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“Doesn’t thatthat man, Race?”

That was soet elbow-deep in the filth, get e the man I was

“Yes, but it’s a risk I have to take”

“You know the trial for the rest of Novak’s crew is eventually going to start What kind of witnesses are you going toan entire crioddamn slippery that only an idiot would trust hiet off and want the city back?”

The dig was not lost on me

“Then they’ll have to take it from us, brick by brick”

We stared at each other soh

“Putting Bax in jail fucking sucked, Race, but I did it I hope you know that if you step wrong—make one mistake—I’ll do the same to you and I won’t feel bad about it”

I knew it I counted on it Knowing that a hteous uards I had in place to keep

“Fair enough Why are you really here?”

He set the coffee down on the floor by his feet because I wasn’t even civilized enough to have so as basic as an end table or a coffee table in the loft He rose to his full and irab a manila folder that I hadn’t seen before He tossed it on my lap and pointed at it

“Recognize either of those guys?”

I looked at hi of coffee down between my bare feet, and flipped open the file A hard shudder racked my body and bile burned up the back of e that was on top of the papers in the folder A body was broken and twisted The neck wrenched around at an unnatural angle, the skin mottled blue with bruises and death I had to blink a couple ti and it took more than one deep breath before I could flip to the second i, and this tihtless, staring eyes I stared at the photos and tried to decide if it was better to lie or tell the truth Considering this was Titus, the odds were he already knew the answer to the question he was asking me