Page 95 of Lone Star

“Aren’t you?”

“–I’d guess that it’s the same drug this Holy Father wanker used on our witnesses to spook them. Your service station boys and one other.”

He filled her in on the scare tactic ritual, and she felt her brows climb throughout the tale. “Well, they’ve come up with a very effective way of terrifying the shit out people in this city.”

He nodded.

“But you think they’re using it for something else, too.”

“You don’t know I’m thinking that,” he said, coy.

“You’re more readable than you think. Spill it.”

“The whole Holy Father business is a distraction. It’s the big stage show. He’s the wizard. But the real business is going on behind the curtain. Cartels like this like to terrorize, sure, but this is taking it to a whole new, very creative level.”

“Meanwhile,” she said, pulse starting to pick up, “they’re moving major product under everyone’s noses while the club and the FBI scramble around looking for a serial killer.”

“Give the lady a door prize.”

“Coke,” she guessed. “Maybe fentanyl.”

“Yes. But you don’t need a paralytic for that.”

It hit her, then. Slapped her right in the face and left her feeling stupid. “Oh, shit.”

“They’re moving people,” he said, and if he was still grinning, he couldn’t be faulted for heartlessness; that was just his way.

She shifted her gaze across the waiting room, toward the chair in the corner where the receptionist, Gwen, sat with her knees drawn up to her chest, chewing at the ragged sleeve of her hoodie, shell-shocked and trembling.

“Time to talk to our new friend,” Eden said.

“And Melanie Menendez.”

Movement at the sliding doors drew her attention, and she cursed under her breath. Two uniformed officers strode in, sunlight glinting off the cuffs swinging from their gun belts.

“Jinx has a GSW,” Fox said with a sigh. “This is standard protocol.”

“Come on, then, let’s grab our witness before they get to her.”

~*~

The front desk nurses steered the local cops their way. Michelle had Jinx’s blood all over her jeans, so there would have been no hiding, and so she’d been prepared for this. She gave her official statement – sticking to the truth save the part where they’d been intentionally trying to root out the cartel’s whereabouts – and sent them both on their way with the proper amount of worry and sadness.

“It’s scary how good you are at that,” Candy said when they were gone, smirking at her.

She tossed her hair and affected bored. “Lots of practice.”

God, but it felt good to have talked. To be on the same page again; allies and friends and just…them. She loved being them.

Albie and Axelle came around the corner and into the waiting room, dropping into chairs across from them. Michelle didn’t miss the way Albie’s hand had rested on the small of Axelle’s back the whole time, a thoughtless sort of gesture, automatic and caring. It left her smiling inwardly, so as not to spook Axelle, who still didn’t seem certain about all this. She was happy for her uncle, though. Albie deserved someone to fuss over, after all his years alone.

“We passed the cops,” Albie said.

“Standard stuff,” Candy said. “They’ll be back later to get a statement from Jinx when he’s out of surgery.”

“How’s your upholstery?” Michelle asked.

Axelle made a face. “I bought some towels and Clorox wipes in the gift shop. It’s mostly okay.”

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