With him.
That thought hit me suddenly and hard enough to make me cold.
I looked up at Hersh.
“Hersh…”
His eyes dropped immediately to mine.
Always immediately.
“If they know I’m here,” I whispered shakily, “then they know I’m with you.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Terrible.
Because everybody in the room understood exactly what that meant.
The cartel didn’t just kill witnesses.
They killed leverage.
Family.
Anyone close enough to hurt.
Fear flooded me so hard I could barely breathe.
“No.”
The word slipped out broken.
“Hersh, I can’t let?—”
His fingers tightened around mine instantly.
“You’re not finishing that sentence.”
Emotion climbed hard into my throat.
“They’ll come after you.”
“Let them.”
The calm certainty in his voice nearly destroyed me.
Because he meant it.
God, he meant every word.
“I’m serious!” I whispered harshly. “These people torture families. They kill children. They?—”
“Flick.”
That one word stopped me cold.
