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Fuck.
“Ronnie?” I whispered, the prompt drawing her attention back to me again. “What did he say?”
She licked her lips. Her frown turned irritated. “He kept calling you Tripwire. Why?”
My gut clenched. Tripwire. My old Trinity name. Fuck.
“It was a name I went by in Trinity,” I answered, keeping my voice calm. “What else did he say?”
Her frown deepened. “The idiot threatened to hurt me if I didn’t call out to you. As if I was going to do that.”
I bit back my chuckle, even as a sense of unease settled over me. God, I loved her. “Did he say anything else? A name? Who sent him?”
Who exactly had tracked me down here? The corrupt cops? Were Detective Dewey and Kitchner not the only two trying to fuck me over? Or was Trinity out for blood? I’d cut my ties to the violent gang. Loco, its leader, had declared me dead after I’d saved his little sister from being raped by a rival gang, as a way of showing his gratitude, but there were those in Trinity who would gut me in a heartbeat if they knew I was still alive. Not just because I’d pissed them off, but because it might have become known I was a C.I. Of course, that knowledge could only have come about because of corrupt-as-fuck cops with Trinity members in their metaphoric bed.
Ronnie shook her head. “No. He was just here when I climbed out of the pool, told me he was going to…going to hurt me if I didn’t call out to you.”
Something about the way she faltered over “going to hurt me” drilled a dark point of tension into my chest. “What were his exact words, babe?”
I had to know. So I knew exactly how much to fuck the bastard up.
She looked away, biting at her bottom lip. “He said he would tie me up and fuck me with his gun until I bled.”
The second I heard the depraved threat, I knew who the guy was.
Fuck.
Grub. A sniveling worm with his nose planted firmly up the ass of Trinity’s wannabe leader, Rufie. Rufie was not a fucker to mess around with. Power hungry, ruthless, with a taste for violence that sickened me. We’d clas
hed more than once when I was a Trinity member. I’d broken more of Rufie’s bones than anyone inside and outside the gang. Loco had despised him but recognized him for what he brought to the gang—the ability to terrorize and kill. There were no empty threats with Rufie, only sincere promises.
He’d promised me once he was going to skin me, strip by strip, until I was dead. Loco had told him to shut the fuck up and back off, threatening to do the very same thing to him. If Rufie was sending his grunt pets after me…if he knew where I was…
Cold fear roiled in my stomach. If Rufie knew I was here, if he knew about Ronnie…
Forcing a languid ease into my body, I gave her a calm smile. “I’m going to have a few words with our uninvited guest, babe. Go inside.”
She didn’t move.
I drew a slow breath, even as an inferno of dark excitement flowed through me. There was a reason I’d been drawn to a violent life. The reaction in me now unsettled me as much as it charged me with adrenaline.
A low groan sounded at my feet, and my heart smashed into my throat. Grub was coming to. I needed Ronnie gone.
Shifting enough to block her view of Grub, I cupped her cheek again. “Go inside, babe,” I repeated, holding her stare. “He’s not going to hurt me. I promise.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You think I’m worried he is?”
I chuckled, loving her even more. “I’m not going to kill him, either.”
“Okay.” She frowned again. “Do you want me to call Doctor Winchester?”
Not the cops. She wouldn’t suggest the cops. Not after what Detective Dewey had done to her.
“Lila’s in New York,” I answered. “Besides, I need our friend here to be able to report back with a message from me. Lila’s not a fan of leaving walking diseases to the human race like Grub alive.”
Ronnie swallowed. Worry shone in her eyes again, the emotion growing stronger when Grub once more groaned.
“Please go inside, babe.” I brushed a soft kiss over her lips. “And don’t look out the window, okay?”
