Page 77 of Fire and Silk

Without a moment of hesitation, Dimitri hops into the boat, leaning to the side to unloop the rope tying us to the dock.

“So, what’s the plan?” Dimitri asks, taking a seat on the bench to my right while Norma settles next to me at the back, her hand reaching out to gently pat my forearm, her silent way of trying to reassure me that everything will be okay.

“We’re going to have to take the Braxton Airport,” Mateo tells him, easing the boat away from the dock. “It’s further out but a safer bet. Dax and Martinez will meet us there.”

“And what if we’re intercepted?” Dimitri asks.

“Then we kill as many mother fuckers as we can.”

He gives his boss a stiff nod before his eyes survey the horizon. The sun is low in the sky. It won’t be long before it’s dark. And even though it’s warm, I feel chilled to the bone, unable to stop my body from shivering.

“It’s going to be okay,” Norma whispers so that only I can hear her, wrapping her frail hand around mine.

Only it won’t be.

Nothing has been okay since the moment I was taken.

Right now it feels like nothing will ever be okay again.

If I thought things were bad before, I was wrong. I have a feeling this war is going to get a whole lot uglier and bloodier before it’s over.

And here I am, bound in the middle of a rope. My father on one side. Mateo on the other. Both pulling me in opposite directions that it’s only a matter of time before it snaps. And when it does, I have no idea where I’ll land... or whose gun I’ll be staring down the barrel of in my final moments.

The only thing I know for sure is that it’s inevitable. And unless I find a way to stop it, I’ll find myself as another discarded casualty of a war that started long before I was born.

Mila Grace is resigned to accept that fate.

Marianna Herrera, however, is not willing to go down quite so easily.

Niko once said I had cartel in my blood.

I guess it’s time to find out if he was right.

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