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Chapter Fourteen – Delilah
“Are you sure she needs to be here for this?”
I can’t get a read on Jock. Sometimes he seems like a decent person—very busy, very no-nonsense, and probably way more violent than I need to know. But not a bad guy, per se.
Other times? I’m pretty sure he wishes Luca would let him kill me.
“I’m sitting right here,” I murmur. I mean, seriously. We’re talking schoolyard-level stuff here. Discussing me like I’m not in the room. What a child.
“Of course.” There’s a sarcastic little twist to his mouth, though, when he nods his head toward me. “No offense.” Yeah, right. But I’ll keep my cool. I’m not going to sink to that level.
Besides, there are other things to worry about. And they matter a lot more to me than this guy’s opinion ever will.
Luca only scowls at him, and I can’t pretend it doesn’t please me a little. “I asked Delilah to sit in with us in case she remembers anything that might be helpful.” He slides a glance my way. “Besides, this isn’t the time to fall back on rules like that. There’s no reason Delilah shouldn’t be here, since what we’re talking about involves her.”
“I’m worried that the guy you’re looking for is the one who beat my sister.” I can barely get the words out. It still doesn’t feel real, even though I can still smell the hospital. The scent sticks to my clothes. I can’t wait to soak in the tub until my skin wrinkles. I need to wash it all away.
Though something tells me it won’t be that easy to wash away the memory of Deanna lying in that bed. A shudder runs through me and I do what I can to keep it together. When I’m alone, I can fall apart. Not now.
“What makes you think that?” Vincent leans against one of the bookshelves to my right, folding his arms. I think he’s kind of pissed at me for getting him into trouble, but he had to know Luca would be angry if he found out we sneaked over to the hospital. He can’t pretend he didn’t go into it with his eyes wide open.
“He was one of Deanna’s old clients.” I make air quotes around the word. “That was what made him pick me out from the crowd—well, that and who I was there with.” Why bother trying to spare anybody’s feelings? Luca flinches somewhere near the corner of my eye, but I can’t do anything about that any more than I can stop him from being mad at Vincent. It’s time I stop taking responsibility for other people’s reactions.
“You think he knew where she lives?” Jock finally sets his phone aside long enough to give me his full attention. Should I be honored?
“He might have. Would you put it past somebody like this to stalk a woman he likes? Obviously, the way he was talking to me, he found her… memorable.” I can’t bring myself to imagine my sister with that man. It isn’t that I ever imagined her former life easy or glamorous—in fact, I’ve never imagined it as anything better than degrading and disgusting. But now I have him in my head and the thought of having to pretend to enjoy sex with him leaves me wanting to vomit.
Vincent grunts, stroking his jaw and staring toward the window. “If he was that into her, he might have followed her home one night.”
“Or offered to arrange a ride and somehow got his hands on her address.” It seems Jock is finally starting to get the picture.
“He might have gone there to finish the job,” Vincent muses. It’s not often he looks serious, but now it’s clear the full weight of the situation is settling on him.
“Or…” Oh, boy, am I going to get in trouble for this. I didn’t tell Luca until now, either. It sort of slipped my mind. “Or he expected to find her and just happened to show up when she was there.”
“Why would he expect to find her and not you?” When my eyes meet Luca’s, he closes his. “You told him.”
“I was desperate,” I’m quick to remind everybody. “I was trying to get through to him. I told him all kinds of things he had no business knowing—nothing about you,” I add before anybody can get the wrong idea. “About myself. You know, one of those ‘get them to think of you as a human being so they don’t slit you wide open’ things. And I told him he had the wrong twin.”
“Terrific. Now I’m sure Bernardi’s going to have an even better opinion of how I run my family.” Luca turns away, looking out the window with his fingers laced at the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry.” I’m not, not really. I was doing what I thought I had to do to stay alive. But considering the men in this room have all killed before, I’m not trying to start a fight with any of them.
“Did he tell you anything else about himself? Name, anything?” Vincent asks.
“No, he didn’t. And stupid me never thought to ask.”
“I’m sure you weren’t trying to conduct an interview with the guy,” he murmurs with a brief, sympathetic grin.
“And who knows?” Jock adds, staring at the wall. “He might have given you a fake name, anyway. We already have two of those.”
“All I know is, he worships this Bernardi guy. It was kind of gross.” I offer a week shrug. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. And I am sorry I lied—kind of,” I add with another shrug. “But I’m telling the truth now.”
“That’s beside the point.” I don’t know if Luca really wants to brush it off or if he’s only doing it because he doesn’t feel like talking about how foolish he feels now. “Jock, you thought you might have had a couple of leads?”
“I have three of my guys doing surveillance at two different locations,” he announces. “If this prick shows up at either of them, we’ll be the first ones to know.”
Vincent still doesn’t look satisfied. When Luca jerks his chin in his brother’s direction, Vincent sighs. “There’s something bothering me. You said before that this guy would’ve had to show up at her apartment at the same time she was there. What does that mean?”
