Page 149 of Frisco

She’d lost weight in those days too.

Emotion rose up, choking my throat and I struggled to keep it from moving to my eyes, forming tears, but damn. I loved my sister. Couldn’t stand her most days, but I loved her. Always would.

I didn’t care how she’d react. I cut off whatever she’d been saying to whoever and scooted over.

I wrapped my arms around her, and hugged her.

She stiffened, and I felt her one hand still in the air, no doubt holding that cigarette, but catching movement from the corner of my eye, I saw how Machete took the cigarette out of her hand and held it out to Corvette.

Claudia melted into me, wrapping her arms around me right back.

It was so cliché, but I hugged my sister, and she hugged me, and we just needed this.

Yes. So cliché.

I didn’t give a damn.

I hit call on my phone.

My dad answered with, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I HAD TO CALL RUBY I WAS SO WORRIED. YOU BETTER ANSWER ME, KALISTA CALLIOPE MICHAELS! The doc said I have high blood pressure and you put my levels up. Worried my doc.” He took a breath, quieting, calm, but still stern. “I’ve not even been able to practice with the Old Gents, I’ve been so worked up. You better start talking, and you better start talking right now!”

I started talking.

48

SHANE

The decision was that we’d stay in Flagstaff for the night, let the guys rest. Let Kali rest.

Then my phone rang. Heckler calling.

Kali was sleeping soundly next to me, so I stood and went to the bathroom. I shut the door, turned on the shower and leaned back against the counter. I accepted the call, saying, “Too long without contact. I was getting nervous.”

His chuckle was dry. “I know, but we needed to go silent for a bit here. Where are you?”

“Flagstaff, Arizona.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“Not one bit. I got a woman and I don’t want to scare her off this early.”

Another short laugh from him before he went serious. “You should sit down.”

I readied myself instead. “Tell me.”

“We got ’em.”

I shoved off from the counter. “What do you mean?”

“Communication got to us that Marco Estrada sent three teams to California. He knew he was being watched by the club so he’s been acting as a decoy. That was until he got a phone call and he was told that one of his two teams never showed up. He was also informed that their line of contact with who had your woman also went cold. His team and that line of contact are all considered dead. So you know what he did?”

“Bunkered down in The Valley?”

“You’d think. Nope. He is on the move. I just got word and I’m letting you know. We have eyes on the other two teams. We also have ears on them too. They’re too scared to move. We’ve been driving hard around their neighborhood so they’re convinced the entire Red Demon club is converging on them.”

This was music to me. Pure absolute music.

“So Marco is going to them?”

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