Page 40 of South of Justice

She breathed in through her nose, slow and controlled, forcing her pulse rate down to something she could control. This wasn’t a new fear. It was a remembered one.

The café door swung open. Ryan stepped out, adjusting the strap of his duffel. He looked at her for a second, just long enough to read the way she wasn’t moving. “You good?”

Lucía gave a short nod. “Just the heat.”

He squinted at her. “You were staring at nothing.”

“I was thinking,” she said. “That’s allowed, isn’t it?”

Ryan didn’t answer right away. Just shifted his weight and handed her a bottle of water. “Drink something. We’ve got about a mile to that hostel, and no one’s offering rides.”

Lucía took the bottle but didn’t twist the cap. “We’ll be fine.”

“Didn’t say we wouldn’t be,” he muttered, stepping off the curb. The sun caught the line of sweat darkening his collar.

She followed, keeping pace beside him, her fingers clenched too tightly around the bottle.

He didn’t ask again. But she could feel his eyes flick toward her every few steps, like he was trying to read something in her body language.

Lucía kept her gaze forward, but her thoughts stayed behind.

In the dust. In the shadow. In the shape of a man she hadn’t seen in years, but who never really left.

TWENTY-SEVEN

NINE YEARS AGO

The call camein just after lunch. “SeñorEsquivel would like to see you in his office,” said the receptionist.

Lucía blinked at the phone, heart skipping. “Now?”

“Yes,señorita. Right away.”

She stood too fast, nearly knocking her chair off balance. Her blouse clung at the back from hours of stress-sweat. She hadn’t touched her lunch.

Across the room, Mateo looked up from his screen. Their eyes met for the first time in days. She couldn’t read his expression.

She smoothed her skirt and walked to the elevator.

The top floor was always too cold. A calculated chill designed to discourage lingering. Lucía’s heels echoed down the corridor. She could hear her own breathing.

This was it. This was the moment she was going to get fired from the only job she’d ever wanted. The only job that had ever challenged her or had felt like it was going to lead to the life she wanted. The life she’d worked so hard for. All because she’d refused to sleep with her boss, a man whom she’d bothfantasized about and was attracted to, but who had asked for something she just wasn’t prepared to give.

When had her life become so fucking complicated? So out of her own control? And how on earth could she gain it back?

Javier’s door was open. He was standing by the window, facing out over México City. The skyline shimmered with late sunlight, steel and glass humming with distance.

“Come in,” he said, without turning.

Lucía obeyed.

“You’ve been working late,” he said.

She didn’t answer.

He turned. Dressed, as always, in casual authority. He gestured to the chair opposite his desk.

She sat.