Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Looking relieved, she took a deep breath in, and then exhaled, a shudder making her entire body tremble for a moment and then met Lang’s gaze. “There is a gang in our building, and they’re after me.”
“First off,” I soothed her, “what’s your name?”
“Carmen. Carmen Maria Torrado Rodríguez.”
“That’s lovely,” I told her. “Now, how many men are chasin’ you?”
“Four,” she replied shakily. “They were initiating a new member tonight, and he was supposed to”—quick glance up at Lang, then me—“you know.”
That fast I felt the anger in the pit of my stomach. “And they did what? Came to the door?”
She nodded. “They knocked, and when I talked to them with the chain on, they said if I didn’t come out, they would come in for my sister.”
Lang cleared his throat. “How old is your sister?”
“She’s eleven.”
“So you went out,” Lang said, prodding her for the rest of the story as he pulled his phone from his back pocket and slid open the screen.
“Yes. My grandmother was asleep. She wouldn’t have opened the door, but I didn’t want them to hurt her or my sister or my brothers.”
“Where are your parents?” I asked as Lang called the office and asked to speak to Wes Ching. We needed backup again.
“They work until two at the store on Friday and Saturday nights.”
“Okay,” I said, smiling at her, easing her away from Lang because he had to step away to give whoever was on the other end of the line, probably Ching by now if he’d been transferred, more information than I wanted the teenager to hear. “Tell me what happened when you got downstairs.”
“They told me to run.”
She had been given a head start. That was why she was running in sweats, slippers, and a tank top.
“Okay,” Lang said, returning to us. “Backup’s on the way. Ching wants us to sit tight here.”
“How old are you?” I asked, making conversation as Lang pulled his gun, guarding us, checking both the entrance to the alley and turning his head back and forth to keep an eye on the sidewalk in front of us.
“Fourteen.”
“I promise you,” I stressed, as I had her crouch down beside the brick wall, “everythin’ is gonna be okay.”
“But what if they went back for Imelda when they couldn’t find me?”
“That’s unlikely. I’m sure they’re still lookin’ for you.”
She was nodding as the tears slipped down her face.
“Now I wish I hadn’t left my jacket at work,” Lang said, still checking both sides of the street. “I could have given it to her.”
“She’s not cold.” I was certain. “She’s scared.”
He nodded as his phone chirped, and he answered, “Yes, our witness says they’ve taken over her building. And that plays, as we got the background on that Venezuelan gang that had taken over different buildings last week, remember?”
I listened to Lang talk even as I crouched next to Carmen, ready to shield her with my body at a moment’s notice.
“They have,” Lang continued. “They run drugs out of it, prey on the girls who live there, prostitute them, and it’s a one-stop shop.”
He was quiet, and I knew he was listening.
“How far did you run?” I asked Carmen.
“Maybe six blocks.”
That was a surprise. “Are you kiddin’?”
Her soft laughter was good to hear. “I run track. I’m the anchor on the 4x400, the 4x800, and I also run the 1500 and the 5K.”
I could only stare.
“That means five kilometers,” she explained, since I clearly didn’t understand.
I stood up from my crouch, and Lang looked at me, still talking to Ching.
“What?” he asked me.
“She ditched those guys chasin’ her. No way they have any idea where she is.”
“How?”
“This kid runs track for both speed and distance. She smoked them.”
Lang smiled at her, and her smile for him back was nice to see. “You’re a badass.”
His praise lit her up for a moment, so when she suddenly gasped, I sank back down in front of her.
“What’s wrong?”
“They were getting Marta too. She lives one floor up.”
“We have to find Marta,” I told Lang.
“We’re going now,” Lang said even as I heard the sound of the BearCats rolling up on us. That brrp-brrp was loud, and the lights, the size, and just the intimidating look of the heavy-duty vehicles was enough to cause instant alarm in people. What made Carmen start to immediately shake was probably the sheer number of them.
Ching wasn’t screwing around. He’d called in everyone for the breach at the apartment complex, and once Carmen was in the passenger seat, belted in like she was going to go parachute jumping—there were a lot of belts holding whoever sat there—we were off. It made sense. If they were ramming into something, you didn’t want to go flying through the windshield. With all the straps and buckles, no way was Carmen going anywhere.
And she’d been very pleased to see Stowe, who was driving, and I understood. As good as Lang and I had been, a woman was better. As soon as Stowe had exited the massive utility vehicle and approached us, Carmen immediately went to her.