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”The clubs? Yes,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes as she looked at me.
”What? They’re a source of income,” I replied.
”Theyare?”
”We’re known for one club. We don’t make every one of our assets public.”
Sofia opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. ”Get in the car.” She did as she was told and I got in the driver's seat. With a roar of the engine, we sped off into the city, the neon club sign fading into the distance behind us.
Sofia sat in silence, her arms crossed tightly across her chest. I turned the radio up, but the sound of the music only made the tension between us even worse. We drove in silence for what felt like hours, the only sound being the hum of the tires on the pavement.
Finally, we pulled up to a small apartment complex on the outskirts of town. It was a run-down place, with peeling paint and broken windows. Not the kind of place I would’ve expected a girl like Sofia to live in.
”Do you have keys?”
She shook her head. ”Not on me, no,” she said.
”Okay,” I replied. ”Not a problem.”
I walked around the side of the car and offered her my hand. She stared at it. ”Take it,” I said quietly. ”We want this to look natural if your neighbors see us.”
She kept staring at it.
I sighed. ”And if the killer is still around, you want him to know you have protection.”
That seemed to soften her a little. She extended her hand and pressed her palm into mine. I noticed how smooth her skin was, the way her delicate fingers curled around my hands. Her fingernails were painted different colors; soft lilac and aquamarine blue, all slightly chipped away.
”Thank you,” she said.
For the first time since she had come into my life–since she had come into our lives–I could tell that she sincerely meant it. I was tempted to pull her close to me and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but I had no idea if everything was going to be okay, and I didn’t want to lie to her.
”Lead the way,” I said, letting go of her. I slid my hand down toward the small of her back and rested it there comfortably, waiting for her to shake me off. She did no such thing. She turned her head to look up at my face and smiled.
Wrinkles appeared around her bright brown eyes and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief that she was smiling. This looked like the first genuine smile I had seen from her since I had met…well, met was a strong word. Since I had walked into the storage room and found her close to death.
The smile made her look even more beautiful and my heartbeat quickened ever-so-slightly. I didn’t know what it was about her. Beautiful women weren’t a novelty to me. But her…there was something about her, and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
That scared me.
I liked to know everything, or at least as much as I possibly could, before I made any decisions. And those decisions frequently included how I felt about things. How I felt about people.
It seemed like she was leaving that decision entirely out of my hands.
We walked to the front of the apartment building, past the dirty entrance and up the stairs to her unit. She reached forward and turned the knob with a shaky hand. ”I didn’t have time to lock up last night,” she said. ”I left in a rush.”
She hesitated before she pushed the door open. I put a hand flat against the door and looked down at her.
”Hey, it’s okay,” I said. ”Let me go in first.”
”Aren’t you worried I’m going to run?”
I looked her up and down and flashed her a smile. It made her cheeks turn into a pretty shade of pink. ”No,” I said. ”I like a good chase.”
She swallowed, her gaze darting away from mine. Despite how much I knew I shouldn’t have done it, I stretched out my arm and put a steady, crooked finger under her chin so I could tilt her head up.
”Listen to me, Sofia,” I said quietly.
