Page 124 of Faded Gray Lines

My mother had the balls to look irritated. “Are we really doing this?”

“That’s up to you.”

“If you insist.” Reaching into her suit pocket, she pulled out her own gun. In Emilio’s shock, he didn’t react quickly enough, and my mother landed an impressive shot right between his eyes. “I guess he forgot I was a cop’s wife for fifteen years,” she offered with a wink.

I couldn’t speak. Emilio lay dead on the floor, shot by my own mother. This couldn’t be happening.

I must have closed my eyes because they opened the minute I felt her cold fingers on my skin. I choked out a sob as she jerked the gold pendant off my neck and dropped it in her pocket.

“You won’t be needing this,” she said, turning to walk away.

Stopping near the door, she dug inside her purse and pulled out a book of matches and a bottle of nail polish remover. After dumping the entire bottle of liquid around the only exit, she stepped over the mess and paused in the doorway.

“Oh, and you hung up before I could answer your question. You’re right. Itistime to cut the crap and be who we are. Well said, darling.”

As she struck a match and tossed it behind her, I screamed for the only thing that mattered. “Where’s my baby, you bitch?”

The door closed, sucking all the air out with it. Still, I screamed the same words over and over as Sarah groaned on the floor beside me. Opening her eyes, she gurgled, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

“The circle of life...”

“What? What the hell does that mean?” I screamed, jerking so hard on my restraints the chair tipped over and sent me sprawling onto my side.

A whoosh preceded an explosion, sending up a cloud of smoke that filled my lungs and burned my eyes.

Sarah glanced at the flames, a sad smile on her lips just before she passed out again. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

Forty-Two

Mateo

Picking up his phone,I threw it across the table, watching it as it skidded off the edge and bounced onto the floor. “I don’t care. Call somebody else.”

“There’s no one left to call, Mateo.” Brody sat at the table with his head in his hands, staring at his phone. “We’ve called everyone. Every soldier,sicario, and falcon is out looking for them right now. All we can do is wait.”

I had no idea how he could be so calm. Not only had I told him what Bright found out about Atwood and his father, I showed him the video of his mother and the man who had his sister. Still, he sat here acting like we’d been defeated.

Grabbing my keys off the table, I barreled across the apartment. Just as I reached the door, a shadow stepped in front of me.

“Detente!” Stop.

“Get out of my way, Val.”

A flicker of emotion crossed his face before the boss in him took over. “What do you think driving around town like someidiotais going to do?”

“I can’t stay here and do nothing. What if it were Eden?”

“Harcourt,” he yelled across the room, motioning Brody out of his chair. “Pull your shit together. We’re chasing a rat.”

Retrieving his phone, Brody fell in line behind us, and just as he closed the door to his apartment, it rang.

“It’s my mother,” he said, staring at the screen.

Val dipped his chin. “Answer it.”

“Mom?” he asked, our eyes locking, “what’s wrong?” Lines deepened in his forehead as I heard a frantic voice filter through the line. “Wait, calm down. I can’t understand you. Who’s hurt?”

He didn’t have to say her name. I saw it in his face.