Page 47 of Walking Red Flag

Shasha:

Forty-five minutes.

Shasha:

Please, please, please answer me.

The messages went on, and on, and on.

She had over a hundred messages from her brother and was getting them every minute.

Like he was texting her to keep her paying attention to him, and not the prison.

I looked back at Bayou, who nodded his head and said, “Get her out of here.”

I didn’t waste time.

I did stop and glance at Bayou as we were leaving to say, “I want to know everything that you have on Lyle Pennington.”

Bayou nodded once, and I headed to his Suburban.

The trip took a minute tops, but instead of putting her down when I got behind the wheel, I kept her in my arms for the mile it took to get me to the diner.

I pulled to a stop, turned off the vehicle, and wrapped both arms around her.

It was in that moment that I made a decision.

A stupid one? Most definitely.

A rash one? Of course.

One that I would never regret? Bingo.

Milena’s phone buzzed again, and with it, she shivered hard.

Shasha:

Please fucking call me.

Deciding he’d been worrying enough, I used my own phone to call him but used her phone to get the number from.

After I had it dialed, I hit Call, then placed her phone on the console face down.

Shasha answered the first ring. “Milena?”

“Not Milena,” I said. “This is…”

“I know who you are. How’s Milena?” he snapped.

I didn’t bother to ask how he knew.

I looked down at Milena’s face, which was buried into my chest.

Her breathing had slowed.

I didn’t know if it was because she knew who I was talking to, or if it was the sound of my voice.

Whatever the reason, I kept doing both.

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