Page 163 of Frisco

It looked so ragged and abandoned now, but as I drove down the driveway, I saw another truck parked on the backside of the house. It was an old truck, a classic that I might’ve gone crazy for in another life. This time, though, I just knew who that meant had arrived.

A man stepped out from the front door, his gun raised. He was dressed all in black, and he looked military. His gun was pointed at me.

I stopped, my hands going up, but then another man stepped out from behind him.

There.

That was Marco Estrada.

I knew it this time. I could tell from his eyes.

They were old and dead. Like him. It was a weird sensation because I already saw the life leaving his body, though he was fully connected. I still saw it. Parts of him were shedding and flying away. Or maybe I was just seeing his soul wasn’t a part of him. On the outside, he looked almost handsome. Cheekbones that curved high. He had big lips. He was tall, maybe six three. A wiry body. He was in a business suit.

He held up a hand and his lips moved. He was almost smiling as he stepped forward. Then I heard what he said. It took a second to get to me, and no, I didn’t understand the cause for that. “Wait, Manuel. I’d like to hear what she came to say.”

He walked down the stairs and approached, the ends of his mouth curved upwards. He had a hand toward me, and he was waving for me to come to him. “I’ve come to enjoy these moments, when I get a pocket of time to talk with my enemy’s woman. This has happened before. Another woman. Another time and place. Another enemy, but still the same. Though, that time she had a dog with her.” A full smile beckoned to me. “Do you have a dog, Miss Kali Michaels?”

So he knew who I was.

That would make this easier.

I didn’t care to make this a big to-do. There didn’t need to be conversation. There was no point, really. Before a few days ago, I never heard about this man, but as I started to hear yelling again, as my heartbeat began to pick up, I brought out the gun that I snuck.

I watched as they took the weapons out of that house. And I watched as they bagged them up. And I watched where that bag of weapons were put when they brought them to the house. And when Shane was having a ‘meeting’ with his men, when everyone wasn’t paying attention to me, I went and grabbed one of them. And I checked, because my dad once took me to a shooting range because he thought it’d be a good idea if I knew how to defend myself, and I saw there were three bullets still in the chamber.

There was shouting again.

I saw from the corner of my eye as the guy behind Marco, the one who was with him, was shooting behind me.

Marco was focused behind me as well, and he was starting to turn to run, but then I brought my gun out and he stopped.

Slow motion.

That’s what this was.

This was all happening in slow motion to me.

Even better because I raised the gun, and I pointed, and as his eyes widened, he realized what I was going to do–I did it.

Connor’s death would stand for something.

I pulled the trigger.

EPILOGUE

KALI

Katie was okay.

The random men were okay.

I found out where Harper and Justin had been the whole time, and they were more than okay.

But me, I wasn’t okay.

That day when I shot Marco Estrada, I got him. I know I did, but we didn’t have his body.

Shane had driven in, guns blazing and he drew attention from me. It’s the whole reason I was even able to shoot Estrada. Thinking back on it, I realized that I would’ve been killed the moment I pulled that gun. The guy with Marco Estrada had been that good. He wasn’t like the other imbeciles who worked for him.

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