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“No cameras,” she whispers in her hoarse, but somehow still sensual, voice. “We can’t risk anyone overhearing us.”
“So you do speak,” I say with a small smile. “I’ve been wondering about it. Why you’ve kept quiet for so long. Why won’t you even speak to me? Or any of the women working here? What’s your secret?”
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” she winks at me. Her laugh is melodic and beautiful, even though I can tell from her voice that she hasn’t spoken in a long time.
“Someone’s looking for me,” she finally admits. “Someone who’s very dangerous. And if he finds me, he’ll bring me back to a life I hate. Don’t tell anyone I can speak.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“Because if you do, they’ll make me go back to my husband. So make sure no one fucking knows. This will be our little secret,” she tells me.
Her face is pale. And she looks… different.. She looks like she’s afraid and it makes me wonder who’s on her trail. It makes me want to trust her. I want to tell her all my secrets, too. But I still don’t know who she’s working for or what she possibly knows. It would be easy for her to betray me, go right back to Xavier and sell him the information he needs to bring me back home.
“I’ll never sell you out,” Yvette tells me, as if she can read my mind. “I’ve been in your situation before. I’ve been on the run. And just like me, you’ll be on the run for the rest of your life if you want to stay safe from the man who’s on your trail.”
Chapter 5
XAVIER
Saulwalksintomyoffice with a worried look.
“You remember that woman Selena we talked about a few weeks ago?” he asks. I look up from the papers I’m going through and stare at him, demanding an answer. I don’t speak. It’s better for him not to know what’s going through my mind.
That I haven’t thought about Selena once since the last time we talked about her. My mind is still preoccupied by Tallulah.
The dogs have only been a slight consolation this month and a half. A month and a half without having her by my side. Without getting to control every move she makes.
“Looks like there’s something going on with her,” Saul tells me, slamming a black-and-white photograph on the desk before me. I glance at the picture. Selena is in it for sure. Even without the red color, I can recognize her voluminous hair.
She’s being led somewhere, and there are handcuffs on her wrists. It looks more like she’s being forced into a building than walking into it by herself.
“What’s this all about?” I ask my partner. “Why are you bringing me this?”
“We’ve heard talk of a new cartel in town,” Saul explains. “The one we’re making a hit on tonight.”
“The kiddie lovers?” I growl, and he nods.
“We believe they’re forcing women to work for them. Kidnapping them. The ones with no family and no ties. The ones they think nobody will miss. Apparently, they have hundreds of women they’ve taken this way.”
“And you think Selena is one of them,” I mutter. “What’s that got to do with me?”
He raises his eyebrows at me. “Well, I thought you’d want to know since you used to be fuck buddies and all that.”
“What Selena does is neither of concern nor worry to me.” I push the photograph away and it flutters from my desk onto the floor. “Get these pictures out of my face. Can’t you see I’m dealing with enough?”
“If you’re talking about Tallulah again, I’m here to tell you - you are an idiot.”
“What the fuck did you just call me?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear it. I’m getting tired of these warnings I have to keep giving you because you keep slacking on the job. You always say you run this cartel by yourself, Xavier. But we both know the truth is, it would have crumbled a long time ago if it weren’t for me holding it up. I hire all the men. I schedule all the operations. I make the hits. I do it all. And you... you’re just the silent figure who lives above us like a hawk god.”
“Well, that fucking silent figure brought you to where you are today and gave you the money you use to pay for your whores,” I sputter, slamming a fist down on my desk. “When are you going to give me some good news about my ward?”
“Tallulah again?” Saul laughs at me, shaking his head. “I can’t believe we’re right back where we began. You’re just obsessively asking over this dead girl as if we can make her appear back here by some miracle. No, if you must know, there hasn’t been any news. But there is another thing.”
He pulls out an envelope and places it on the desk before me. “This arrived today.”
I don’t even need to open the envelope to know what’s inside. I already know it’s going to be another death threat sent by my brother Xander. Absentmindedly, I tear into the paper and read the note inside. It’s just another generic threat, but it’s under-laced with the kind of crazy I know only my brother’s capable of.
