“Was wondering if she’s dead yet or if you’re the long and slow type.”
“She’s taken care of.”
He gave me a look. “She better be, Brooks.”
“We done now?”
“We’re done. Good luck.”
I turned and left, pushing back out through the door.
I got into the car and started the engine, pulling out into traffic.
This fucking guy. Dante just wasn’t letting this girl thing go, and I didn’t understand why. My decision not to hurt women hadn’t been much of a problem before, so I didn’t understand why he gave a fuck now.
Unless it was because of what he’d said. Unless they were thinking about promoting me, but Dante didn’t think I could be trusted yet. He wanted me to prove that I cared more about the mafia than I did about my moral code.
That had to be it. I couldn’t think of any other reason why he was pressing now. Gian wanted to promote me, maybe to a local captain or some shit, but Dante didn’t trust me. Simple as that.
And now I was stuck finding these girls. I was willing to bet that Dante wanted me to kill them all, would be much happier getting all their heads in a bag than getting them back alive and unharmed.
I couldn’t let the girls go, but I couldn’t find them either. I wasn’t going to be the one to drag these girls back into captivity.
My problems were only getting fucking worse. Shit on top of shit.
And meanwhile, Emma was alive and well back in my apartment, and she was going to stay that way.
Fuck. I needed to find a way out of this, and fast, before Dante fucked everything up.
10
Emma
It felt strange sitting in Brooke’s apartment alone for so long. As I stared at the television, feeling numb and lost, I realized that staying in his apartment for just a few days was the longest I’d ever been away from home.
I had no home anymore, I had to remind myself. There was nowhere for me to go anymore, no home or father for me to return to. I didn’t have to worry about my father stealing my money anymore or vomiting all over himself in his sleep.
That was scary in itself. That was all I’d known for so long, all that misery and anger and misfortune. Now I had to figure out who I was outside that house and that relationship with my father. I had to learn what it meant to be a normal person again.
I heard the door handle turn and then push open. Brooks dragged himself into the apartment, grimacing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him, sitting up.
He grunted. “Nothing. Don’t you worry about it.”
That surprised me. His tone was short and gruff, and although he’d never exactly been a teddy bear to me, he’d never been short either.
“What’s the matter with you?” I asked.
He collapsed onto the couch next to me. “Nothing. Just this damn fucking bruise. And my fucking boss.”
“Had a bad day at the office, sweetie?”
That made him grin a bit. “Yeah, I did. Think you could rustle me up a little steak and a blowjob?”
“Get your own meat,” I said.
He sighed, kicking his legs out. “Is it too much for a man to expect his woman to cook dinner once in a while?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Your woman now, huh?”
“Just going with the domestic fantasy joke you set up.”
He lapsed into silence as I studied him again. I looked at the tattoos that curled up along his arms and disappeared into his tight black T-shirt. His eyes glanced at the television but drooped in exhaustion. I could sense a tension rolling off his body, like something had happened.
“Look, I know something’s up,” I said. “Just spit it out.”
He glanced at me. “You don’t want to know, Emma.”
“I’m stuck in this apartment,” I said, annoyed. “The least you can do is talk to me.”
He sighed. “Fine. Last night we were supposed to protect a shipment of girls.”
“Girls?”
“You know, Eastern European girls, addicted to drugs, forced to be hookers.”
“Human trafficking,” I said, surprised.
“Yeah, well, it’s not my usual shit. I got roped into it. Anyway, shit went bad obviously, since I got shot. During the mayhem, I let a group of girls escape.”
“How noble of you.”
He glared at me. “Look, I didn’t choose this. I didn’t want to get involved with that shit.”
“And yet you did. You have choices, you know.”
“I know that. Why do you think you’re alive and those girls are free?”
I looked at him for a second, surprised by his intensity. “Okay. Fine. So what happened today?”
He took a breath, relaxing. “My boss is suspicious of me, wants me to find those girls.”