Page 50 of Pretty Lies

“How Luis knew you were there? Where was Jennika? Or why you stayed longer at a place to collect a debt when you know to get in and out? These are the kind of questions he should ask considering that’s the shit keeping you safe when you work. You wanna keep doing it; he’s trying to let you, but—”

“How pissed is he?”

J eh’d under his breath. “About what you’d expect.”

“I only wanted to see what kind of info I might be able to pull about Luis. I had Cory there, right?”

“Yeah, but what if he hadn’t been there, Della? Shit.”

“Well, we’re never going to know, right?” she shot back. “I apparently can’t handle anything myself or even try.”

“Hey—”

“Just … let’s not and say we did,” she muttered, turning back to stare at the items hanging on the bedroom wall.

Not the bedroom she should be using, but …

Della surveyed the photographs on the wall of the hallway in Cory’s bedroom. The hallway outside led to the other bedroom and the bathroom. Which was currently closed with the sound of water running from behind the door. Cory headed straight for the shower after stepping out on the veranda for a blunt while he made the calls he needed to.

She almost joined him.

For the smoke.

Not the shower.

Although, she might like that, too.

God.

She needed to stop.

“I just want to know why you did that when you know we’re handling it?” J asked, bringing her back to the topic at hand.

“Because something isn’t right with this—Luis. I wanted to figure out what it was because everybody else is just worried about keeping an eye on me.”

It took her brother a second. Then, another.

“What do you mean?”

“Luis. This. Something doesn’t fit.”

She couldn’t put her finger on it and didn’t know where to start looking.

“Della,” her brother murmured.

“What?”

“You don’t know what we’re looking at. We haven’t told you. You think we haven’t noticed shit isn’t right with everything happening?”

She swallowed hard. The fucking mafia. It never let a woman in.

“Listen, I gotta go,” J said. “Keep your head down—we’ll meet up with Dad tomorrow and whatever else.”

She didn’t know if Cory mentioned he brought her to his place. At the moment, she also didn’t care to mention it herself.

“Sure,” she replied.

What else could she say?