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He chuckles. “Like I said, you stick out. No one’s going to tell you if they saw him or not. She told me about it, and I figured it was you. That’s why I reached out.” He takes a sip of his coffee.
“So, they lied because I’m an outsider. Fine. But what about you, Jack? What do you know?”
He hesitates. “This is gonna get us both hurt, I just know it. But I heard that Gunner started selling, probably to pay for his own shit, but he got mixed up with some bad people. A Russian family caught him selling their shit without permission.”
Freefalling from the top of the Empire State Building must feel like this. My heart has moved up to my throat, making it entirely too difficult to breathe. I force myself to take a steady breath.
“What happened?” The smell of his coffee is making my rolling stomach angry.
“That’s what I’m not entirely sure about. All I know is he got caught selling shit he wasn’t supposed to be selling.”
I cover my mouth with my hand. “Is he… did they kill him, Jack?” I can barely get the words out. Speaking them gives them life.
He quickly shakes his head. “No.” He reaches across the table and pulls my hand away. “As far as I know, they didn’t kill him. They sent him away though. That’s all I could find out. They snatched him and took him away, but no one knows what happened after that. He could be living somewhere else by now. Completely away from all the bullshit here in New York.” He squeezes my hand. “They didn’t kill him. I swear it.” He lets me go.
“What family?” A darkness overshadows me now.
“What?”
“The Russian family. What’s the name?” I curl my hands into fists and move them into my lap.
“You’re not going to just march up to them and ask about Gunner.” He points a long finger at me.
“Of course not, didn’t he change his name to Viper? That was your advice, wasn’t it?” Another unnecessary dig, but my anxiety is bubbling up. The mafia isn’t a forgiving group; if he was selling something of theirs, a simple apology wouldn’t be enough.
“Look, I know I influenced him more than I thought. I never meant for him to end up in such a dark place, but this, this isn’t my doing. He did whatever this was on his own.” He pushes his fingertips into the tabletop until they turn white. “I don’t want you doing anything that will get you hurt, Mandy. And if you go after them, you could end up… in a bad way.”
“Don’t worry about me. Just tell me the name.” Jack has only ever seen me as a roadblock when it came to Gunner. One that he easily removed once my brother started using more and more.
He curses under his breath and turns to stare out the window. Debating, I suppose, about if he should reveal it to me.
“I could just start asking around…”
“Fucking stubborn woman. You’re going to get yourself killed. Or me.” I’m sure he’s more worried about his own skin.
“Fine. I’ll ask around.” I shrug and start to slide out of the booth.
He grabs hold of my arm and climbs out of the booth.
“If you weren’t going to help me, why did you bother texting me to begin with?”
“Fine. Romanov. The Romanov family.” He tightens his grip. “Leave me out of any conversation you have. And don’t get yourself killed. I’m not coming looking for you if you go missing.”
After a long moment of silence, he lets me go again and sits back in the booth.
I slowly move my gaze to him. “Thanks, Jack.”
He frowns. “Don’t get yourself killed.”
My phone vibrates again in my purse.
“I’ll try not to.”
Maxim
Being ignored is notsomething I’m used to, and it sure as fuck isn’t something I’m going to tolerate.
I send off one more message to Mandy and watch as the message sits unread.
