I look over my shoulder. Disco bobs hard on his perch, crest up, proud of himself.
“Exactly,” I tell the bird.
“¡Dale! ¡Pretty Lady! ¡Pendejo!”
I point at him. “See? He gets me.”
Shady exhales through his nose. Almost a laugh. “Bird’s a cockblock with feathers.”
“Bird has standards.”
“Bird eats drywall.”
“Still higher standards than some men.”
That gets him. A little flash in his eyes, pain and humor tangled together. The man I wanted before the blood. The man I still want under the hurt.
No.
Not now.
I turn away before my face betrays me.
“Darling,” I say.
She is already beside me. “Yeah.”
“I need to leave.”
Shady goes still.
Diablo says, “Lady, this place is locked down.”
I look at him. “I didn’t ask about the locks.”
Darling’s hand slides into mine again.
Diablo’s mouth tightens, but he looks at her, not me. That matters. He waits for Darling.
She lifts her chin. “She can come with me.”
His eyes flash. “Darling.”
“No.” Her voice is soft, but there is steel under it now. The kind she earned the hard way. “You chose me in front of everybody. Now choose to trust me in front of everybody.”
The whole room hears it.
Diablo looks like he would rather be shot again.
Then he nods once.
“Vice and Six follow at distance,” he says.
I open my mouth.
Darling squeezes my hand. “Distance.”
I can live with that for tonight.
