Page 20

“Havoc.” It was Pete, and he sounded wrong. “You need to see this.”

We went through the curtain. Havoc was already at the door. Past his shoulder, away to the south, a column of black smoke was climbing into the sky. Up the street, the siren on the volunteer firehouse started to wind.

His phone rang. He put it to his ear and listened without a word.

“That’s my place,” he said, when he lowered it. His face was gray. “The shop’s burning. Kid who called it in can see that Charger from the road. It’s parked at my gate.”

“Go,” I said.

“No.”

“Havoc, your shop is burning down while we are arguing about this. You need to make sure your house is okay too.”

“No, I’m not leaving you.”

“Havoc. Seriously, nothing is going on here. You need to go! Pete’s at the door and your sister’s right here. It’s the middle of the morning on Main Street.” I pushed him. He rocked back about half an inch. “Go save your place.”

He got Preacher back on the phone. “Send me somebody. Now.” He hung up and pointed at Pete. “There’s a brother ten minutes out. Nobody comes through that door till he’s standing in it.”

“Yes, sir.”

He looked at Brynn. It was the first thing he’d said straight to her since his kitchen.

“Stay with her.”

“Where else would I be?” Brynn said.

He took my face in his hands and kissed me, in front of his sister, hard enough to bend me backward. Then he was gone. His bike tore off down Main, and the curb outside my shop was empty.

I was three steps from locking the shop door behind him when a silver Lexus pulled into the space he’d left.

I didn’t know the car, but I knew the big man who got out of it.

Out on the sidewalk Pete stepped in front of my door. I heard him say, “We’re closed.” The driver hit him in the face with something short and black, and Pete went down across my doorstep and lay still.

I ran for the lock. The driver’s boot hit the door before my hand got there.

There were two of them. The driver, and the man in the ball cap who’d sat in my laundromat that day. The one in the cap dragged Pete inside by his collar. Then he held my door open, and Inés Cordero stepped over Pete’s legs and walked in.

He shut the door behind her and turned the lock. He flipped my sign to CLOSED.

“Sit down,” he told Brynn, and pointed at the chairs.

“Go to hell,” she replied.

He showed her the gun in his belt.

“Brynn,” I said. “Sit down. Please.”

She sat. Her eyes went to Pete on the floor, and then to me, and I saw her hand creep toward the phone in her back pocket.

Inés wore gray today, and the same smile. “Your friend would have been waiting for me on Friday, with all of his friends, I’m sure. So I came today, and I sent him home.” She glanced to the place Havoc usually sat. “He left very fast. I do hope everything is okay?”

“What do you want?”

“What I wanted last week. I’ve asked you nicely twice.” She nodded to the driver. “Bring her.”

He crossed the floor to me. This time there was nobody to stop him. He took hold of my arm above the elbow and walked me through the curtain into the back. His fingers went all the way around my arm.