Page 43 (2/2)

For at least five minutes, my teeth chattered too badly for me to speak Chance rubbed my back and tended my palm while Chuch asked me with his eyes what I’d seen I didn’t want to do this; Christ, I didn’t want to tell Esteban Butwould be better than uncertainty

Through raaves of nausea, I ed to say, "It was someone she knew She wasn’t afraid of hireed to go with hinized your name on the man’s lips I think he knew you too"

It would kill me to tell him the rest My uninjured hand curled into a fist as I watched the merc’s eyes close His throat worked, but he didn’t question what I knew or the e His eyes opened "Tell me the rest"

Chance rubbed ot in his car It was an old reen El Camino; she didn’t notice the plates He took her toa lake I think it was a lake"

"Lake Casa Blanca," Chuch offered, low "It’s the only one nearby, so it must’ve been, if it happened here"

Esteban sat as if he’d turned into a pillar of steel "Mierda! I know soreen El Cao on"

I just couldn’t go into detail, not aloud It’s bad enough I’ll see this again and again in my dreams

"He tried to kiss her She slapped him Heraped her Hit her Choked her"

He punched her in the face as he penetrated her, came just before she died Poor Rosita hadn’t even been spared that, clutching her rosary in bloody hands It ed her body into the water, and the bastard didn’t notice in the dark

"Tell me what he looked like," Esteban demanded "I think I knoho it was, but I want to be sure before I kill him"

"He stood a head taller than her," I said slowly, visualizing him in my mind’s eye "He wore a black jacket, jeans, white shirt He had a heavy mustache, acne scars on his cheeks And he had tattoos on his fingers Letters They spelled so"

"D-E-A-T-H," the ht hand of death"

"If they search the lake, I bet they find her," Chuch put in "I’ave Chuch back the thousand bucks "I would’ve paid a lot more to find out what happened to her" To ed me around the shoulders, a short, hard embrace that almost hurt "It’s been years, but I knohere to find the hijo de la chingada"

The bastard deserved to be called worse than that I felt vaguely astonished at how readily he’d accepted ift Yet there was no other way I could’ve picked up on those details, especially the car and the ifted at work

"Good luck," I in to encapsulate s, but Esteban just studied me, as if he knew "I’ll be in touch" He folded to his feet as I did--a gentleh

When we quit the bar, relief rushed through ht’ve happened if Chance hadn’t been there, or Chuch?

We drove back to the house in silence, ht A ht’s work--no trial, no jury, just an execution I had no doubt of it, but I didn’t doubt he deserved it either, not after what I’d seen him do to Rosita--and probably others after her

Before ent inside, Chuch checked the wards Though the warlock was dead, we couldn’t be too careful As we ca TV That lance away frolazed his skin, cast his tattoos into sharp relief Butch bounced around my ankles until I picked him up and scratched hi more research on the Net "I never kneas so bad," she said as we caunmen burst into a club and threw five severed heads inside as a warning The people who took Min are not fucking around"

I thought we’d established that Then again, Eva hadn’t seen sos I had That made a difference

"They’ve joined forces withdeick where simple force fails If we do not stem the tide, they will consolidate their control over the country, and drugs will be the least of their criirls, stuffed into crates like so much produce? God knew they would haunt hts He hugged me around the shoulders and I leaned into hiirls into slavery pays a whole lot better than waste ement"

"I’m pretty sure he does," I answered "That’s the only connection thatit would be harder"

Kel turned then and his smile chilled me "We don’t need proof We need to knohere he lives"

"I got that covered too, pririnned "If I can’t find out about it, it ain’t worth knowing Now I’et back to me"

"You weren’t the only ones who found so," Eva said with a so check out the address for the registered agent that fronts for IBC"