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Not just me, I quickly realised. They might do the same thing to other people. Dusk Bay might be safer without them driving around in it. Maybe there was some dubious logic in there, but it made me feel better. For now anyway.
"Don't worry about them, we'll deal with it," Mannix said. "Most of these people will be completely innocent. They have nothing to worry about. It's only the ones that aren't, that I'm concerned with. Including that Charlie prick."
"You think that was him?" I frowned. I'd considered it, but the way he disappeared so quickly…
He could have driven around the block and waited until I was leaving, to come up behind me. Why would he do that though? If he wanted to scare or intimidate me, he could do that at work. Although, he couldn't do it without me seeing him. Was he that much of a coward that he had to hide behind his car? If he was, what else might he do?
"Maybe you shouldn't go to work for a few days," Ice suggested.
"She shouldn't go at all," Mannix growled. "We can pay for everything she needs."
"I'm going to work," I said firmly. "If it's him, he's not going to try anything in front of all the kids. Or Nicola. And if it's not him, then it doesn't matter."
"I'll do everything I can to find out who it is before you have to work again." Mannix tapped the paper against his thigh. "That will solve a lot of problems. Even if Charlie wasn’t the one driving that car tonight, I don't trust him. I don't like him being anywhere near you."
I sighed. "You've made that clear. He hasn't touched me again. We just work together, that's all."
"That better be all." He didn't add what he might do if it wasn't. By now I got the idea. At best, he’d make threats. At worst, he'd carry them out.
The question was, how far would he really go?
Chapter Seventeen
Mannix
"I have a list of potential threats." I tapped the sheet of paper against my thigh. Ice, Ares and I went over the list last night and I made a new one, leaving off anyone we ruled out. A lot of them were people known to us, or friends of ours. I underlined anyone we already knew was dubious. Some of the people on the list had a history of resentment toward those who ran this city. At least a dozen were completely unknown. I left Charlie Lynbrook on the list. His name was underlined twice.
"I'm sure my father has made you aware he believes someone is stirring up trouble."
I looked around at the faces in front of me. Daisy Lasalle, Ric DiMarco, Hamilton Blake and my brother Gunnar. Only an idiot wouldn't be alert around them. None of them, including my brother, would hesitate to kill me if it served their purpose.
I wouldn't hesitate to do the same if I had to. For now, I didn't have to. But I did have to tell them what I knew. If I didn't, and someone came after them, my life wouldn't be worth shit. And they would find out, that was guaranteed. Nothing went on in Dusk Bay they didn't know about sooner or later.
Gunnar gave me a doubtful look and put his hand out. "Let's see what you found, baby brother."
I handed him the sheet of paper, but resisted the urge to tell him to fuck off. I wasn't that much younger than him.
"Where did this list come from?" Daze asked. She regarded me with those big, dark eyes. She could almost pass for someone as sweet and naïve as Kennedy, but there was an edge to her that was sharper than any of Ice's blades. People underestimated her at their own detriment. Which was exactly how she liked it.
She was everyone's best friend, their sister, until she cut their throats. She was hot, there was no denying that, but I preferred not to have my cock burnt. Not to mention the three men in the room would take pleasure in making me suffer. I didn't want to find out how many days I’d last under their treatment.
"An associate of mine," I said carefully. "I have reason to believe they were followed by one of the people on this list, and that their intentions were to cause harm. At the very least, to intimidate. This happened right outside my home, which leads me to believe it goes further than just my associate. My father agrees it's probably something bigger than that."
I only had a brief conversation with him, but he was concerned. Not worried, but interested in having me take care of the matter before it became a major problem.
"They're getting bold," Ric said. He had an interesting array of scars on his neck. None deep, it almost looked like several people tried to cut his throat, but failed. That fit with the man I knew. If anyone would have a throat of iron, it would be him. Not to mention that if several people wanted to kill anyone, it would be Ric DiMarco. He'd pissed off his fair share of people.
"Do you have any evidence they're going after anyone but your father?" Hilton Blake fixed me with his cold blue eyes. Of all the men in the room, he intimidated me the most. He was the right-hand man of the most powerful mobster in the state, the second most powerful in the country. That made him connected and deadly. If his bosses wanted me dead, I'd be dead last week.
I understood the reason he asked that question. If this was just about my family, his bosses might cut us loose. Why bother themselves with our troubles? Being a loyal minion only got you so far. I was determined not to let him turn on us.
"We cornered Eric Parsell a couple of weeks back. He suggested the Bell family were putting out feelers into Dusk Bay." That was all we got from him before he met with an unfortunate accident involving Ares' knife and his throat. And then Ice's knife in his eyeball.
"And we're just hearing about this now because…" Daze cocked her head at me, a dangerous glint in her eye.
"I had no proof," I said, unflinching. "It was just a rumour until someone dared to follow my associate home from work."
"Associate or step sister?" Gunnar asked. Of course he would know. Dad probably told him. Or one of the staff. Whatever, I had nothing to hide.
