"Take a walk outside." Garrett was already moving. He went through the broken door frame without rushing, without drama, and the sound of his boots on the gravel outside was steady and even, and faded in about four steps into the general silence of the desert night. Corey stood up from his stool. "What does that mean?
Is Torres coming here? Does he know we're here?" "Sit down," Bobby said. "I'm not going to sit down if some guy named Torres is," Corey. Leo put a hand on his cousin's arm.
Sit down. Corey sat down. His knee was bouncing under the counter. Dave Pelman had put his coffee mug down and was very still at the far end of the counter holding himself with the rigid composure of a man who has already used up his surprise quota for the evening and is now running on pure nerve.
Harold had come back to the kitchen doorway again, skillet back in hand, apparently having decided that was his weapon and he was committed to it. Brenda had put both hands flat on the counter and was looking at Mike with an expression that was not fear. She'd burned through fear twenty minutes ago, but was the sharp, clear-eyed look of a woman assessing how much worse her night was going to get. "How real is this?" she said.
Mike looked at her directly. He didn't give her a soft answer. "It might be nothing," he said. "Torres might be on the other side of the county running an errand.
But if Velasquez sent him out before Sully's call and Torres is heading this direction, we want to know before he arrives, not after." "And if he arrives," Brenda said, "then the situation gets managed," Mike said, "the same way everything else tonight has gotten managed." Brenda held his gaze. Then she straightened up, moved to the end of the counter, reached under it, and came up with a Louisville Slugger that had the two strips of athletic tape around the handle. She set it on the counter beside her. Not dramatically, just put it there the way you put a tool where it belongs.
"I've had this under there for 6 years," she said. "Never used it. Tonight seems like a good night to have it accessible." Bobby looked at the bat. He looked at Brenda.