I moved my head around to indicate the girls and kept going.
“You don’t know us, but we’ve all been through a ton of shit. Now, you can force us to endure more trauma, and that’d suck, and it’ll be hard, but we’ll survive. We’ll get through. We’ve done it before. All of us. We’ll do it again. Though it’d save a lot of time and a lot of money on therapy if you’d just give me my phone, and yours, so I can handle this for you.”
“I’m feelin’ you. I think I like you. You got spirit. And no matter what people think about me, I don’t get off on hurting folks. At least not folks who didn’t do dick to me,” Cisco replied. “But you gotta understand why I won’t do that.”
“I don’t,” I retorted. “You want that gun. I want out of here. I want my friends out of here. And I want a Textual.”
His head jerked on “Textual,” but I just kept talking.
“So you promise to let us out of here, I’ll get you that gun.”
He started to shake his head, so I kept at him.
“I get shit is real for you. You’ve made shit real for me and my girls. Let’s all breathe a little easier. Just untie one hand. I’m not asking for privacy. I’m not requesting the use of all my limbs. I’m good with the phone. I do one-handed all the time. This may affect my car insurance, but even if I’ve had a few bust-ups, I’ve never dropped a call.”
Cisco held my eyes.
I returned the gesture.
“You can get me that gun?” he asked.
My heart jumped as hope flared.
I nodded, tried not to do it fervently, just confidently, and he watched me do it.
He didn’t take his gaze off me when he said, “Get her bag.”
Yes!
“Mine’s the little brown one,” I called when one of the men moved.
It wouldn’t be that easy, I knew it wouldn’t, but I didn’t like how much harder it got when Cisco tipped his head to the other guy and that guy approached Pepper at my side.
I turned my head to watch him do this and my throat closed automatically against the bile racing up it when he pointed his gun at her head.
She emitted a whimper.
I started breathing in short spurts through my nose.
“So, you know,” Cisco began, and I looked back to him, “I’ll be listening, and if I feel you’re gonna fuck me, you’ll have her brains all over that nerdy shirt.”
“I’m not gonna fuck you,” I whispered.
He cocked his head to the side. “You’re not a lot like your dad or your brother.”
I pointed out the obvious. “I’m the black sheep in the family.”
“You’re not scared?” he asked.
“I’m terrified,” I admitted. “I’m also a survivor.”
“Mm,” he hummed, watching me closely as the door opened. “Yeah, I think I like you,” he decided.
Great.
The guy that came back in untied one of my hands and gave me my phone.
“Speaker,” Cisco grunted.
I nodded.
Then I went to Favorites, called Mag and hit speaker.
He answered with a clipped, “Evie. Hang tight. We’re—”
“Hey,” I cut him off quickly. “You’re on speaker, honey. I’m fine. The girls are fine. Everything’s fine. Just back off. I’ve got something worked out with Cisco.”
He sounded incredulous, and maybe a little freaked, when he asked, “What?”
“I’ve got something worked out with Cisco and he’s got, uh…wherever we are wired to blow with land mines outside and stuff. So, you know, just stay safe, stand down and I’ll call you in a bit with directions of where to pick us up.”
“Evie—”
“Be quiet and stand down, Mag,” I snapped. “I have it covered. Just be quiet and listen for your phone. Listen to your phone. I’ll call you.”
I hoped he was now listening to me.
Really listening to me.
“Mag?” he asked.
Okay, he was listening to me. I never called him Mag. I thought of him as Mag, but when his name was in my mouth, he was Danny.
I didn’t exactly know what I was communicating with that, I just wanted to catch his attention and make him really hear me.
“Quiet. Listen,” I said. “Is Axl all right?”
“Yeah, he’s right here with me.”
Thank you, God.
“We’ll be out soon, and I’ll call,” I finished.
I touched the screen, but I didn’t disconnect the call and I hoped like all hell that Mag didn’t say anything, which would mean his words coming through the speaker, because I wanted to get Pepper back to Juno. I wanted the girls to get the lead out and give the guys a shot.
And I wanted to go home to Mag.
Quickly, I put my phone facedown on my thigh and held my hand out for Cisco’s phone.
It was shaking.
I didn’t think this was bad. I wasn’t a trained operative. My hand was going to shake. He’d expect that.