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I could hear what he wasn’t saying: everyone knew except for him.
Was that what this was? Him and Nix went out to pretend things were normal, like what they did before all this shit went down?
“But back to why you’re here, in front of me,” Jett said. “No, I don’t know where Giselle is. I haven’t heard anything. The entire Black Hand will be on the lookout, so if they find anything, hear anything, I’ll let you know.”
The words left me before I could think better of them: “It was Miguel.”
That caused Jett to cock his head and blink at me. “What now?”
“It was Miguel. Trust me on this. Miguel and Rocco are conspiring to get on the Hand, and they’re not above using blackmail to do it.”
“Okay, sure, but what does Giselle have to do with that?”
I wanted to trust Jett. I did. But there were parts of the story that weren’t mine to tell. What Miguel and Rocco did to Giselle three years ago, for instance, not to mention the fact that Miguel had wanted me to kill her not so long ago.
“Having Giselle gone unites them. I don’t know Rocco that well, but I do know Miguel, so I can honestly say he will stop at nothing until he’s on the Hand, and once he’s on it, he will bide his time and plan in secret. He’s not the kind of man who can share power like that. He wants it all for himself.”
Jett didn’t address that. He instead asked, “Why are you here, Zander?”
I let out a sigh, though I did not break eye contact while doing so. “I need a place to stay. Miguel knows where I’m staying, and I don’t trust him not to send men after me. I… may have threatened him earlier.”
That got Jett to laugh. Like, really laugh. A hearty, genuine laugh that only served to make me angrier. “You threatened him? Ain’t he your boss? That’s funny, man. Real funny. What makes you think I’ll help you out?”
“I know how Miguel works. I know how he thinks. I can tell you, or anyone else on the Hand, whatever you want to know about him. I just need a place to stay… and your help in finding Giselle.”
Jett ran a hand through his hair. “How do I know that whatever you tell us won’t be lies fed to you from the big man himself? How can I trust anything you say, Zander, when you work for—or used to work for—the man who thinks he can blackmail his way onto the Hand?”
“Because I love Giselle, and I will do anything it takes to find her.”
Jett stared at me after that for a long while. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, whether I’d done right by telling him the truth, but it didn’t matter. I was out of options. I had no one else to turn to. Luca wasn’t answering my calls. I didn’t know if I could trust Cade or any of the other would-be heirs. That left the current heirs of the Black Hand. I hoped I’d said enough to convince him to help me.
“Tell you what,” Jett finally spoke, breaking his silence, “I’ll make a few calls, see what I can do. Why don’t you go down to the bar and have a drink, eh? Loosen up a bit.”
How the fuck could I loosen up while Giselle was out there, in God knew whose clutches, surviving God knew what, while I was here, twiddling my fucking thumbs? Or she could be dead, and we could be on track to finding her body.
God, please let her be alive. Please.
But I didn’t say any of that. I only gave him a nod and got up. I left the balcony and headed down the stairs. I wandered to the bar, standing next to a hunched over guy staring hard at the mirrored wall behind the more expensive alcohols near the bartender.
Nixon Hawke. Or should I say, Nixon Jameson, since that’s who he was.
Though Nixon hadn’t been upstairs with us, though he had no idea what Jett and I had talked about, he somehow knew. He leaned toward me and said, “You’ll find her.” Just three words, that’s it. Kind of creepy, especially since he didn’t even look at me before saying it.
The strangest thing was, he sounded so sure of it. Or maybe that was just the music’s loudness overshadowing everything else. The truth was, he had no idea if I’d find her, or what state she’d be in, alive or dead. No one knew, and that’s why I felt like I was losing my mind with the stress and the anxiety that came with the unknown.
I didn’t want to drink. I didn’t want to be in this stupid club any longer, so I said, “Tell Jett I’ll be waiting outside.” And then I pushed away from the bar and did just that, leaving the club and its loud, sweaty air behind.
I pulled out my phone as I headed to my car, my eyes on my surroundings all the while. I called Luca again, and big shocker, he didn’t answer. I couldn’t help but wonder why he was purposefully ignoring my calls, why he wouldn’t answer the goddamned phone.
This time, when it went to voicemail, I decided to leave a message. Screw it. I’d already walked away from Miguel knowing he’d come after me sooner or later, so might as well.
“Luca, it’s Zander. Listen, I don’t know what you know, but in case you’re unaware, your father and Miguel are working together. They had something to do with Giselle’s disappearance, I know it. I just can’t prove it yet. I’m going to find her, with your help or without it, so just… if you hear anything, call me back.”
I ended the call and sighed, turning to rest my ass on the hood of my car as I angled my head up to the sky.
A world of night, the stars twinkling in the cloudless sky a reminder of how small we were, how insignificant our problems were in the grand scheme of things. Giselle was a star, and I was just an ant in comparison. It’s why I had to find her, one way or another. She’d been used her whole life, but she deserved the whole fucking universe.
I’d give it to her, even if it was the last thing I ever did. I’d give her the whole fucking universe… or I’d burn this city to the ground in her memory.
