. “At his grandmother’s house. In front of everyone. His grandmother cried, his aunts pulled out their phones. Someone wrote ‘new chapter’ as a Facebook caption.” She picks up her mug.

“I saw it,” Zoe says. “It came up in my suggested posts.”

Tanya closes her eyes.

Waffles comes back. He no longer has the shoe. He has Zoe’s tote bag. Dragging it. It makes a sound across the tile and disappears into the hallway.

“No, no, Waffles,” Tanya says. Into the air, not at him specifically.

“That’s my… ” Zoe starts.

“He’s just a baby,” Tanya says.