He answered on the second ring. “Tess?”
A low, sleezy chuckle slid through the speaker. “Try again, Bing.”
Diego.
His breath snagged—of course it was that bastard.
His entire body went cold and hot all at once, and he lurched to his feet. “What did you do, Diego?” The words came out strangled. “Where’s my sister?”
“Relax,” the jerk said. No lazy drawl now—just a controlled, amused menace. “She’s alive. For the moment.”
His hand clamped so hard around the phone that his knuckles hurt. “If you hurt her?—”
“Then what?” Diego cut in. “You gonna come after me? Drop a nuke on my house? You’re sixteen, man. You don’t even have a car.”
He swallowed back the combined roar of rage and dread trying to claw up his throat. Clenching his jaw until his teeth ached, he forced his voice steady. “What do you want?”
“Oh, now we’re talking. See? You’re good at this when you skip the drama.”
He paced to the sliding glass door and back again, the beach a smear of fading light beyond the glass. The living room walls were closing in, triggering a sense of claustrophobia he’d never experienced before.
“You leave her alone,” he demanded with more boldness than he felt. “Whatever you want—you come to me.”
Diego laughed. There was no humor in it. “Oh, I already did that, Bing. A couple of days ago. You remember. You did good work. Clean. Smart. Which is why when the next opportunity came up, I thought, ‘Why not give the kid another shot?’”
“I’m not doing anything else,” Andy snapped. “I told you that.”
“Yeah,” Diego said. “I heard you. Problem is, I don’t really care what you told me. I care what you’re gonna do to save your sister.”
He let the last word hang there.
A bead of sweat slid down Andy’s spine. He dragged his free hand through his hair, fingers catching in the strands.
“You have her,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. It was a rhetorical statement. He’d known before answering the call that the Devil’s Crew had her, and Diego had confirmed it already. But the fact was just starting to sink into Andy’s mind.
“That’s right,” Diego said calmly. “Let’s call her your... motivation.”
“You’re insane.”
“No,” Diego replied. “I’m practical. I know your weak spot. I used it. That’s not crazy, that’s just... effective.”
The word landed wrong, heavy with meaning he didn’t like.
His legs were unsteady, so he dropped back onto the couch before they could give out. The cushions dipped under his weight, the familiar sag somehow making everything worse.
“What do you want me to do?” Andy forced out, even though dread was already curling low in his stomach. He knew the answer. He just didn’t want to hear it.
Diego let out a loud breath, the kind that said he was getting impatient. “Don’t play dumb, Bing. We already went over this. That crypto account? The one on the exchange our people use to park funds before moving them? Yeah. That one needs some attention.”
Andy’s throat tightened. “You want me to mess with someone’s crypto—that’s not nothing.”
“I want you to do exactly what you already proved you can do,” Diego said, voice smooth and unbothered. “Get into the account, change where the funds go, and push a withdrawal. Simple. In and out. Done before anyone realizes what happened.”
“That’s not clean!” He jumped to his feet and paced the living room, running his free hand through his hair. “That’s—that’s theft! That’s federal crime stuff!” Again, he was preaching to the choir.
“Relax. You’re acting like I want you to rob a bank in person,” Diego said. “Crypto moves all night, every night. Nobody notices until it’s already gone. By then, it’s not their problem anymore.”
“And if I don’t do it?” he asked quietly. “What happens to Tess?”
