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I don’t say probably not. I really don’t know. I didn’t know until I saw her fucking phone. It’s a news alert, but as I pull her phone to me, I see it’s an app about violent crime in the area.
Of course, she’d have something like that.
“Maybe they don’t know. This is an alert.”
“It says it’s bad. She’s in a medically induced coma. I have to go.”
“Mia, I’m going to make some calls, okay? We’ll send flowers—”
“She has a child, Christian.” The savagery grows. Her hands are tight, white fists on the island.
“So, we’ll have someone check on them today. You can’t go.”
“Don’t tell me what I can do.”
“I just did,” I say. I get up and retrieve my phone, scrolling through for the numbers I need. “Look, you can’t do anything if she’s in a coma. She wasn’t working last night, right? This isn’t your fault.”
She shakes her head, staring at the island. “It is.”
Her words are so soft I almost don’t hear them.
“Mia.”
“My fault. I should have—”
“What? Locked her in a basement? Had that asshole taken out back and shot? Doesn’t work that way. You don’t even know if it had to do with drugs.”
She sucks in a breath. “It says . . . there, where she was found. It’s an alley near the club. Not next door, but in the vicinity. And why would she be so close if it wasn’t to score?”
I do not want this conversation with her. We have a policy not to mess with the merchandise, and drugs have never appealed to me. But I know how a lot of things work. “This isn’t how it happens. Maybe with some levels of drugs, but dealers have clients. Clients make calls or text a number, and then they get a delivery. Unless she was into real bad shit, then she’s not leaving her kid at home to get some dirty drugs. You would know if it’s meth or something like that.”
“I don’t do drugs, Christian,” she says, standing abruptly like she wants to go somewhere, but she takes three steps and stops. “I don’t know.”
“You probably don’t. But you’re smart. Come on, sweetness. Maybe she met with one of her clients from Hellfire Dancers?”
She’s breathing unevenly. “Ellie doesn’t live near the bar. And I told you, there are rules.”
“People break them all the fucking time.”
“It was early hours, near enough, but Hellfire was still open, so maybe . . .”
She doesn’t finish.
“Maybe she met with Frank?”
Mia nods, it’s small, but it’s a nod.
I cross to her, but I don’t touch because I don’t want her to lose it right now. She needs a moment, and she can’t go anywhere. Her car won’t be starting until I have the tiny piece removed put back, and I’m not doing that. And my car is smart locked, smart activated. She can’t drive that, either.
So, I give her the space she needs.
“A client. Come on. I know you say you don’t want the girls fucking clients, but I’m betting it happens.”
“They all know what will happen if they do. They’re fired.”
“Like with the drugs.”
Mia glares like I’m the monster here. “She has a kid, and I’m trying to get the evidence, okay? She hasn’t shown any interest in that stuff.”
