"I can't let that happen. Not right now." He straightens, picks up a canvas tote from the table, and turns for the door.
"Why not?"
He pauses with his hand on the frame. Something dark moves across his face, something that might be amusement and might be something else entirely.
"There's still a killer on the loose."
The door clangs shut. The lock clicks.
"Wait—" I surge forward and the chain snaps me short, ankle screaming. "COME BACK! You can't just—COME BACK!"
I pound the couch frame until my hands ache. The donuts tumble to the floor. My voice shreds itself against the concrete walls and the dark absorbs all of it and gives nothing back.
Killer on the loose.
I sit in the humming quiet of the fluorescent light and turn those four words over and over, pressing them from every angle, and the shape they make doesn't get any better no matter how long I look at it.
CHAPTER 23
DIEGO
First morning prep shift at the donut shop, done. I grabbed leftover Boston creams on the way out and packed a bag of things to keep her occupied. Trying to keep this clinical. Detached. Business.
It's not working.
I drop everything at the storage unit and drive straight to Ernie's to fix the panels. Raul lets me in and immediately starts shaking his head before I've cleared the doorway.
"Shut up." I shove the hardware bag at him.
"Not about the panels. The girl. What the fuck, Diego?"
"I don't know."
"A hit is one thing. That's business. But you kidnapped a civilian. A whole woman. What are we supposed to do with her now? We can't let her go."
"I know."
"What were you thinking?"
"I couldn't let anything happen to her." The words come out before I've decided to say them, which is its own kind of problem.
"WHY?" He steps into my space.
"I. Don't. Know." I shove him back a step and hold his gaze and mean it. I genuinely don't know. That's the part that's keeping me up.
He drags a hand down his face. "Did she see you? Your face?"
A beat. "Yeah. She recognized me."
"Fuck." He looks at the ceiling. "You need to talk to her. Find out what she actually knows before you decide anything."
"I tried this morning. She was in no state. I'll go back tonight."
"And until then?"
"She stays put."
He nods once. We don't talk about it again.