The truth of it was, they all answered to Diego Serrano now.

They were all traitors, one way or another.

—

DIEGO WAS TALKING TO HIM, but Martino was trying not to listen.

Diego had put on leather gloves over his gnarled hands.

Martino knew what was coming next, even if he’d only ever seen it on video.

Diego said something about his name, Tiburón, and how he was going to enjoy pulling this baby shark’s teeth out, one by one.

The men behind him laughed, including Gualterio. Martino had already seen the pliers spread out on the aluminum foil, along with the other tools.

Gualterio’s day would come soon, too. He’d have his own chance in this chair.

Diego Serrano was a sudden eclipse, blocking out the sun, and he turned the whole world black beneath him.

—

MARTINO TRIED TO REMEMBER the last time he’d seen his father, the last conversation they’d had, but couldn’t.

He had no idea what they had talked about or where they’d been.

Instead, he remembered the cool touch of Xavier’s skin against his own, the feel of the man’s mouth against his—the way they’d held each other in the dark beneath the sheets, and how it had been as safe as anywhere he could remember.

He drifted back to the ocean view at Manzanillo and the color of the water there—all those impossible sunlit colors, and the towering blue waves crashing against the white sand.

He tried to imagine himself sitting on one of the planes he could hear crossing overhead, flying somewhere, anywhere.

Para volar.

It was the same dream a boy named Chayo Lozano Vidal had held on to when Martino’s men had attacked his bus in Ojinaga, although Martino would never know that.

The great noise of those jet engines, and the beach waves in his memory, was not enough to drown out the laughter from Diego and Gualterio and the others, or the metallic coughing sound of the chainsaw.

Martino closed his eyes and put himself on that plane and was finally flying away, as Diego Serrano bent over him and made the first of many cuts.

—

TWO DAYS LATER, the video was uploaded to the internet.

The whole world watched.

VII

DUSK

America and Danny were supposed to meet Marco and Vianey—sort of a double date—but the other couple hadn’t arrived yet, so they waited outside the ice cream place, at the same small tables Danny and Zita had sat at a month ago.

That day, America and Sheriff Cherry had been walking with Fox Uno across the street, watching their reflections in the store windows.