Page 122 of Silas

She nods, and tries to comply, gradually slowing her breathing.

I relax slightly, leaning back against the door. “Honestly, Malik, getting in here was way too fuckin’ easy. Your guys are sloppy as fuck.” I glance at Malik, then. “I’m here to talk. None of your men are dead. One is shot through the hand, another the leg.” I lower the barrel toward the floor in a gesture of goodwill. “Can I trust you to cooperate?”

Malik stares at me. “You must have a death wish.”

“The opposite, actually. That’s why I’m here.” I lift an eyebrow. “You know I’m a man of my word, Malik. Are you?”

“You oughta know better than to ask me that shit, Si.” He sounds disgusted. “Say your piece.”

I grab the rolling desk chair and sit in it, my back to the dormer window so I can keep my eyes on the door as well as the bed.

“You can untie the girl, but do it slow. I won’t kill you, but you know I won’t miss, either, so don’t fuck around.” I meet the girl’s eyes. “You either. When you’re loose, you can put some clothes on if you want, but you stay your ass in the bed with Malik.” She nods, whimpering.

Malik tugs the scarves one by one and they come free; she doesn’t even bother rubbing at her wrists, which tells me tying her up was more for kink than control. Once she’s loose, she slips off the bed and snags a tiny green cocktail dress from the floor, tugs it over her head and then wiggles and jiggles into it, tugging it down over her generous hips before scrambling back into the bed next to Malik—she curls up against him, shivering, and he absently flicks the blankets over her.

“You’re good, Lizzy,” he murmurs. “Silas says he ain’t gonna hurt nobody, you can trust him. Just keep your mouth shut, a’ight?”

She nods yet again, snuggling closer against him.

Malik gestures at his dick, still wrapped up. “Mind if I take care of this?”

I jerk my chin up, and he slips off the bed and faces the bedside table; I train the gun on him, but he only takes a moment to strip the used condom off, wrapping it in Kleenex and tossing it in a nearby wastebasket and then bends to tug on a pair of loose gym shorts before stretching out on the bed, one long arm wrapping around Lizzy, pulling her red head onto his broad chest.

“Shit, girl,” he mutters. “You’re fine. Nobody’s gettin’ shot. Quit your damn shakin’.” He turns his intense green eyes on me. “Now,old friend, why don’t you tell me why you snuck all the way the fuck up in here while I’m with my girl.” A pause. “And how, while you’re explainin’ shit.”

“The how is easy. I found a very minor weakness in your security, back when I worked for you. I exploited it.”

“Weakness?” He rolls his eyes. “Some dumb motherfucker is gonna die.”

“Nah,” I say. “It’s damn near impossible to find, and harder to exploit.”

“E-fuckin’-laborate, motherfucker. I ain’t askin’.”

“You’re in no position to be ordering me around, Malik,” I say, grinning.

“I still got a dozen heavily armed motherfuckers out there. You’ll be dead in ten minutes max if I yell.”

I arch an eyebrow. “Wanna bet? You forget who you’re dealing with?”

He sighs. “Yeah, you right, you right. Fine. But still, how thefuckyou get in here?”

“West perimeter, there’s a hill near the fence line. I jumped from the hill over the fence. After that, it was just a matter of careful infil.”

“That shit’s, what? Three feet from the fence? And seven feet high? Bitch, you crazy.” Despite his words, his tone is one of begrudging respect. “That’s the how. Now the why.”

“I want you to call off the dogs.”

“Why would I?”

“Because I never snitched, Malik. I’ve been out for how long? And I haven’t said shit to anyone. And you know I could. You know I could bring down the whole goddamn operation, but I haven’t. Because I just want to be left alone.”

“That FBI agent. Susan whatever the fuck her name was, you—"

“I never told her anything meaningful about the Cabal’s operations. In fact,shetoldmeshit I didn’t know.” I shake my head and then roll my shoulders. “I lost my stomach for it, Malik. I was fine with the drugs and the guns, but I couldn’t stomach the human trafficking. The way those poor innocent girls were treated? Man, that shit’s fucked-up. They were dying in transit. They were gang-raped at every stage. By the time they got placed somewhere and put to work, they were half-fuckin’ dead, man. People wanna snort themselves to death, that’s their issue. You fuckers wanna shoot each other to death, be my fuckin’ guest. But the girls? That shit was pure goddamn evil, Malik, and you know it.”

He sighs. “Man, you know I got no control over that. I’m a top dog, but I don’t make the final decisions on which pies we have our fingers in.”

“I know that. I’m not holding it against you, I’m just telling you why I wanted out. I couldn’t do that shit anymore, man.”