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“Calm down.” I laughed, but I couldn’t help but be swept up in her enthusiasm. “He was harping on me about the shirt I waswearing for work, saying it was too tight, and when I told him he doesn’t get a say, he practically backed me against the wall. But not in an angry way. More like an I-want-you-now, sexy kind of way. I can’t… I can’t explain it exactly.” I fumbled over my words, flustered all over again, caught up in the memory.

“Hot.” Evie threw her arm in the air. “Continue.” Before I did, she added, “You know I’m living vicariously through you, right? Everything but the pregnancy. That’s all you.”

“Thanks. Anyway,” I said, laughing because my sister did. “He did thank me for taking care of him, but he also told me he missed me. Before I knew it, he kissed me. It was amazing. But when he pulled away, he asked me again about changing my shirt, leaving me to think the only reason he kissed me at all was to try and get his way.”

“I don’t think so. I think he used your shirt as an excuse to kiss you because he’s probably been dying to do it.”

“Maybe.”

“Regardless, it happened. And it’ll happen again. I have a feeling.”

“Maybe,” I repeated. “He’s dealing with a lot right now, so I’m not pushing anything. I don’t even know what I want, to be honest.”

“You have time. No need to stress over anything.” Evie draped her arm over my shoulder. “Everything will work out. I just know it.”

I wished I possessed an ounce of her confidence.

Or was that delusion?

What’s the idiom?

I supposed only time would tell?

25

The crunch of the gravel beneath the tires was amplified in the otherwise silence of the night. As we pulled off the road, armed men dressed in all black stood at the entrance of the driveway as well as outside the warehouse. We counted fifteen in total. We were outnumbered three to one, and once they took our weapons, which they were sure to do, we didn’t have a chance in hell of getting out of here alive if Rafael Carrillo didn’t approve it.

Reservations swirled in my gut, but I was in it now. I couldn’t change my mind. I couldn’t ask Prez to let me out and have them continue without me. I didn’t want any of our guys to walk into that warehouse, but I had to man up and see this through, as we all did.

I swallowed a pill, making eye contact with Brick as I did so.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Your stomach?”

“My nerves.”

“I’d love to tell you we’ll be fine, but I’m not so sure.”

“You could’ve just said nothing at all, Brick. That’sworse.”

His soft chuckle was riddled with uncertainty. “Sorry, brother.”

“All right,” Marek said, turning to face us. “Let’s do this.”

Prez pulled next to the building and killed the engine. Without a word, all of us took a collective breath before opening our doors.

Eight men approached, speaking Spanish as they surrounded us. One of them, who was short, bald, and stocky, repeated the wordpistola. It wasn’t hard to understand what he wanted, which was our guns. We reached into our waistbands and withdrew our weapons, holding them upside down so as not to appear aggressive.

Once we were unarmed, we were led inside the warehouse. The size was comparable to the one we owned—the same one offered for the cartel’s use in the side deal between Javier Carrillo, Dax, and Miles. Assault rifles, handguns, Gatling guns, and countless boxes of ammo lined the walls. In the center of the space were multiple tables, all filled with bricks of what appeared to be cocaine.

“Move,” one of the members behind me shouted, shoving at my back. I turned to confront him, and he pointed his gun at my face. “Move,” he said, elongating the one-syllable word, his accent thick.

“Calm down,” Stone whispered next to me. “Not worth it. We’re here to put an end to all this shit, not start up something else.”

Dragging air in and out of my overworked lungs didn’t do anything to calm me. But Stone was right. I didn’t want to escalate anything because that fucker dared to touch me.

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