Page 80 of South of Justice

His breath left him in a slow, bitter drag.

Lucía stepped closer. “What is it?”

Ryan held the phone out wordlessly.

She read the message once.

Then again.

She stared at the message, her fingers brushing the screen like maybe it would change if she touched it again. “This doesn’t make sense. That phone was gone. We left it in that cabin in the mountains.”

“Exactly.” He looked at her. “Which means it didn’t find its way here on its own.”

Lucía’s expression tightened. “Gates.Shit.He was playing us this whole time?”

He shook his head. He had no idea anymore. Nothing made sense. He set the phone down carefully, like it might detonate. Then leaned back against the counter, arms folded tight.

Lucía frowned. “But why help us at the compound?”

Ryan’s jaw clenched. “Maybe that was part of his play.”

“You think he’s been stringing us along just to get the last fragment?”

“I think…” He exhaled sharply. “I think we’ve been dancing to someone else’s rhythm since the start. Every lead we chased, every clue that looked like a breakthrough—it all led here.”

“To this,” she murmured. “A trade.”

Ryan nodded. “That’s why he left the car. The keys in the ignition.”

They were both silent for a long moment. Then Ryan said, “He knew you wouldn’t hand it over. Not willingly. So he took the boy to force your hand. Or force mine.”

He looked at her, the weight of what he was saying settling over them both.Force him to extract the last fragment from her to save Noah. Force him to make a choice between the two of them.

“I won’t do it,” he said, voice low. “We won’t do it.”

Lucía swallowed and looked down at her hands. “We thought we were ahead of them. Turns out we’ve been behind the whole time.”

She moved to the window, peeled back the curtain, stared at the line of dull horizon. Silence stretched between them again.

Finally, Ryan spoke, voice hoarse. “I don’t give a shit who’s holding the leash. If they’ve got Noah, I’m going.”

“You’re not going alone.”

Ryan didn’t respond. Just looked at her, something softening in his expression.

She stepped closer. “We go together. We get Noah back. And we end this together.”

He didn’t speak. Just reached for the burner phone and turned it off, the screen blinking out. Then he slid it into his pocket and said, quietly, “Then we’ve got until noon to figure out how not to die in the process.”

FORTY-SIX

The road blurredinto heat shimmer, flat and endless, the horizon bending like light through a glass. Gates’s abandoned SVU was one of the smoother rides they’d procured on this Odyssean journey, but Lucía still gripped the passenger armrest like it was in danger of flying to bits at any given moment.

Maybe it wasn’t in danger of flying to bits, but she felt like she was.

Beside her, Ryan drove with one hand, the other resting on the curve of the wheel. His jaw was tight. He hadn’t said much since they left the last gas station. Not since they’d filled the tank and restocked their water supply.

Her throat tightened. She adjusted the sun visor, even though the glare didn’t touch her. “I’ve been thinking,” she said.