“Jesus, Leighton, what have you done?”

Leighton’s entire body coiled. “Don’t you dare judge me,” she wheezed, exhaustion pulling at the corners of her eyes. “He killed my father. He blackmailed me and kept my child from me. All he cared about was saving his own ass.” Finally, she shivered. “They’re all alike.”

That shiver gave her away. Slaying her dragon didn’t stop him from breathing fire. I couldn’t extinguish a flame that burned inside of her. There would always be another dragon. Another monster. Another Finn. Another Emilio. Another Alex.

In my understanding, I reached for her.

“Don’t,” she said, cringing and stepping back.

“You have blood on your hands, Leighton, and for what? Some fucked up revenge that won’t make you feel any better?”

“Won’t make me feel any better? Are you fucking kidding me? I feel like a cloud has been lifted.”

The way she talked sounded too familiar. Too brutal. Too cartel. “You’re in over your head. These people will chew you up and spit you out.”

She lifted her chin. “Not if I bite first.”

She had no clue what the hell she was talking about. Leighton was a tiny tiger fish swimming with a school of great white sharks. The high she rode right now wouldn’t last. As soon as reality set in, she’d crash and burn. Unfortunately, the blood she’d spilled would still be fresh, and the great whites would come calling.

Unless...

“Your mother thinks you’re dead,” I reminded her, the thought resurrecting itself in my mind. “I’ll say I did this.”

At the mention of her mother’s name, Leighton gave me a pensive stare. “I have to tell you something else.”

“If it’s about your call to Professor Bright, you can save your breath. He called me not long after you took off. I know everything.”

Leighton lifted her heavy lashes. “Then you’ll understand what I have to show you.” Holding onto the trees for support, she stumbled past me. “Let’s go back to the car.”

Thirty minutes later, we sat in the front seat of Atwood’s wrecked sedan. The car was fucked up. I had no clue how she managed to start the damn thing, much less drive it. But I didn’t care about that—not while staring at the small black wristband laying on the seat between us. At first glance it looked just like one of those Fitbit bracelets worn by obsessed exercise fanatics.

Leighton ran her finger along the sleek band and smiled. “My dad was a detective. He told me all about how his department used to bust drug dealers. They’d plead out as informants, so he’d wire them and send them back into the lion’s den to get a confession.”

“This is a recording device?” I asked.

She nodded, an almost proud look crossing her face.

“Where the hell did you get something like that?”

“How do you think politicians get shit done?” Anticipating my next question, she cut me off. “You should know better than anyone that elected officials in this town are figureheads, Mateo. It’s their aides who run the show.”

Only one woman had been by Lilith’s side long enough to garner that kind of power.

“Jackie?”

“Jackie,” she confirmed, seemingly pleased with herself. “And believe me, I didn’t have to twist her arm, either. Although after the way we left things, I don’t think we’ll be seeing her again.”

As the rain beat against what was left of the windshield, I remembered the message Leighton left her mother. “Is this what that phone call to your mother was all about?”

She wasn’t expecting that. I could tell because she pawed at her throat, grasping for a symbol of security that wasn’t there. “How do you know about that?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Yes. I called her, Emilio, and Alex.” As if needing a replacement for her missing pendant, she picked up the wristband and twirled it between her fingers. “There’s only sixteen hours of battery life on this thing, so I had to kill three birds with one stone.”

“Obviously, something happened.”

“Yeah, Alex happened. I walked right into their trap.” Holding up the wristband, she waved it between us. “You know, this thing started the ball rolling today, but after everything went wrong, I forgot I even had it on. Kind of crazy, huh?”

“Leighton, every minute of the last eleven days have been crazy. Care to elaborate?”

“My mother always liked to think everyone was beneath her, but when it came down to it, she and Emilio shared the same fatal flaw.”

“Which is?”

“Pathological narcissism.” Her response sounded so clinical that I raised an eyebrow which she answered with a snort. “Neither of them could kill me without bragging in detail about what they’d done. And this?” she said, tapping the band against her other palm. “This recorded it all. It’ll condemn her, but...”

“But what?” I asked, noticing the pained expression in her eyes.

“Mateo, what if Stella’s hurt? What if—”

“Stop!” I yelled, maybe a bit too loud because she jumped, but I wouldn’t let her say the word, let alone think it. “We’ll find our little star, Leighton.”

Even as I heard myself make the promise, I wasn’t sure I believed it. I’d seen the sickness humans were capable of when it came to children firsthand.

My stomach churned with images as Leighton gasped, jumping and hitting the steering wheel with both hands. “That’s it!”

“What’s it?”

“Little star!” she screamed, her voice echoing inside the car.

Still lost in my own mind, I shook my head. “It’s just a nickname, it’s nothing—”

“No,” she interrupted, grabbing my arm in a fierce hold. “The rhyme, twinkle, twinkle, little star. Oh my God, Sarah said that. I thought she was just hysterical, but Stella and I sing that rhyme all the time.”

“I don’t get it. What does it mean?”

“Right before she passed out, Sarah said, ‘the circle of life.’”

“Like the song?”

“Exactly.” Letting go of my shirt, she flung her car door open. “I know where she is.”

A plain white sign was taped to the back door of Caliente, matching the one taped to the front. Leighton and I saw it as we circled the parking lot in my Tahoe, choosing to park in back for obvious reasons. It was scribbled in a female’s handwriting.

CLOSED INDEFINITELY DUE TO DEATH OF OWNER

Good news traveled fast.

By simple deduction, I figured they’d been posted by either Emilio’s wife or Amanda, and my money was on the wife. She wasn’t a stupid woman, and she sure as hell wasn’t blind to his years of infidelity.

Still, it was only eleven o’clock at night. The authorities must have worked fast on this one. Then again, Mayor Donovan was involved, so everything had probably been expedited at warp speed.

After ordering a few trusted soldiers to drive out to the train tracks and get rid of Atwood’s car, I tucked my phone in my back pocket and pulled my switchblade out of the other. As I went to work on the lock, Leighton paced behind me.

I cursed as the tip of my knife missed the angle I needed to pop the spring. Leighton’s pacing was getting out of control, so I got her talking to keep her focused.

“Tell me again why you think Stella is in here.”

“Sarah said, ‘the circle of life,’” she said, rubbing her chilled skin. “I thought she was hallucinating, but when you called Stella little star, I put it together with the rhyme, and it all made sense. Emilio said Sarah followed him and tried to stop him from taking her. I didn’t think about it at the time, but if she followed him, she knew where he took her.”

I stopped twisting the knife and glanced over my shoulder. “You figured all that out from a song title?”

She sighed. “Don’t you remember the night I got shitfaced?”

“Yeah, you kept calling Sarah, Simba and quoting The Lion King. I was told you even sang a really bad karaoke version of...”

“‘The Circle of Life,’” she said, her hands slamming onto her hips in satisfaction. “Stella is in there. You just have to get me in, and I’ll find her.”

“Well, you won’t have to wait long.” Holding the doorknob, I gave a sharp flick of my wrist and it clicked. “We’re in.”

Leighton tore past me in a blur of drenched denim and a lingering smell of charcoal, and I followed behind her. Even though her theory sounded plausible, I had my doubts. Emilio was an asshole, but he hadn’t lasted as long as he had in the cartel by being transparent. Hiding Stella inside Caliente would be too simple. If a man wanted something bad enough to kill for it, he wouldn’t turn around and just ...

Hide it in plain sight.

Just like Hector did.

Leighton almost ripped the stock room door off its hinges. “Stella? Stella, it’s Mommy. Are you here?”

After tearing the entire bar apart, we came up with nothing.

Leighton collapsed against the wall with her head in her hands. “I don’t get it. I know she’s in here.”

Or out.

“Maybe not.” Grabbing her hand, I dragged her outside where Emilio kept a locked storage shed tucked away near the back of the property.

Leighton pressed her face against the rusted metal door. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star...”

Neither of us breathed as a voice so faint I thought I imagined it floated by.

“How I wondow what you awe.”

Leighton’s knees buckled. “That’s her!” Tears rolled down her face, and she barreled into me. “Stella? Up above the world so high.”

The faint voice answered. “Wike a diamond in da sky.”

“Stand back,” I instructed, pulling my gun out.

She grabbed my arm. “No! You’ll hurt her.”

“I’m not going to shoot inside, Leighton. Just the lock. I’m done with this.”

“No guns.” Pulling my knife out of my back pocket, Leighton snapped it open and within a couple turns of her wrist, popped the lock. I didn’t have time to be impressed. Once she pushed the door open and flipped on the light, my world came crashing down around me.

A little girl in jeans and a pink shirt sat huddled near the back, her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her body looked just like Leighton’s did when I found her in the woods, but her face was like looking in a mirror.

Recognition registered in her beautiful brown eyes, and she scrambled to her feet. “Mommy!”

Leighton fell to her knees, scooping the little girl into her arms. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what Leighton would say. It hardly seemed like the time or place for a family reunion. As much as I wanted to claim my child, I didn’t want Stella’s first memory of meeting her father to be in a dirty shed after being kidnapped.

But as usual, Leighton knew exactly what to say. Inching toward me, she placed a hand on my arm and smiled. “Stella, this is my friend, Mateo. Can you say hello?”

There were two moments in my life I knew I’d never forget: the first time I saw a girl in a yellow dress, and the first time I heard the voice of an angel.

“Hi.” She grinned, dimples sinking into both her cheeks.

I choked out the words lodged in my throat. “Hello, Stella. I’ve waited a long time to meet you.”

Ending the call, I glanced at Leighton. “Val’s contact at the morgue said he can only slow down the autopsy report by two days.”

“So, I’m officially dead for forty-eight more hours, huh?”

The smirk on Leighton’s face made me question our plan. After all she’d been through, maybe I needed to handle this myself.

“No,” she said firmly as if reading my mind. “I’m doing this. She’s not getting away with it.”

We didn’t speak again, riding the rest of the way in silence with Stella sleeping soundly in the back. Although I had no idea how she managed it, considering her uncle’s four-letter tirade when Leighton called him and explained everything that had happened.

By the time we got to Brody’s apartment, my whole body felt like a downed power line. Stella whined about spending the night away from her mother, but Leighton managed to soothe her with promises of candy and dolls and other shit I had no idea about. Eventually, she gave in, giving her uncle a hug and kiss before skipping off to his bedroom to watch television. Obviously, the two of them had a solid relationship.

A fact that both calmed and irritated me.

Brody watched Stella until she closed the door then turned his gaze toward us. His expression was dark and sullen. The ravaged man I’d left on his knees in that field was gone. In his place stood a man fractured by his own choices. The Brody Harcourt I’d come to know and call a friend was locked away behind a wall of nothing. He was lost, and I wasn’t sure he’d ever return.

A tear fell from the corner of Leighton’s eye as she wrapped her arms around her brother’s neck. For whatever reason, he couldn’t hug her back, and my heart broke for them when I saw Leighton die a little inside.

“I’m going to fix everything,” she whispered in his ear. “My best attack is a surprise attack.”

Brody stared at the wall. “It shouldn’t have gotten this far. I should’ve protected both of you.”

I’d seen her tortured enough for one day. Stepping in, I took her by the hand. “They’re ready for us. We have to go, mi amor.”