Page 86 of Loco

I didn’t even have to speak. Russo’s eyes scanned my face, reading the confusion there with a flicker of disappointment.

“Shame,” he murmured, glancing sideways at Briggs. “I really wish you hadn’t said that.”

The shift in the room was subtle but immediate. The tension in the air thickened, stretching tight around us like a rope drawn to its limit. My spine stiffened, instincts flaring to life as the basement suddenly felt smaller, more closed in. I didn’t know what game they were playing or what they expected from me, but it didn’t matter.

Because one thing was clear: these men didn’t want me to understand, they wanted me to be afraid. I’d spent years learning to hide fear behind calm words and steady hands, and with two scared little ones depending on me to stay strong, Iwasn’t about to let fear show. I wasn’t going to give them that power.

I tightened my hold around Kairo and Kaida, my voice steady despite my pulse hammering in my throat. “What do you want with us?” I asked, keeping my tone as even as I could. “There was no reason to take the kids. Whatever your issue is with Roque, they have nothing to do with it.”

Russo didn’t flinch. His expression didn’t shift into guilt or regret or anything remotely human. Instead, he looked mildly amused, like I’d just asked a rhetorical question, and he was humoring me with a reply.

“There was every reason,” he said smoothly, gesturing lazily with one hand. “When a rat’s cornered—like Roque is right now—he starts getting desperate and makes mistakes. He tries to chew his way out of the trap.”

He leaned forward slightly, voice dropping into something colder. “I want to be the trap. And when he gets caught, I’ll release him in a way that benefitsme.”

I watched him closely. “You want him to work for you.”

That made him smile. Not a pleasant one, either—it was all teeth and calculation, the kind of grin you’d expect to see right before someone got sold off or buried.

“Exactly,” he agreed, as if we were just two people discussing business over coffee.

Briggs let out a sharp snort behind him, arms still folded. “He’ll never do that.”

For the first time, Russo’s expression cracked. It was just a flicker, but it was there—the irritation that slipped across hisface like a shadow. He didn’t turn to Briggs, didn’t snap or scold, but when he spoke, his words were steel.

“He will,” Russo said tightly. “If he wants his woman and these kids back in the same state he left them in.”

My stomach twisted, but I didn’t let it show.

“And don’t forget,” Russo added, glancing at Briggs this time with a quiet warning in his eyes, “what happened to Topper. Everyone thinks they’re untouchable until they aren’t. Every action against me has a consequence.”

The air shifted again, the temperature seeming to drop a few degrees. My mind scrambled to make sense of the pieces. I still didn’t understand everything, but I was starting to connect the dots, and I didn’t like the shape they were forming.

Russo turned back to me with a slight, condescending shake of his head. “Unwise of Roque not to fill you in on what’s going on,” he murmured like I was an idiot for being kept in the dark.

But I just smiled, calm and sharp as a blade. “He didn’t tell me because life’s too short to fill it with bullshit.”

Russo’s brow lifted slightly like I’d amused him more than he’d expected. Then his eyes drifted down to the kids—Kaida still asleep, Kairo watching him warily from under my arm., and his smile faded.

“In that case,” he said, “we’ll leave them alone. For now.”

I didn’t relax—not even a little.

His following words came low and were pointed. “But don’t mistake my politeness for weakness. Others will find that out soon enough.”

I caught the brief flick of his eyes toward Briggs and instantly knew—whatever punishment Russo had in mind for insubordination or arrogance, it wouldn’t be verbal. Judging by the smug expression still plastered across Briggs’s face, he hadn’t figured it out yet.

I just hoped that whatever Russo had planned wouldn’t happen where the kids could hear it. Because something told me it would be the kind of lesson you didn’t walk away from.

Briggs lingered a moment longer, his eyes flicking back to me with that same smug arrogance, but it didn’t quite reach his posture after Russo’s warning. Still, he couldn’t resist getting the last word.

“Roque deserves what’s coming to him,” he muttered, his voice low and bitter. But I didn’t miss the way his jaw tightened or the flicker of unease that crossed his face when Russo had mentioned Topper earlier. Whatever had happened to that man clearly hadn’t been clean.

Russo didn’t even bother looking at him this time. He clicked his fingers once, sharp and commanding and jerked his chin toward the stairs. “Leave.”

Briggs hesitated, clearly not used to being dismissed like that, but he turned and made his way up after a beat. Russo followed without another word, and I watched them go, keeping my breathing steady, refusing to let myself spiral into fear now—not in front of the kids.

They reached the top, and just as Russo was stepping through the doorway, I heard the sudden trill of a phone ringing.

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