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“No, I’m just off Gia duty. I still have responsibilities and a lot of loose ends to tie up.”
“You don’t owe them anything.”
“You don’t get it. These people...” she sighs.
“It’s about more than Vigo and Aldo,” she whispers, not wanting to be overheard. “It’s the regular people I’ve known most of my life. People I worked with, spent time with—hell, I’ve eaten dinner at their houses and met their kids.”
“They’re the reason you didn’t just run.”
“One of them, yeah. They’d become collateral damage because he’d assume one of them would know where I was, or he’d use one of them to lure me back.”
“There are no guarantees that it still won’t happen,” I warn her.
“I know, but at least I’ll be able to look at myself in the mirror because I did my best instead of running and hiding.”
I don’t say anything to that, knowing she won’t like what I have to say. She’s too emotionally involved with these people, and aslong as she is, they’ll always be a liability. You can’t afford to have a weakness in this life. And yeah, I know that Nova is quickly becoming mine, but she also manages to stabilize me. Who knows, maybe she’ll balance my ass out.
“When will you be finished?” I ask, opening my car door and climbing inside.
“I’m not sure. I’ll call you. What about you?” she asks hesitantly.
“Got some business to deal with.”
“Right.” That’s all she says, yet I can feel so much disappointment in just that one word. “I’ve gotta go.” She hangs up, leaving me staring at the screen.
“What the fuck?”
I toss the phone on the seat beside me and hit the steering wheel. Fighting the urge to drive over to her, consequences be damned, I head to the warehouse closest to here instead to check out the damage.
Most of the damage seems to be on one side, and though costly, it shouldn’t take too long to repair. That, at least, is a relief. Unfortunately, it’s short-lived because the other warehouses were destroyed. It would cost more at this point to try and salvage them than to rebuild. I wish I could resurrect the fucking asshole so I could kill him all over again. Maybe I should have set him on fire.
I call Isaac, who answers right away. “We’re just finishing off here.”
“Good, but not why I called. I want everything Felix and Ralph owned, both collectively and individually. They’re mine now. Find out the locations because we’re about to take over some new territory.” I hang up and walk back to the car before heading to the last place I want to go right now—my father’s house.
Chapter 19
Nova
Icheck in with the guys and act like everything is normal. Things are so far from fucking normal it’s a joke. Heading up to the lounge, where the girls that don’t have clients will be, I knock lightly.
Technically, it’s a hotel room like the others, but it’s been modified for the girls to use as a greeting area. Scantily clad women sit on large sofas and fancy chaise lounges as they wait for men to arrive and select one of them, like they’re picking a fucking steak.
I respect these women. Most are here through no fault of their own, and those who chose it did so because other options were few and far between. It’s the men that piss me off. Instead of treating it like a regular business transaction, a chunk of them treat it as a power play—a way to show bitches their place by talking to them like shit and getting rough. That’s fine if that’s what they’re paying for, and it’s been discussed beforehand, and the girls are cool with it. However, lately, that hasn’t been the case. More and more guyslike Aldo are turning up to use the girls. Who the fuck will be here to help them when I’m gone?
“Hey, Trina,” I greet the beautiful, ebony-skinned woman who opens the door.
She offers me a small smile, and I walk in.
“Hey, Nova. Look, I don’t know if anyone told you, but Tati and Petra have disappeared. We think Tati might have run away after…” Her voice trails off. Yeah, the girls know what Aldo’s like. Little do they know, Gia’s the bigger threat.
“Petra had him the night she disappeared, too. But she wouldn’t run, Nova. She’d never leave without her girls,” she chokes out before looking around to make sure we are still alone.
I point to the small chaise in the corner. She follows me, and we both sit down. I take one of her hands in mine and blow out a breath. “There are things I can’t tell you. Things I can’t say because it’s the only way to keep you and me safe. And there are things I wouldn’t tell you even if I could.”
I flash back to finding Petra dead and shudder.
Trina squeezes my hand tightly. “Tati?”
