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”I’m sorry you had to see that. If I’d known, I would’ve cleaned her up myself.”
I waved him off. ”It’s okay,” I said. ”With everything that’s been happening, I was bound to see blood sooner or later.”
He nodded. He grabbed his vape pen out of his pocket and took a long hit, his eyes closing. I watched the smoke billow in front of his face, the smell of weed filling the air between us.
”I gave her the keys to her bedroom,” he said finally. ”Just to put her at ease a little.”
I turned my head to look at him, waiting for an explanation. Grayson didn’t do anything without a reason and I had come to trust him with my life, but his logic often surprised me, and this was one of those times when I wondered what the hell was going through his mind.
”It won’t do her any good, obviously,” he continued. ”But she’s in this weird apartment with four strange men after someone tried to kill her. If you want her to open up, then it’s in our best interest that she gets comfortable.”
I tipped the ash onto the little wooden ashtray we kept on the banister. ”Patience has never been my forte,” I said. ”We have other methods to extract information. You know as well as I do that we can be very persuasive.”
Grayson shook his head. ”I know, but you know that forceful methods aren’t always the best way. That’s your philosophy, boss,” he said. ”Sometimes, it’s better to let someone come to their own conclusion. And Sofia seems like she’s already on the brink of breaking. We have to be careful not to push her over the edge.”
”Three bodies have been dumped behind Neon in one month, Grayson,” I said. ”One month.The police might not give a shit about these people when they’re isolated, but when it starts to look like a pattern, and one we’re responsible for, there’s little I can do. Who do I bribe here? The FBI? Which lawyer do I call?”
”I know the police are a problem,” he said.
”They aren’t our biggest problem, though,” I told him, shifting my weight between my feet as I stubbed out my cigarette. ”These people have families. They belong to other organizations. Some of them are sex workers, tied to pimps, who are tied to drug dealers, who are tied to gangs. You understand what I’m saying, right?”
”A turf war?”
”Not a war so much as a massacre,” I told him. ”They won’t hesitate to be the ones to kill our families, Grayson, if they think we’re the ones behind the killings.”
He nodded in understanding. ”I know,” he said. ”But we have to be smart about this. If that is the problem, we have to be strategic, and we have to be careful. We can’t afford to make any mistakes.”
”So don’t break her.”
”Try not to break her,” he echoed. ”She seems like our only reliable source of information right now. You want a reliable source of information, right?”
I nodded, leaning forward and looking down at the ground beneath us, at the sprawling parking lot surrounding the apartment building we were in. ”A journalist, though,” I said. ”It’s such a risky move. One whose brother is a cop.”
”Yeah, but…”
”But what are our other options?” I said.
From the corner of my eyes, I could see as he crossed his arms over his chest. ”Right,” he said. ”Exactly.”
I tapped my fingers against the white banister of the balcony. ”So if we don’t break her, what do you suggest we do?”
”I don’t know. Be nice to her?”
”I am being nice to her. I gave her a room, clothes, told her we’d protect her. That’s the definition of being nice to her.”
Grayson shook his head. ”No, actually give her something she wants, though,” he said. ”Wait until the morning. You don’t have to give her anything big. We all know she’s trapped here, so at least make the stay as comfortable as it can be.”
”Right,” I said. ”And then what do we do with her?”
”Above my paygrade, boss,” he said, slapping my shoulder softly before he turned around and went back inside.
I smiled as he closed the sliding door behind himself. Grayson was the closest thing I had to a brother, and I knew that he was usually right, but that was an indication that he had no fucking clue what to do either.
I realized there were no solutions to be had on the balcony as I yearned for another smoke I wouldn’t allow myself, so I went back inside, hoping I would get some sleep.
***
I woke up before dawn broke. As I looked at the smartwatch on my wrist, I took stock of where everyone would be. Jace usually worked late, which meant he slept late. Victor would be out for a jog. Grayson might’ve gone home, but he might be making breakfast in the apartment. I wasn’t sure.
