Chapter 25 · Lights Out

"Luca. Put the gun down before you shoot family."

The voice came out of the dark like it belonged there, easy, almost bored. No mask. No weapon that I could see, just two empty hands raised at his shoulders like he'd done this a hundred times before.

Luca didn't lower anything. "Sal. You've got ten seconds to tell me why you're in my house with the power cut."

"I cut the power." Sal said it like he was telling us the weather. "Drill. You want to know how fast your men move blind, you kill the lights and time it. Four minutes, twelve seconds. That's slow, cousin. That's real slow."

My back was still against the wall. Luca's arm was still braced across me, his body still angled so his ribs would catch a bullet before mine would. Nobody had moved. My heart was going so hard I could feel it in my teeth, and under my palm — I hadn't noticed I still had my hand flat against his spine — his heartbeat was doing the exact same thing.

"You scared her," Luca said, and his voice dropped into a register I hadn't heard before. Not calm.