If you don’t, it will turn itself into something new and leave you right where you started.
Honey loved that about New York. She loved how you could go days without seeing the same faces and places. I know why she is like that, though. Why she tries to fly under the radar and not be noticed by anyone for too long.
Her mother.
That woman is a goddamned thorn in my side. She’s been pulling strings and wrecking Honey’s peace since the day she pushed her out. I am going to end that.
“It’s not romance. It’s business. I don’t like it when people fuck with what’s mine. Honey is mine. I’m going to get her back,” I say, eyes still on the city. My voice is steady, cold even, but I let it be that way. I have to. There is no letting the man in that Honey had coaxed into being. The one that was warm and willing to give her the white picket fence and the dog. The one that wanted to remember how to walk in the light at her side.
Lightning flickers across the sky and the patter of raindrops starts to tap against the glass of the windows.
“Boss, I-” Addie starts and then she stops. “What happened?” she whispers.
“Honey’s gone,” I say.
“What did my brother do?”
I look away from the window. “He fell in with the wrong people, but you know that, don’t you?”
She nods and her eyes water. Taylor comes to stand beside her and puts a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
“Yeah. I-I, Law, I’m sorry. I didn’t-”
“It’s done,” I say, cutting her off. I know she is going to tell me what I already know. That she is sorry and she didn’t know. I can’t hear her say that.
“I’m going to handle it.”
“How?” Addie whispers. “What can I do?”
“You don’t do anything. If the police come looking for Tony, you tell them you haven’t seen him. That’s it. If any bookies come looking for him, you tell them Lawson Sokolov is the one to talk to. They’ll fuck off.”
I may not be on the streets anymore, but people know well enough to leave my people alone. If there is a balance to be paid, I’ll handle it.
“S-sure, okay.”
Charlaine hums and sits up. “Got good news for you, lover boy,” she says, pointing her cigarette at me. “You got a hit on your email.”
“What is it?”
“There’s a very exclusive little meeting happening at The Cairn this weekend and it looks like your woman is the guest of honor.”
“When?” I ask, already walking towards her. She is watching her screen. Wherever she has seen the meeting is right there. I have to see it. It doesn’t matter if it is just a mention of Honey. Anything that tells me what she is doing is important to me.
“Saturday night,” she says, turning her computer around so that I can see. “”Looks like midnight, because who needs sleep?”
My eyes scan the screen and I freeze when I see what is there. “Cordially invited to…” I shake my head. “It’s not her birthday,” I say. “Honey’s birthday is in September.” That is nearly four months away. Whatever Zeus is claiming to be Honey’s Birthday is wrong.
“Are you sure?” Charlaine asks.
“I know her down to her bones,” I reply. “It’s not her fucking birthday.”
Except, the announcement on the screen says otherwise. It is an email that has been sent to me along with every other VIP member of the club announcing Honey’s birthday, but it isn't the date or even the birthday invitation that has me staring.
ALL ARE INVITED TO THE JOYOUS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF
HONEY VLAHOS.
Honey Vlahos. Not Martinez.
