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“Every now and then, he’ll come by the club to… check out the new girls. He’ll find one he likes, tell her that they are going to be spending some time together.”
The idea of a sleazy, ruthless man like Eddie treating women like that was enough to make my stomach turn.
“I get the idea. Tell me what happened.”
“Somehow it’d gotten back to him that one of the girls had overheard something. Guess one of them caught sight of Kiki listening in. Eddie wanted to talk to all of us personally, see what we knew. He asked me to come with him for a ride. I didn’t want to say anything at first, but when he parked in front of Boston Diamonds and said he’d treat me, I…”
“You sold out your friend for jewelry?”
Her eyes flashed with panic.
“You don’t get it! You don’t know Eddie like I do. That’s how he operates. First, he tries to butter you up, get what he wants with money. And if that doesn’t work…”
“The old carrot and stick routine.”
“Huh?” Confusion formed on her face, and I could tell she didn’t have any idea what I was talking about.
“Never mind. Go on.”
“I figured that if I was in trouble, I might as well get something out of him grilling me other than a beating, you know?”
“What happened?”
“I told him. I told him that Kiki was the one who’d listened in on the conversation. He was so scary. You don’t understand. Even when he’s nice, he’s scary, even worse, actually.”
“And then what happened?”
“Nothing at first, but then two days ago, Kiki vanished.”
“Did she leave on her own? Or did they take her?”
She shook her head again. “I… I don’t know.” Diamond began sobbing once more. “I swear, I didn’t want anything to happen to her!”
Once more, I pushed aside my anger at what I was hearing. Judging by Diamond’s heavy crying, I got the sense that I wasn’t going to get any more out of her.
“Listen to me. You need to quit that place and get out of town.”
She lifted her eyes, regarding me with an expression of bemusement.
“Quit?” she shook her head. “You don’t understand; I can’t quit. All this,” she swept her hand toward the apartment around her, “I can only afford this because I work at Pussycats.”
“Is all this worth your roommate’s life?” I asked her.
She stared blankly back at me and I knew I’d get no more from her. I blew past Diamond, eager to get out of the apartment and figure out my next step.
Once in the elevator, I reflected on what I’d seen, what I’d heard.
God, Kat. Why the hell did you have to go and get mixed up with a guy like Eddie? You’re smarter than that.
I knew Eddie, knew him and the guys he had underneath him. They were rich, powerful, and had no issues doing whatever they had to in order to get what they wanted. Most importantly, they were nearly untouchable.
Didn’t matter. I had to find my friend.
But how?
Chapter 2
Connor
