“You can’t go, Caden. Believe me, you aren’t going to want to see what’s going on anyway. I don’t think any woman would want to see the horrendous things that are going to happen tonight.” Tony just looked at her and shook his head.

“Who are you going with, Tony?”

“Victor.”

“Oh, boy, I can only imagine. Once you two terrible twins get together, madness and mayhem are sure to follow.”

“Baby, in your wildest dreams you couldn’t conjure up the things Victor has in mind for William Briggs tonight. He feels the same way about this guy as I do about Santiago.”

“You know, there’s this one thing about Santiago that I haven’t told you. I don’t think it really means anything, but still…”

“What is it?”

“Well, you know how he’d come see me at The Club.”

“Yeah. I remember that. Do go on,” he said flatly.

“Well, we just talked at a table usually, but we’d get pretty flirty sometimes…”

“Caden, I swear to God…”

“Sorry, it’s just that there were a couple of times when I swear I felt a garter belt under his pants--” As he rose to his feet and glared at her, she continued quickly, “No, no, I didn’t go under his pants, I mean, just, oh hell, Tony, can you just let me finish?”

He sat down slowly, chest heaving. “You better be quick about it because I’m about to track his sorry ass down single-handed and deal with this shit.”

“No, I was just patting his leg as I laughed at something he’d said, and that’s when I felt it. He was wearing a garter under his clothes. I could tell because I felt the lacy strap, you know…when I patted his leg…after he made a joke...” She trailed off, gulping as she waited for his reaction.

“The only thing saving you from a spanking right now is that your days of ‘visiting’ with customers are over. Now, are you sure about this?” Tony asked. He was a live-and-let-live kind of guy, but he knew the Sinaloan cartel might not be so open-minded. 

“A woman knows these things, Tony. I know my garters, okay? Professional stripper here, remember?” she laughed. “And there was this other time that I swear I saw a red bra strap under his shirt. One night he came in wearing a button-down shirt that had a couple more buttons than usual undone. I guess he thought it made him look sexy, I don’t know. Anyway, he leaned over to pick up his drink and, from where I was sitting beside him, I could see the strap underneath the fabric of his shirt. He had a sports coat on so I couldn’t see anything else, but I know I saw a red strap. I think he cross-dresses. I never brought it up before because it didn’t seem important, but I thought I should tell you.”

That got his attention. “Did you notice anything while he was holding you at the house?”

“No, but I asked him about it at one point. We talked about a lot of things so it wasn’t a big, dramatic moment by any means. I think he expected me to mock him, but when he saw that I wasn’t judging him he opened up about it.”

Tony remained sitting on the edge of the bed and just listened. She was finally going to talk about her time with Santiago. It was a good sign—it meant she trusted him. He was now the one she confided in, the one she looked to for support. He didn’t want to break the mood and have her shut down so he just let her talk.

“When I asked him why he did it, he said it helped him relive the killings. He wanted to experience the moment of death through his victims’ eyes. Apparently, every time he had worn lingerie under his clothes when he came to see me at The Club, he had just taken it off a d-dead body--” She sobbed, gulped hard and struggled to find the words to continue. “Can you imagine that—wanting to relive the death of another person? I can understand why you kill, why your family kills. You have a purpose, but him…he kills for the sake of killing. I will never understand that.”

“That’s because you’re an angel and he’s insane,” he said as he wrapped her in his arms. “He’s unable to feel real emotion, regardless of what he may have tried to tell you. He has no sympathy, no empathy, only the need and the drive to kill. Trust me, any emotions he does manage to feel are purely self-serving and a reflection of his own ego.”

“He loved me.” The way her voice was so soft and sincere pulled on his heart, but he didn’t respond. He hurt for her, for all she’d been through, but she had to find her way past it. Death was never easy, but it was harder when you had a connection – even a sick, twisted one – with the person dying. And as far as Tony was concerned, Santiago was a dead man walking.

“It’ll be his undoing—his need for trophies.”

“Why do you say that, Tony?”

“I don’t know, just a feeling.”

She placed her hand on his forearm and looked at him earnestly. “Please, be safe. Don’t get killed. I need you.”

“Death is coming tonight, Caden, but not to me. It won’t even be by my hand.”