Page 127 of Frisco

Something very serious had happened before we got here.

Glancing at the other woman, she seemed more put-together. Withdrawn. Quiet, but standing close to Corvette. Her arms were wrapped around herself. Catching my gaze, she didn’t jerk her eyes away. She flinched, and her face tightened on some emotion I couldn’t place, but she held my gaze.

“Roadie,” I said it quiet.

“Hmm?” He was still holding Claudia.

I motioned to her. “Help her get situated in the truck.”

He gave me a nod, putting her back on her feet and ushering her gently, with caution, to the truck.

Boise was doing a pass through the house. If there was something there he thought we could use, he’d grab it. I trusted him. He was more thorough than myself. So I moved toward Corvette and Tracey.

She might’ve been a good-looking woman, heavy makeup even under these circumstances. Her hair was flat, and I could tell it was bothering her because she kept fussing with it. But those eyes were hard and aged. She struck me as in her thirties, but I couldn’t quite get a read on the exact number. She had meat on her bones and she carried herself in a way that she was proud of it. She was watching me watch her, and she took a breath, one, right before I settled in front of her.

“You’re the leader.”

I gave a nod. “Suppose that’s what they call me.”

Her eyes went to the guys in the truck. “Those are Marco Estrada’s men.”

“You know that before they swept you up?”

“No. I would’ve known them without because of their neck tattoos.”

Claudia was in the truck by now, and Roadie had half of an arm around her, on the back of the seat. She wasn’t curled into him, but she wasn’t on the other side of the seat. Her head was buried in her lap and she was shaking from silent sobbing.

I gave a nod in their direction. “You want to fill me in on what they did to my man’s woman?”

She looked over, another heavy sigh leaving her. “They didn’t touch her in any way, if that’s what you’re asking. They told her that they killed her sister. They do that to mine, I’d take a knife to their balls. Unconscious or not.”

“They told her what?”

She looked back, her eyes flaring a little. “They murdered her sister–”

I was moving before she finished, going to the truck. “Claudia.”

I rested a foot on the bottom rung, a hand on the top of the door and I waited for her to look my way.

She didn’t. She kept shaking from the middle of the seat.

“She ain’t dead, Claudia.”

She sniffed once and lifted her head. Her face was wet from the tears, and she sniffled again, using the back of her arm to wipe over her face. “Say what?”

“They took her, but they didn’t keep her. The brainiacs that took you were the ones who lost her.”

Her mouth parted, and she was absolutely still. “It’s not a good idea to fuck with me right now, Ghost.”

“Not fucking with you, in any way. Your sister’s alive and sitting in Frisco territory right now, far away from these assholes.”

“You’re saying Kali is alive?”

A firm nod from me. “My woman is alive.”

Roadie snorted, now relaxing and slumping a little in the seat. “If she was dead, you think he’d be standing here all calm-like and talking to you? Fuck no. Ghost would be ghost, hockey mask and all and he’d be gone.” He whistled, shaking his head. “These guys would’ve been toast the second we found ’em, and he’d be off, going for the next round all by himself if he could’ve. Nah, woman. Your sister is alive.”

Claudia’s eyes were bulging at me, and she was breathing hard. Her chest was rising. “My man?”