Page 28 of Riot

“I won’t,” she whispers. I realize she’s probably in the van with Kyle and it’s likely she can’t talk. “I don’t like guns. Knives are one thing, but guns frighten me.”

“You’re brave,” I tell her. “To even come here and support Star, knowin’ this would be dangerous.”

I can hear the surprise in her voice when she says, “I’m Star’s best friend. She has no other family than Tilly. Me and Kyle are her family, and I guess now Nevada and the MC, too.”

“That’s right. We stick together, which is the main reason why we’re here.”

“We’re very grateful. I know that Star may have a hard time showing it, but she is. She just wants her sister back.”

I swallow hard. “What if that means Tilly isn’t comin’ back?”

A few moments pass, and I think maybe she hasn’t heard me. Then she says, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The main thing is she needs closure, one way or the other. She can’t live in limbo like this anymore.”

“I agree, it needs to come to an end.”

“What if…” There’s silence on the end of the line.

“What if?”

“What if something happens to Star, to Nevada, to any of you?”

I don’t want to scare her; she knows the risks already, but something tells me when she took the job of being Star’s assistant in her PI firm that somehow didn’t include staking out human trafficking rings in the middle of nowhere. She is brave, no matter what she says. I admire that kind of loyalty.

“Nothin’ is gonna happen,” I tell her.

“But it could.”

“Life’s a risk, babe,” I say. “We all knew that it was risky when we agreed to comin’ down here. We knew we were gonna be dealin’ with the lowest of the low. Those are the pitfalls I guess of bein’ the good guys.”

“I like that,” she sniffles. Wait, is she crying?

“Halo, are you okay?”

“Yes,” she says a little too quickly. “I just want this to be over.”

“You and me both, and it will be tonight.”

“If Tilly isn’t with the shipment, then what?”

She’s asking questions I don’t have answers to. I could just tell her the truth; that I don’t know. But somehow, I don’t think this is one of those times where absolute truth is completely necessary. Telling her that this could be the end of the line, and Tilly could be dead, isn’t what anyone wants to hear. But that’s the reality. “Then we keep searchin’. We don’t give up. We go home and regroup until we get some answers.”

She sniffs again. “Okay.”

“Don’t cry,” I tell her. “Save those tears for when we’re all back unscathed, got me?”

“I got you.”

“Good girl.”

I hear her breath hitch in her chest, then I hear a car door close. “Say that again.”

“Did you just leave the car?”

“Just for a second.”

“Get back in the car, Halo.”

“Say it.”

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