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She stretched her toes in the sand, stalling. She was frightened, she realized. She had made her decision, and yet, saying the words to him, making the commitment, had fear gripping her. Was she really about to do this willingly? “Paula’s coming to stay with Callie for a couple of weeks,” she said.
“Paula?” He looked confused.
She bobbed her head. “You remember Paula, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Paula is a children’s book editor, so she can work from anywhere. Two weeks, that’s all I have. I put my father’s belongings in a storage locker when I sold his house. He was good at recording things, sort of obsessive about it, actually. And ... well, I made my reservations. I’m going to come with you. To Reno. Back to Reno.”
Evan’s brows lifted in surprise. “That’s ... wow, that’s great. Thank you. Thank you, Noelle.”
She gave a decisive nod. She hadn’t mentioned the fact that Paula had been more than willing to stay with Callie but had expressed hesitation about Noelle spending time with Evan for any reason, much less to delve into the past. Noelle was nervous, too, but she also felt an inexplicable resolve. It was time to lay the past to rest, at least as far as she was able.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Grim waited, breath halted as the kid decided the fate of his eye. Grim had often received compliments about his eyes. His wife had told him they were what she first noticed about him. If there was anything about him that was considered attractive, even now, he thought he could say somewhat objectively that it was his eyes. Interesting that the twinge of fear at how they might go about removing said eye also carried with it a measure of vanity. He almost laughed. The things you could learn about yourself under circumstances you never imagined.
The kid was staring at him, his eyes wide with fear. But his expression was also somewhat lax, like he was either in shock or seeing something in his mind’s eye. The bloody extraction of Grim’s eyeball, most likely.
“I’ll go with you,” the kid said softly, turning his gaze to the greasy-looking man wearing black jeans and a leather jacket that was cut like a blazer.What the hell?Grim pulled himself up, leaning forward, his nose through the bars. The man used a key to open the lock on the top of Cedro’s cage and then lowered the door on the front. He stood back so Cedro could exit, a Taser held at his side.
“Wait,” Grim called as the kid started following the man out the open door. “Wait!” he called again. But the man ignored him. Clearly,it wasn’t Grim’s choice whether he kept his eye or not. It’d been Cedro’s, and he’d made it.Why?
“Stupid kid,” he muttered as the door shut. Grim slid back down to the floor of his cage. He still felt like hell but better than he had since he’d woken in the dark, begging like an animal. He hadn’t begged for his life. He’d begged for some alcohol. Of course, he hadn’t gotten any, and his body had rebelled. He’d thought he’d die a time or two and hoped he would. That was surely coming, only he figured now it was going to be even more painful than it would have been if he’d died of the DTs. “Just my fuckin’ luck.”
Grim had heard about something like this from the men who dealt in drugs and humans crossing the border. Word was, there was some kind of game being played by rich elites who got their rocks off doing sick shit to caged humans. Humans who’d never be missed. Throwaways like the kid.
Like you.Nobodies who have nobody.
The smugglers and traffickers—the cartels—all wanted a piece of it, obviously. Where there was money, there was always the desire—at least by some—to partake. But from what Grim had heard, this game was more exclusive than the likes of even the biggest drug kingpin. Grim had only half listened to the murmurings. Even for someone like him, who had seen depravity the likes of which most people didn’t think existed, he thought the stories about this game were overblown and unlikely.
Apparently, he’d been wrong. Or maybe he’d been too drunk too often over the past few years to pay attention like he should have. He ran a hand over his gnarled beard. He could smell the vomit stuck to it, and it made him want to vomit again. If he hadn’t needed to drink the water he’d been given so badly, he would have used at least some of it to clean himself up.Goddamn it, what was happening to the kid right that second?
The kid. Cedro. The one who’d stolen his locket. He’d seen him around town. He looked like a dirty little urchin, even if he was a teenager, but the boy was quick and stealthy, Grim would give him that. It hadn’t been hard to steal from Grim himself, as he’d been three sheets to the wind when the kid had taken his locket. But he’d watched him swipe things off others, and he was good. Good enough that he hadn’t been dragged over to Calle Miguel and turned into a prostitute. Or killed for the organs inside his body that many considered the most valuable part of him. Yet.
Though this might be part of that. Or worse. So apparently their luck had run out. He didn’t care personally ... much. After all, he’d been killing himself slowly. This would get it over with in a hurry, even if there was some pain in the process. But he was surprised to find that he cared about the kid dying this way. He’d thought he was beyond caring about anyone or anything.
It felt like hours before the boy came back. Grim had allowed himself to drift off. Sleeping was the only time he wasn’t actively suffering, and he knew his body needed it if he was going to get through the last part of this detox he’d been forced to endure. He sat up as the kid was pushed back into his cage, coming to sit against the bars as he stared stoically ahead, expression blank. He’d seen that look before. Too many times to count. He’d also seen those unmistakable hand-size bruises on the jaws of young boys. The split lips from being forced apart.Fuck.“I could have lived without an eye,” he said.
“Shut up.”
“Make me.”
Cedro’s gaze whipped in his direction, a small spark lighting in his eyes. Grim let out a slow breath. Okay, not gone, just temporarily extinguished.
“Why’d you do it?” Grim asked. “You shouldn’t have.”
The kid was silent for so long Grim thought he was going to ignore him. Finally, he asked, “The day you shot that dog ... you said something over her. Like ... a prayer or something. What’d you say?”
Grim paused. He hardly remembered that day. But he probed his memory. He owed the kid at least that. He’d heard the dog’s moans before he’d seen it. Someone had left it lying in the street. Suffering. He knelt down next to it and stroked its fur and ... “I said the prayer of Saint Michael.”
Cedro let out a slow breath as though he was relieved in some way. As though Grim’s answer had satisfied two questions instead of the one he’d asked out loud. “My mother used to say that prayer,” he told Grim.
Ah.His mother. Was that why he’d sacrificed himself to save Grim’s eye? Because he’d thought he’d heard him say the same prayer his mother had once said? Grim didn’t pretend to understand that. Nothing about this horror show made sense.
“You know you’re gonna get yourself killed if you keep stealing from dangerous men,” he said as much to change the subject as to needle the kid a little so he’d produce some bluster. He’d need to know it was still possible.
“The only men with wealth are the dangerous ones,” Cedro told him, lifting his chin. “What choice do I have?”
