Page 31 of Veil of Smoke

“You’re lying,” he says.

“Then arrest me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“No?” I step around him, slow. Controlled. “Then why are you here?”

He doesn’t answer right away.

Instead, he walks toward the prep table and sets his coffee down. “You’ve been asking questions.”

“Maybe I’m tired of answers that don’t make sense.”

“Maybe you’re in over your head.”

“Then throw me a rope.”

He turns. “That drop at Dock 7... It wasn’t random.”

I raise my eyebrows. “What makes you think that?”

He steps closer. “Julio Rivas. You processed an order under his alias two years ago.”

I tilt my head. “And you dug that up because…?”

“Because you’re on a list now.”

“And who put me there?”

Ignazio’s mouth opens. Closes.

I wait.

“I don’t know,” he says.

“Try again.”

He runs a hand through his hair. “Listen to me. You’re not safe.”

“I know.”

“I’m trying to help.”

“No,” I say. “You’re trying to keep me in line.”

“I’m trying to keep you alive.”

“By cornering me in my basement?” I gesture around. “By dropping names from a manifest you shouldn’t have access to?”

He swallows. “That’s not what this is.”

“Then what is it?”

His expression shifts. It softens.

And that’s what pisses me off the most.

I don’t want softness now. I want the truth.

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