Page 131 of Shatter

"Across the bay from Sawgrass." A pause, the rustle of fabric. "Been here since midnight."

"Anything?" Tor's knuckles whiten on the table.

"White Camry came up the shell road at five-ten." Aren says it the same way he says everything, like he's reading a grocery list. "Rental, two in it. Driver was Pierce Carrow."

Nobody breathes.

"And a girl." Aren's voice doesn't change. "Gray hoodie, hair up. She didn't want to get out of the car."

My hands close into fists on the table.

The pink paper crumples under my knuckles.

"Laurent walked her in." Aren's voice goes lower. "About an hour ago, I saw two of them drag her down the back hall past a window. She was fighting. They took her into cold storage."

Cold storage, freezing.

She was shaking in a parking lot in seventy-degree heat the night I found her, her lips going blue in my arms.

"Who else is there?" Tor's voice is very low.

"Laurent and three more I don't know. Suits, carrying under the jackets." A pause. "The owner's there. Guy named Pruitt, Lyle Pruitt. White hair, drives a red F-250. He's been in the upstairs office since four. And there's a guy in a charcoal suit I've never seen before. Came in a black Escalade last night around ten."

"Desmond." I don't know I've said it until the room turns and looks at me.

"You want me to go in?" Aren sounds like he's asking if Tor wants cream in his coffee.

"No." Tor straightens up. "Stay on it. Don't let them see you. If anybody moves her, you call me."

"Copy." The line goes dead.

For a long moment, nobody says anything.

Then Emil clears his throat from the corner.

"She left." He doesn't look at me. "Nobody made her climb through the fence in the middle of the night and get in a car with her own brother. She made her choice."

My head turns.

"So we ride into some fish plant full of Canadian muscle and Florida dealers for a girl who didn't even say goodbye?" Emil spreads his hands. "For what? She's not patched. She's not even his. Everybody in this room heard she turned down his patch."

I'm around the table before I feel my legs move.

Rati's hand clamps down on my shoulder from behind, and Ulf's in front of me, both palms flat on my chest.

"Easy." Rati's voice is low. "Easy, brother. Not here."

I stop.

My breath is coming hard through my nose, and my hands are shaking so bad I have to fist them in the front of Rati's T-shirt.

Across the table, Emil hasn't moved.

"Sit down, Emil." Tor doesn't raise his voice.

"I'm only saying what everybody's thinking." Emil spreads his hands again.

"Sit down." Tor's voice drops even lower.