Blake’s goon came closer to her, and as she swung the gun in his direction, Blake went for the weapon. She was good at her job, but he was lightning quick. He struck the back of her hand with one of his, while also hitting the inside of her wrist with his other hand. This dialed the gun away from him, and then, with a quick twist of his wrist, he was able to disarm her and obtain her weapon.

He leveled it at her chest but did not fire.

“Sasha, the lies can stop now. There’s no need for them anymore. It’s time for your investigation, your deceit, to come to an end. You’re the one who gave up the location of the condominium that was raided earlier today, aren’t you?”

She said nothing but quietly assessed her situation, looking for a way to turn the tables on him.

“I’m going to give you a choice,” he said.

“What choice is that?”

Blake commanded the man to lead her back to the office building, but when he approached her, she grabbed his arm, swept her leg forward, and took him down with a sideways reap. As big as he was, he hit the concrete hard, colliding with a satisfying thud.

She spun toward Blake, but he fired at the ground beside her foot.

She froze.

“That’s enough of that. The next bullet will shatter your kneecap. Now, go on. Back to the office. There’s something you need to see. It has to do with a friend of yours and a very important decision you’re about to make.”

57

It didn’t take long for Angela to verify that I was on the right track.

“Yes,” she said. “That location—it looks like three of your victims visited it within a week or so of their subsequent deaths. Kewley as well. What’s located there?”

“I’m about to find out.”

I exited the car and scanned the neighborhood but saw no sign of Calvin.

It was a crime-riddled area, and tension between the lower-income residents here and law enforcement had heightened over the last few years and resulted in fewer cops patrolling the streets since they didn’t want to be the next star of an arrest video on YouTube. The ones who did come around typically just drove through and didn’t get out of their cruisers unless absolutely necessary—and that only exacerbated the problem, resulting in even more crime.

And now, I had the wrong skin color to be in this gang-controlled neighborhood at this time of night.

But so did Calvin.

On the phone earlier, he’d said, “We must be ready for anything,” and I couldn’t imagine that he would have said that unless he was planning on being here somewhere.

I tried his number again to no avail and decided it was possible he’d beaten me here.