SS:TIE 012

Sally is blunt. “I called it all wrong. Moving before Flores was accounted for was a mistake. Maybe we should’ve gone tactical.”

“With a crew that’s already dropped a body? You think?” Meri snarls. “This is my investigation now. You’re going to handle the press. You’re going to tell them that Detective Scott was shot in an ambush, and I want their faces on every screen in this city within an hour.”

“We can do that,” Sally says as Meri starts to turn away. “But you’ll never catch them.”

“Excuse me?”

“They just lifted research chemicals, and now they know we’re after them. They’ll need traveling money, captain. We can scare them out of town, but that doesn’t take them off the street. They’re on the back foot.”

“You’ve already fucked this up. Why should I listen to you?”

Sally shrugs. “You want a collar? I don’t know. But if we set up a buy, we might have one last shot at them.”

SS:TIE

“Glynda warned me,” Rey says.

They’ve changed cars. The four of them sit in the dark, parked under the Palm Beach interchange. The lights of the airport are so bright in the black night that they hurt Rey’s eyes.

“What do you mean?” Lili asks calmly. They’ve already ditched their phones. It’s a strange moment; they’re cut off. Isolated.

“We knew they weren’t letting the thing on the east side drop. Lotte really fucked us,” Rey says with a grimace. “I should’ve killed her.”

“Wouldn’t change anything now,” Chica says, gazing at the airport.

“How much do they have?” Elsa asks.

“Doesn’t matter. Nobody goes home.”

Rey nods in agreement. “I’ll find out, but we have to play it like they have it all.”

“They don’t have it all,” Chica says. “They don’t have me. They have nothing on me.”

“You just shot a cop,” Elsa reminds her. “And if they’re on us, they’re on you.”

“There’s no evidence. That means I can still move. They can grab me on suspicion, but they can’t hold me.” Chica rubs her chin, eyes distant. “It means we’re still in play.”

“Play for what? We’re done,” Rey says. “It’s time to go. The window’s gonna close fast. Especially if that cop dies.”

“She won’t,” Chica murmurs. She turns in the passenger seat to look at Lili and Elsa in the back. “Are you guys ready to go? Without going home?”

They don’t have to answer. Chica’s been working all along because she’s never done time. Rey has been careful with her finances. But Lili and Elsa missed a lot of income on the inside, and they aren’t as careful. They need money if they’re going to start over somewhere new.

“You’re supposed to be the smart one. You’re saying we should do Salazar?” Rey asks Chica.

“I’m saying we have to.”

“This isn’t like you. What aren’t you telling us?”

“Remember when we did that job in Brownsville?”

“The coke guy?” Rey remembers. It had been a job from Glynda that hadn’t warranted four people, but Rey’s girls came as a set. Some low-level guy with a local organization had a house for hooking up with teenagers. He owed some money, so they’d taken care of him and recovered his phone at Glynda’s request.

“I cloned the phone,” Chica says with a shrug. “Salazar’s up to her tits in human trafficking.”

Rey rubs her eyes. This has been a touchy subject for Chica both overseas and here in the States. “We can’t make this personal, Chica.”

“I’m going to take Salazar’s money and I’m going to kill her.” Chica chews her lip. “If you guys have to go, I understand.”

Rey snorts. Unbelievable. “How did you ever scam us into thinking you were the brains of this outfit, Cheese?”

“The bar’s low, that’s all.”

“You really think we can still do it with all this heat?” Elsa asks.

“It’s a maybe,” Chica replies, still staring absently. “We’ll stash you guys. I’ll get us some phones. Then you lie low while I see what’s what.”

SS:TIE

It’s simple enough to get Elsa and Lili settled, then slip away in the morning. There’s risk, but Rey has dealt with far worse. A big-box hardware store is a difficult place for the police to hide. Rey makes sure of her exits before she goes in. It’s unlikely that the cops have Kayla under surveillance, but Rey can’t rule anything out. She does a brass check, then holsters her gun and covers it before entering the store.

Kayla is at her paint counter, using the machine to blend something for a customer.

Her face lights up when she spots Rey waiting nearby, and she quickly finishes what she’s doing and hurries over.

“Hey.” It’s Kayla’s workplace, so she doesn’t touch Rey or even come too close, although it’s obvious that she wants to. “What’s up?”

“I lost my phone,” Rey lies. “I didn’t want you to think I was ghosting you.”

Kayla looks moved. “I was getting a little worried.”

“Look, there’s no other way to say this.” Rey hesitates for a long time. “I have to take care of some things.”

“OK.” Kayla looks concerned; she searches Rey’s face for clues.

“We might have to leave in a hurry.”

Kayla chews her lip. She did agree to come with Rey, but that’s just a verbal agreement. It’s not a contract. The fact that they’ve hardly known each other for a week has not changed. They’re strangers. Even that agreement probably wasn’t easy for Kayla to make, and now Rey is laying it on even thicker.

Workplace or not, Kayla reaches out and takes Rey’s hand.

“Why not now?” she asks.

“What?”

“What is stopping you from leaving now?”

Rey hesitates. The store is busy, yet curiously hushed. Her mind is a battleground.

Should Rey leave with Kayla now?

Or tell her that she can’t yet?