“Bea!”
Silence answers back.
I stand in the middle of the wreckage, my throat raw. Then I keep going.
“Bea—”
I check the bathroom. I check the closet. I check the second bedroom and the hall closet and the laundry and the small linen cupboard by the back stair. I check rooms it isn’t possible for her to be in. I do it anyway, because the alternative is stopping, and I’m not allowed to stop.
She isn’t here.
I go to the bedroom.
I stand in the middle of it with the gun still in my hand, and I look at the bed. The sheets are still rumpled, and I can smell her on them.
Lorenzo arrives at the doorway.
He stops there. He doesn’t come in.
“Boss.”
I don’t turn.
“She’s gone.”
“I know.”
“Victor has her.”
“I fucking know.”
He comes in.
There’s a clean square of gauze taped to his side now, just above the belt line, the white of it bright against the dark of his jacket. He sees me clock it.
“Found a medical kit in one of the bathrooms,” he says. “Good kit. I’m fine, boss. Tonight I’m in the flow state. I’m gonna kick every one of these sons of bitches in the ass before sunrise. Don’t worry about me.”
Then he gets to the actual report.
“Eight bodies on the property. Four are ours. Really ours. The other four were dressed in our colors but they were—” He pauses. “They were the ones who flipped. Two of them were at the gate. The other two were inside.”
“They turned on ours.”
“They turned on ours. Ours figured it out and put up a fight. Took down the four bought ones before Victor’s outside crew got through the door.”
I don’t say anything.
The four real ones did everything right. They put up the fight they were paid to put up. It wasn’t enough.
I look around the room until my eyes land on the bed. Bea’s indentation still ghosts her pillow.
“He’s not going to kill her,” I growl.
“That’s—good?”
“No.”
I make myself say the rest. “He needs her alive. He needs her as a piece on a board. He took her instead of waiting for me to come home and putting one in my head, which means she’s worth more to him alive than I am dead. Which means he has a use for her.”
