Too many questions. Tera watched and waited a little longer, then decided it was time for answers. She got out of her Buick and approached Ruben’s Tundra. His window was open. She removed her pistol and locked the muzzle to his head.

“Ruben Osterfeld. You should have stayed getting your ass kicked in the Octagon.”

“Jesus Christ.” Ruben flinched away from the gun, but Tera kept it in place. “What the fuck?”

“My thoughts exactly. What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. I was told to be here.”

“By Johan? You’re working for him now?”

“Sometimes.”

“And what’s he doing here?”

“He didn’t say,” Ruben blurted. His face was strained and greasy with sweat. “I’m just the lookout.”

“Okay, big boy,” Tera said. “Get out of the truck.”

“I didn’t do shit.”

“Get out now. I’m warning you.” Tera tapped the barrel against Ruben’s skull. “I haven’t shot anybody in a long time and I kind of miss the feeling.”

Rafael Montecino raised three tough boys and one very tough girl. He did it alone. His wife—a Swedish dancer, from whom Tera had inherited her striking hair—had walked out when Tera was five. She’d moved to New York City to try her luck on Broadway. The last Tera had heard, she was working as a high-class escort in Chicago.

Tera grew up in Carver City, a bleak, mob-run town in Western Pennsylvania, where tough was all anyone knew. Her old man was no exception. He was an amateur boxer—a Pennsylvania Golden Gloves champion—before becoming a cop, and he taught Tera everything he knew about how to land a punch, take a punch, and, most importantly, how to get up off the canvas. He arranged backyard bouts with her older brothers, who gave her no leeway; they hit her as meaningfully as they hit each other.

It was a bitter upbringing, but not unusual for that time, that place. Tera found respite in her schoolwork. She played piano, wrote short stories, and took photography classes. She also started kickboxing, because she wanted to please her father, and because the thrill of the fight was in her blood. Tera was made for it, too, with her quick hands and long frame. She won the Allegheny Kickboxing Classic three years in a row, and reached the final of the All-State Championship, only to be beaten by a force of nature by the name of Lola Bear.