“True. That’s why she lives.”
A loading alarm starts blaring at the far side of the warehouse.
Alpha’s voice snaps into comms. “East refrigerated trailer just went live. Heat signature moving through rail-side gate. That’s Toro.”
I look toward the sound.
Everything in me lunges.
Lady is under my arm. Hurt. Shaking. Watching me.
Toro is getting away.
The man who touched her is getting away.
I move one step.
Lady’s fingers lock around my wrist.
Not strong.
Enough.
“If you leave me here,” she says, voice low and deadly, “I’ll crawl out myself and hate you the whole way.”
I stop.
That sentence does what bullets could not.
Diablo looks at me, and there is no command in his face now. Only the question.
Road captain or her man?
No.
That ain’t the choice.
If I’m worth a damn, I have to be both.
“Dune, Tubbs,” I say into comms, voice ripping out of me. “Toro is in the east trailer heading rail-side. Pinch him if you can, but don’t break formation. He wants us split.”
Dune answers first. “On it.”
Tubbs follows. “Got movement, but he’s got smoke.”
Another explosion pops outside, smaller than the first gunfire. Smoke rolls past the dock windows.
Key Rat curses in my ear. “He blew the side gate camera. Slippery fucker.”
Toro’s voice returns through the speaker, fading behind static. “Another day, road captain.”
The speaker pops with static, then dies.
Coward.
I stare at the east wall like I can kill him through concrete.
Lady’s hand slides from my wrist to my knuckles.
