Her laugh cuts through everything else in the room.
Killian comes off the card table and stops at my shoulder. His voice drops under the noise.
"It's done," he says. "Indictment unsealed Tuesday. Three counts of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of fraud, six counts of trafficking. He pled out under his attorney's advice an hour later. He'll serve the rest of his life in a federal facility he won't walk out of."
I keep my eyes on the floor between my boots for a beat. "And Danny."
"Danny's name is on count one. So is the operation. Public record now."
"Thank you."
"It was always going to be done. You and her brought the piece that let us put it on paper."
He doesn't wait for an answer. He goes back to losing at cards.
Jaxson comes the other direction a minute later, glass in his hand. He doesn't say anything for the first stretch. He looks down at the floor with me. We've stood next to each other at this rail a hundred times in four years, and I've never been the one to break the silence first.
Eventually his hand comes up and settles on my shoulder. Not the brief tap a man gives another man when he's passing. The full weight of his palm, kept there.
"Justice is finally done," he says.
I don't answer. I don't have to.
He keeps the hand there another beat. Then he lifts it and turns back to the room.
Toby finds me ten minutes later. He's holding a beer he hasn't opened, the cap still on tight, and three of the men in thisroom are watching him out of the corner of an eye, ready for the spill we all know is coming when he gets to it.
"Hey, Kane."
"Hey, Toby."
He nods toward Callie. "She's, uh. Damn. She's really pretty, man."
"Toby."
"What."
"I'd think very carefully about your next sentence."
He blinks. The thinking is visible on his face. Then he grins.
"Got it. She's invisible. Eyes on the floor. Never spoke."
"Better."
Bear is the first to laugh, with Ryker on his heels. Toby takes it. His grin softens, and when he looks back up at me he isn't joking anymore.
"I'm just glad she found you, man. You needed somebody to find you."
It comes out of him before he can stop it. He blinks once, looks at the unopened beer in his hand, mutters an excuse about checking the cooler, and goes.
I don't watch him go. I'd embarrass him if I did.
What he said stays with me though.
She did find me.
I look across the mezzanine again. Mama Lou has her hand on Callie's wrist, the grip she keeps on people who matter to her, and Callie isn't moving an inch out of it. She has people who careabout her now, who'll show up when she needs them. It's hard not to fall in love with her, once you know her.
