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“Disappeared like when something is never coming back.” I enunciate the last words. My hands are crushed into fists and I feel the nails digging into my palms. “So, is this thesomething?”
Sophie shakes her head. “No,” she utters. “No. God, no. Never. What I need to tell you is—” but she stops, swallowing and looking at Marco. She looks back at me. “What I need to tell you is different.”
I stare at her, seeing the fear and shock. I just can’t be sure. With everything that’s been happening. It keeps coming back to Sophie…
But before I can ask another question, Marco jumps in. “That’s the whole shipment,” he says, looking between us two. “That’s over a year of work, just gone …”
“I know,” I utter, still staring at Sophie.
His horror changes. His face turns livid. He pounces at Sophie and she screams. I get in between them and stop him just as he winds his arm back to hit her. I throw him back on the couch.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yell.
“What the hell are you doing?” He tries to get back up but I push him back. “The bitch has ruined us,” he yells. “We’re done! Fucked! We’ve got so many debts that—”
“Is there something that you’d like to share with me?” I ask, towering over him on the seat. His anger is venomous and I can see that he just wants to tear Sophie apart. But I won’t let him.
“Why the fuck are you defending her? You’ve been mad at that bitch for—”
“Stop calling her a bitch.”
“Well you have!” He looks like a boy who lost his favorite toy. “I’m not blind. I’d be doing you a favor by putting her in her place.”
Sophie is shaking and I reaffirm my ground between her and Marco. “She will be where she is until we know the truth. I may not be pleased with the situation—”
“So you think I’m innocent this time?” Sophie asks.
“I don’t know what to think,” I say to her. “Truthfully. A lot of things have happened around you Sophie. I want to believe they’re incidental and not your fault, but I can’t stay blind forever.”
She purses her lips but says nothing. She takes a large breath in, then finally nods. “Fine.”
“We don’t owe her anything,” Marco says. “She’s just some chick that sucked your dick in the club—”
“Be very careful with the next words you say Marco,” I utter. “She’smyfiance, remember?”
“Out of convenience,” Marcu whispers.
I look back at Sophie. “I’m going to go check this out.” I look at Marco. “You’re going to stay here.”
“You’re leaving me with this psycho? He wants to rip my head off?” Sophie says, grabbing my arm forcefully. “Take me with you. Please, I swear—”
“No,” I say. “This isn’t so easy to judge, not because I think you may be guilty, but also because it could be a trap.”
Marco and Sophie look at me in shock. “What?” they both say.
“Think about it,” I respond. “If the blackmailer is right under our noses, it goes to assume that they could pull something like this. They know our new phones.” I turn to Marco now. “Which means they’ve probably been learning so much about us with your phone too.”
Marco swears. He takes his phone out and gives it to me. “These bastards will pay.”
“Let’s hope so.” I feel calmer already. I’m sorting this out. I’m not losing my head and coming at it the way Tommy Russo would. The way my father would.
“So you’re just going to leave me with this psycho?” Sophie says, her eyes wide.
“This psycho is still my best friend,” I say. “We all overreact sometimes. But if you are guilty too…I at least trust who’s here.”
Sophie says nothing. I hold out my hand to take her phone too and she relents. I put all the phones in my pocket and head for the door.
“I’m heading straight for the warehouse. If I’m not home in an hour. There’s a hidden phone in our bedroom under the carpet.” I stand in the doorway. “But don’t take it out. Because it’s only made to dial once …”
