KELLY OPENED her eyes and saw me staring back at her. Coco had beaten her to within an inch of her life, breaking an arm and a leg. Her face was swollen from the fight. I was sure she had done her best, but she was overmatched. It was difficult to look at her without cringing. I had to be a trooper for her sake. Yet underneath my smiling exterior lay a smoldering fire burning at a thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
“How you doin’, Kelly?”
“Glad to be alive,” she mumbled through swollen lips. “Glad to be alive.”
“I’m glad you’re alive, too.” I took her hand. “I’m sorry about Simon.”
“I had no idea he was the Rapist, Phoenix. None at all. I feel like such an idiot. I’m an FBI agent, for Christ’s sake.”
“How could you have known? Some people are good at pretenses.” I changed the subject. “We found Father Reynolds. His balls were purple.”
“At least he went out happy,” Kelly said, trying to add levity to a grim situation. “She’s really something else.”
“Why didn’t she kill you?” I felt funny asking the question, as if I weren’t glad she was alive. But I had to ask. Coco Nimburu was killing just about everyone who crossed her path. Yet Kelly was alive.
“She said you were going to need a friend when this is over. Doing this to me was her way of being merciful.”
“What did she mean by that, Kelly?” Then it occurred to me. She was going after my family. I called the safe house but no one answered. “I gotta go, Kelly. She’s after my family!”