Bow Down(149)

But now Dasha was captured and she was getting tortured. Dasha, that strong woman I barely knew, the woman I wanted to be so badly.

Caught and tortured.

“How?” I asked him.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It wasn’t my group that caught her. But right now, Cassidy, you should be pretty fucking worried.”

“I’m just a journalist,” I blurted out. “I’m just chasing a story.”

“You’re sniffing around where you don’t belong.”

“These are real people, Rafa. I’m trying to do some good.”

“And I’m trying to do the same thing.” He sighed, shaking his head. “How did you know about that whorehouse?”

“I’ve been interviewing people. I just followed some leads until I found it. I didn’t know the mob owned it.”

“Well, we do. Or at least we did before the Spiders came and stole from us.”

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“Whatever you intended, Cassidy, you’re in the middle of this now.”

“What’s going to happen to her?”

He shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

Fear lanced through my body. If a woman like Dasha could get caught and tortured, then what was stopping them from taking me? I was way in over my head, and I had nobody to protect me. I wasn’t even a full-time employee at the paper; I just took whatever assignments they had lying around. I was working on this human trafficking story on my own.

Nobody could help me.

“What’s going to happen to me?”

“That’s a better question.” He topped off his drink and sipped it. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to you.”

“Rafa, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

“But you did. You got involved in this. And now it’s my job to take care of you.”

I felt a catch in my throat. “Take care of me?”

“Relax,” he said. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

I let out a breath.

“For now, at least,” he added. “But you need to make some promises.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Stop looking into this story,” he said. “Hell, stop looking into anything that could be remotely connected with the mob. Don’t call the cops. Don’t leave the city. Lie low and don’t make any sudden moves.”

“Okay,” I said. “Fine. I can do that.”

“I mean it, Cassidy. Don’t do a damn thing without checking with me first. And no more fucking lies.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. I had no clue why he seemed like he was helping me, but if it meant not getting killed or tortured, I was going to go along with it. “I’ll do whatever you need. Just don’t hurt me.”

He sighed. “I’m not going to hurt you. Okay? I promise. But the men I work for, they fucking might, so you need to listen to me.”

“I will,” I said softly.

“If you go to the cops, you’ll die. If you leave town, you’ll die. If you do anything remotely stupid, you’ll die. So sit tight and do nothing.” He stood up and finished his drink. “Thanks for the whisky.”

“Sure,” I said, my mind a buzzing blank.

He walked over to the door, and I stood up to watch him go. As he pulled it open, he looked back at me.

“It’ll be fine. Just do what I say.”

“Okay.”

He gave me a short look and then disappeared back out into the hallway.

I stared at the closed door and then ran over to it. I locked every lock and then collapsed onto the floor, unable to stop the fear from overwhelming me.

I took a deep breath. I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to be some blubbering idiot who needed to be rescued.

But then again, I did need to be rescued. The mob wanted me dead, all because I had poked my nose where it didn’t belong. I’d thought I could help save the city, but instead I put myself in danger.

I had no clue why Rafa seemed to be helping me. He had clearly been sent to my apartment to hurt me, but he didn’t want to. Maybe it was because of what had happened between us. Or maybe he was just scaring me until I told him everything I knew.

I had no clue what his endgame was, or if there even was an endgame. All I knew was that I wanted to survive this. Getting killed over a story had never been part of my plan.

I felt numb and confused. I was just a normal girl trying to do some good in the world. Now I’d been thrust into something way bigger than me, something I could barely understand.

I felt cast adrift, and I hoped Rafa could keep me from drowning.





8





Rafa