Page 272

“I am sorry,” I say.

His face changes. “Don’t be.”

“You loved it.”

“I still do. That doesn’t go anywhere.” He rubs his palm against his thigh. “Kansas City was real. I didn’t retire because San Antonio said no, and I didn’t do it because of you.”

“I did not think you did.”

“I watched,” I say. “You did not stand up for the last draw.”

“Wasn’t mine.”

“It was yours for eighteen years.”

“Yeah. And then it was Ryan’s.” He looks past me, toward the window. “He set his feet like I do. Won it clean. I sat there with my stick across my knees and waited to be mad about it.”

“And?”

“Still waiting.”

I let that sit.

“I spoke to Silas today. I made him a proposal.”

He waits, and I can see the questions arrive, and he asks only one of them.

“How’d it go?”

“He is sending it to legal. The pilot would be here. In the arena.”

Colt folds his arms. “You took the deal.”

“I accepted the condition.”

“That’s what I said.”

“No. It is not.”

That gets the first real smile, small and familiar. I look at the piano instead.

“He said if you called him about it, he would kill it.”

Colt’s arms drop. “I’m not calling Silas.”

“I know.”

I breathe in. This is the part I could not type.

“I came here because I have something to say before you do.”

“Okay.”

“You were wrong to call the boy’s father after Tova asked you not to.”

His jaw shifts. “Yeah.”

“You were wrong to hide it from me.”