Page 6 of V-Day

“In person.” She waited.

Escobedo took the knife away. He held up both hands, the knife in one, so her men could see them. Then he pushed the knife back into the scabbard on his belt and got up. He held out his hand toward her. “Not exactly how I thought this meeting would go.” He helped her up.

“Another Vistarian you just happen to know, Captain?” Donaldson, the mouthy one, asked.

Parris pointed to Ramirez, then spun her finger. He nodded and turned away, his trigger finger on the guard of his rifle, to keep watch. She beckoned everyone else in. “Hunker down a sec,” she told them.

Escobedo hunkered with them.

“Everyone, this is Nicolás Escobedo. Until twenty-four hours ago he was the presidentpro temof Loyalist Vistaria.”

Silence ticked for a heartbeat or two.

“Shit on a stick,” someone breathed.

Escobedo grinned. “How much do you know about the current situation?” he asked her.

“More than you,” she said.

He considered that. “You have the American perspective, too,” he concluded. “Then I don’t have to explain myself.”

Parris pursed her lips. “You’re here on Vistaria. There is only one place you can be heading. You’re going to spring your wife.”

“They’ve got his wife?” Jonesy breathed. “Shit.”

“In the Palace,” Escobedo told her men, his glance moving from man to man. “It’s been confirmed.”

“By yourself?” Locke said. Disbelief tinged his voice.

Parris halted the impulse to remind him Escobedo had just tossed her around like a rag doll. Her chest and stomach were still throbbing.

“I know the Palace inside-out,” Escobedo told Locke. “I lived in it most of my adult life.”

“Aren’t Serrano and his senior lieutenants there now?” Odesky asked.

“They are,” Escobedo said coolly. “I’ll do my best to take out as many as possible while I’m in there. If Serrano wanders into my sights, that would be a good thing.”

“You’re aware there are three armies heading for the city?” Odesky said.

“Which will keep Serrano occupied,” Escobedo said, a smile touching the corner of his mouth.

The smile was echoed among her men. He’d won them over, just like that. Wow. He was as charismatic as Adán had described him. He radiated power, too, which her men would respond to.

Escobedo looked at Parris. “Can we talk?”

Parris nodded and got to her feet. Locke Rosa, too. “We’ll move off a hundred yards and watch out.”

“Thanks,” Parris said.

Locke signaled, then pointed. Everyone moved off in the direction he’d given. Odesky patted Ramirez’s shoulder and he joined them.

Locke hesitated, his gaze swiveling to Escobedo, then back. “You married the guy? Caballero?” he said, in English.

“An hour before we left Los Alamitos.” She grimaced. “I was trying to figure out when to tell everyone.”

“No wonder Escobedo downed you,” Locke said, which hurt, because it was the truth. Her mind hadn’t been properly in the game.

Now it was.