The Arrangement Anthology 2(135)

“Are you serious?” I blink at Sean. “With everything that’s going on, that’s what you think is messed up here?” Sean doesn’t answer. Instead, he looks away.

In two steps, Marty crosses the room and shoves Sean aside, trying to take my hand.

I push further back into the chaise and away from him. “Don’t touch me. Either of you.” Fear taints my voice and tightens my chest. Every muscle in my body is strung tight, ready to snap.

Marty’s golden eyes look away as he gives up and steps back. “Avery, I’d never hurt you. You just beat the shit out of me and I didn’t even fight back.”

Fear gives way to anger. It drips down my spine in a wave of hot pain. Working my jaw, I finally manage to spit out the words. “I trusted you! I trusted both of you and told you everything. You,” I say to Sean, “only tell lies, and Marty—you’re just as bad.”

“You don’t understand.” Marty says, looking horrified. He glances at Sean, silently pleading for help. “I can’t say no. I can’t tell them I won’t do it. It’s not an option and now I’m in this so deep I’ll be lucky if I come out alive. Thanks to Sean, I might—we might all survive.”

Marty steps toward me again, careful not to touch me. He kneels and places his hand on the arm of the couch. Eye to eye, he says, “Avery, they’ve been aiming for you. The hotel room, the pilot, the other dead hookers—every murder was an attempt on you. They think you know something, and they won’t stop until they either get what they want or you’re out of the way.”

“What are you talking about?” At first I have no clue, but then I realize what this is about. Somewhere in the back of my mind I’ve finally connected the dots and, consequently, terror turns my stomach into knots. “Who wants me dead?”

Sean finally speaks. “Victor Campone.”





Chapter 6

“What?” My voice squeaks. That name brings a fresh dose of fear, dousing me.

Sean explains, “Your mother got into some serious shit with his men when she was younger. Your father protected her as long as he could. The night they died, you were supposed to be in that car with them. They found your family and once they had you in their sights, decided their most effective course of action was to eliminate you all. But you stayed home that night and they didn’t know. Someone told them there were three people in the car. Someone lied straight to Campone’s face for you. That same someone also pretended to be gay to get near you.”

Shocked, I gape at Marty, unable to speak. Marty looks away, holding his hands behind his back. Campone is a drug lord and into shit so dark it makes night look like day. My stomach feels like it’s suspended in a free-fall.

I glance at Sean. “And what about you?”

“What about me?” Sean stands rigid next to Marty, who has resumed his frantic pacing. Marty stops and watches Sean. They’re both on edge, tense and ready to fight.

I laugh coldly and shake my head. I’m so stupid. Never in a million years did I think that someone killed my parents. They weren’t murdered, they were in a car crash. It was one of those freak things that happens without purpose. I should have been in the car that night, but I had bitched to Mom that I didn’t want to go. I’m supposed to be in the ground with them.

Swallowing hard, I find my words and say to Sean, “It wasn’t a coincidence that you stumbled upon me that day when my car got jacked? It wasn’t by chance that you were at the diner? It wasn’t just happy luck that you were my first client at Miss Black’s either, was it?” That’s what Gabe has been trying to tell me all along, but I couldn’t see it. That’s why he hates Sean—he knows all this and probably more. I spit out my suspicion before I lose my nerve. “You were using me to find out whatever Campone wanted? You were just trying to get the information first, weren’t you?”

“Perhaps.” Sean stares at me with those intense blue eyes and his lips pressed into a hard, thin line.

I wish he’d say something. I wish he’d wrap his arms around me and tell me this is all a horrible joke, because I can’t accept what it really means. Lip trembling, I force out the question. “So Marty cares about me, and you don’t? You were using me to get what you wanted. Say it, Sean. I know it’s true. You used everything I told you against me.” In that instant, I think of the hospital. Of everything I told him, everything we did. “You even pretended to be in pain at the hospital when I kissed you. It was all fake, all of it.”