The bullet takes him high in the shoulder and spins him away from her. He hits the floor screaming.
Lady doesn’t scream. But I can see her hold her breath.
“Get her!” Vice barks.
I run.
A Mutherfuker steps between me and her. I hit him with my shoulder, drive him into the wall, and put my knife under his ribs. He drops, and I’m already past him.
“Shady!” Diablo shouts from the front.
I hear the warning too late.
A man on the office stairs aims down at me.
Six drops him before I can lift my gun.
The body tumbles over the railing and lands in a heap of broken roses.
“Watch your fucking angles!” Six yells.
“I was busy being romantic,” I yell back.
“Be romantic with cover.”
“Bossy prick.”
Lady laughs.
It is tiny. Bloody. Insane.
It nearly kills me.
I drop to my knees in front of her. “Hey, baby.”
Her eyes flash. “Don’t hey baby me while I’m tied up in a damn flower freezer, pendejo.”
My chest caves in around something that feels too soft for a man like me.
“I was going for comforting.”
“You suck at it.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard.”
Her gaze flicks over my side, the blood, the tear in my shirt. “You’re bleeding.”
“So are you.”
“I look better doing it.”
I huff out one ugly laugh and pull a pick from my vest. “Can’t argue with that.”
Her cuffs are police-grade, cheap but real. My hands want to shake. I don’t let them. The first lock pops. Then the second. Her wrists slide free, raw and red.
The sight does something bad to me.
Lady sees it.
