Page 75 of Tiny's Testament
“We… we didn’t take her! Nobody took your girl. We heard she left man, she left on her own…”
The lie is pathetic. And it’s the exact wrong one to tell me. I press harder. The tile beneath him fractures under my weight. His scream scrapes the walls.
He sobs so hard his breath hitches. “I’ll talk, man. I’ll talk… just don’t… don’t…”
I lean in, letting my shadow swallow him whole. “Talk is cheap. Lies are cheaper.”
“I swear… I'm not lying!”
I press harder, making him wheeze and shudder under my foot. “You want to try that again?” I murmur, low and cold.
Fear punches the truth out of him faster than the pressure ever could. “Okay, okay. Shit… please, okay! It wasn’t us, it wasn’t… it was a crew we run drops with! Street crew on Yucca.Snake tattoos, shaved heads, they grabbed her, they had a black van, no plates… oh God, don’t… don’t…”
He barely gets the last word out before he starts praying into the floor. I walk out before the twins finish him.
The night feels heavier with every mile we ride. The air grows thick with exhaust and desperation, as if the city itself knows something terrible is unfolding beneath its skin. Every time I slow down enough to think, Syvannah’s face flashes in my mind. Her uncertainty, her soft confusion when she caught me beating the courier, the way she seemed to be searching for the version of me she trusted.
And every time that image surfaces, the rage inside me claws higher.
By the time we hit the third location, I’m vibrating with it. Word has passed by now that I’m on the hunt, looking for my woman, and they better be fucking terrified.
The building is a two-story warehouse that looks abandoned from the street, but the sounds of low voices and hurried shuffling leaking through the rusted metal tell another story.
I shove the door open with my shoulder. Hinges scream. Harsh fluorescent lights buzz overhead, fighting a losing battle with the shadows. A man looks up from a card table stacked with drugs and cash, and every muscle in his face twists into fear.
He tries to bolt toward a side exit, but he doesn’t make it. I grab him by the back of his cut and slam him into the wall hard enough to rattle dust from the ceiling. The fluorescent lights above us flicker, stuttering over his terrified expression.
“Don’t… don’t. I don’t know anything about no girl, man, please!” The lie hits like gasoline on a flame.
I drag him down the wall until his knees hit concrete. “You try that line again, I’ll tear your jaw off your face.”
Aloiki steps in behind me. His expression is cautious, not afraid of me but afraid of what’s happening to me.
“You on high boil, Tiny,” he murmurs. “You gotta slow before you burn through yourself. Plus, your coffee tastes like shit.”
I press the man harder into the wall. The metal groans. “He’s lying.”
“Maybe,” Aloiki says softly. “But you gotta give him one sec to tell da truth.”
I loosen my grip a fraction. Just enough for the bastard to breathe.
The man’s chest heaves, sweat pouring down his temples. “Okay, okay. Someone took her. There was a van, yeah? Blacked out. We heard it was a pickup job. Something planned.”
Planned. Not random. Not opportunistic. Not accidental.
My vision narrows dangerously. “And where did they take her?” My voice shakes, not with fear, but with something brittle, something close to breaking.
“I… I don’t know… please, please…” His eyes dart desperately, searching for mercy that doesn’t exist here.
A slow shadow moves along the wall behind him.
The Twins.
One circles left. The other circles right. Two wolves are closing in on wounded prey.
“You know what your problem is?” one asks lightly.
“You lie too much,” the other finishes.
