Page 34 of Shatter

"What's her name?" He picks up the license and turns it over in his thick fingers.

"She says Katie." My mouth has gone dry.

"What's her real name?" He drops the license back on the table.

My jaw works.

"I don't know." The words come out rough.

Tor straightens up slowly.

He comes around the end of the table without hurrying and stops in front of me, close enough I can smell the sleep on him, sour and warm.

He's two inches shorter than me.

It doesn't matter.

"You don't know her name." His voice drops low. "You don't know who sent him, or whether one of his buddies was sitting across the street with a phone, filming how you put three in him."

"No, sir." I don't look away.

"You left a body in a public parking lot on Tennessee Street." A vein stands out along his temple.

"Yes, sir." My hands stay at my sides.

"You didn't call anybody with a patch on his back before you decided to start killing people in my town." He leans in another inch.

"No, sir." Sweat crawls down my spine.

"And then you drove the car the dead man tracked her with straight through my gate." His breath hits my face.

Cold floods down through my legs.

I didn't think about it.

Her Corolla's parked crooked outside the clubhouse doors right now, her blood still soaking into the back seat.

"You're a fucking idiot." He says it low and even, which is worse than if he'd screamed it. "Do you know how fast one scared citizen with a phone and a license plate brings the feds to that gate? Do you know how many of my brothers have kids who sleep inside this fence?"

"Yes, sir." My voice cracks on the second word.

"Then what the fuck were you thinking?" His eyes bore into mine.

I open my mouth.

Her face comes up behind my eyes, one side swelling shut, her fist raised with a chunk of asphalt in it.

Flat on her back, and she'd already decided to fight to the last breath.

Red between her fingers.

"I wasn't." It comes out a whisper.

Tor hits me.

It's a short punch, no windup, his fist snapping into the hinge of my jaw.

My head whips around, and the room goes white at the edges.