Page 96 of The Bronze Garza

“Or tryin’ to climb up the ranks,” True says, “impress the leader.”

We’d sent out a rumor that the men were plotting an assassination on Lorenzo Castello, then we let them go. At the end of the day, Red Cage isn’t the law. We break the law more than we obey it. Sometimes that means making deals with the small fish to get to the big fish. Or we manipulate reality to get the result we want. Other times we are straight-up coldblooded.

The men will either turn themselves in or flee the state to escape the Castellos. Jail won’t protect them, though. In the end, one or all of those three men will be dead, and I’ll not have lost a moment sleep over it. Not when they were dumb enough to put a gun to my sister’s head and put their hands on Lyra.

“Forgot to tell you,” True goes on, “one of them had an interesting question for your girl.”

Your girl.

She is, isn’t she?

Mygirl.

Mine.

I feel it with everything in me. Like animal instinct. Possessiveness roaring inside me like a lion.“Who the fuck are you?”I think every time I look at her.“What gives you the right to mark me the way you do?”

“What’s that?”

“He begged us to ask her if she really believed he had a shot at acting.”

“The fuck?”

True laughs heartily. “Apparently she told him he had an ‘awesome villain voice’ and that he should consider acting.”

A smile presses forward but I beat it back.Of courseshe told her goddamn kidnapper that he should consider acting. Wouldn’t be Lyra Henderson if she didn’t. That woman is her own brand of human. Never met anyone like her. And I’m so fucking drawn to her it’s becoming increasingly impossible to pull myself out of her spell.

Or, maybe…maybe I just don’t want to resist her anymore.

~

We arrive onlocation eight minutes later.

The faded, busted sign across the street reads, “CariRest Motel.”

I hop out of the vehicle and shake hands with Howie, the head of our Mexicali team.

“Anything new?” I ask.

“Nothing since his old girl stayed the night two days ago,” he replies. “I’m starting to wonder if he’s dead in there.”

Or gone. “Get your men in position,” I tell him. “We’re going in.”

In the next couple of minutes, we have every door of the motel kicked in and every room upturned. The fucker’s clearly slipped us, but I’m afterinformation, not the man, so I instruct my men to search every crevice. If he knew I’d be coming after him, then he’ll have left something for me to find.

“Found something, boss.”

Abandoning the stack of papers I’m rifling through, I straighten up from behind the reception desk and find Howie, True, and Reuben standing on the other side.

True drops a manila envelope on the counter and slides it across to me.

Scrawled on the front of it in red, are the words “For the Garzas.”

I upend it and pick up the first sheet of paper.

More scrawling.

If you’re holding this, then damn, you’re really as good as they say you are. But I’m called Soul for a reason. Not because I take them, but because I’m damn good at slipping away like one.