Page 153 of Frisco

“Yeah.”

I knew what he was going to tell me, but he had to say the words. I had to hear them out loud. If I didn’t, I’d never believe them. I’d have hope it wouldn’t happen or that it didn’t happen.

I grated out, “Say it, Shane. Just fucking say it.”

“Connor’s going to kill all of them. Every one. We got a weapon smuggled in for him. He’s going to take out the guard, and then he’ll take out the rest. They won’t be able to get to him to unarm him, and they won’t be able to run. The room is locked down. The guard will go first so he couldn’t call for help. It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“It’s suicide. This is the favor. He’s going to kill Marco’s four ‘second-in-commands’ so you can kill Marco and know that his cartel won’t be taken over. Right? That’s the plan?”

“His cartel will fall. Another will take its place, but it won’t be the same one. It’ll be chaos in Mexico for a while until another gets in power. That means we’re free. We’re not under his hold anymore. You don’t understand how sick Marco Estrada is.”

They were going to kill my brother to save their lives. That was the bottom line.

He was right about one thing. I did not want to go back to bed. I would never want to go back to bed, not with him, not ever again.

I would never be the same.

“You killed my brother.”

He didn’t answer, but that was fine. I heard it all, knew enough.

“How could you do that? How could you go to him and ask him to do this for you? Find another person, another way!”

He didn’t answer. He just sat there, looking down until he said, “I didn’t.”

“Bullshit! Bullshit!”

“Kali.” His voice was soft, but lined with regret. “I never went to your brother with this proposal.”

“What?” Again, he wasn’t making sense. None of this made sense. All this death. All of it was pointless. Except, God. It wasn’t. It wasn’t at all, and I hated that the most.

“He came to me with this.”

“No.”

“He knew what was going on. You know in prison. You hear the worst of the worst in there, and he was hearing how Estrada was controlling us. He did this. He set it up, all of it up. He knew what was something in common those four men had. He knew. They all liked dogs. He asked for the animal training to come into their prison. He researched it and he rallied the inmates to want it too. Kali, he was the instructor. He was the only inmate that was allowed to be in the same room as all four of them. The only one. Ever. He did this, and he asked us to finish it, and then he asked us to take care of his family. That’s what we’re doing. We were trying to do this for him!”

I snapped, unleashing, “IT MAKES NO SENSE! Why would he suddenly decide to create this whole program?! And what inmate is allowed to instruct a class on their own?!”

“He was!” Shane roared back. “He was because he’s fucking perfect. Because he doesn’t deserve to be in that place, but he’s in there and you know how he is. He’s a good person.”

Tears were rolling down my face, but I wasn’t feeling them. “He’s getting out. He went in for burglary–”

“He burglarized a judge’s house. He killed the judge’s kid. He’s never getting out. That was just one charge they brought against him.”

“No.” I was adamant. Just, “No.”

“Yes.”

“NO! It was an accident. He didn’t mean to hurt that kid. He thought he was taking a toy gun with him.”

“They don’t care. They didn’t then, and they won’t now.”

“But–” Why did the world have to feel so heavy all the time? “Why? Connor’s not a mastermind manipulator. He’s dumb in some ways. Why’d he decide to do all this? That takes thought and planning and reason. He had no reason to…” I trailed off because it was in his face.

Guilt.

“What’d you do?” I asked.

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