Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
BELLATRIX
Vee was sitting at the head of the table.
Her dark eyes, brown skin, and gray hair complemented by the burgundy suit and white dress shirt she was wearing.
Her nails and makeup perfectly painted on.
A few gold rings on her fingers, never too many, and her matching gold earrings catching the light.
The image of refinement and control that she and Gabby both shared.
I was three chairs down, my boots propped up in front of me and my palms clamped behind my head. The chaos to their order.
Vee’s expression was neutral but I could read it a mile away. Something was bothering her. Probably the same something that was bothering me. We were going through a dry spell. Our phones hadn’t rung in weeks and all our inboxes were empty. And the tip lines? Crickets.
Wives just didn’t want their husbands offed like they used to. To some, that might be a good thing. To us, it was fiscal suicide.
I’d suggested we branch out, take on some male clients.
That idea was nixed faster than my favorite piece of metal traveled through a hot barrel.
We were a certified girls club. I understood the reasoning, didn’t make it easy to stand by when it was hurting our pockets.
And, right now, our pockets were full of cobwebs instead of couture.
Wah, wah, wah. I know. I get it. First world problems.
We couldn’t help it if we had expensive tastes. I liked my gadgets and Gabby liked her shoes and fancy green juices. No cash meant we were both on a shopping cleanse. It also meant we were grumpy. And bored.
I flicked the folded-up, faded photo across the conference room table, waiting for it to land in front of Vee. I knew her well enough to know it was better if I kept it on me for a rainy day.
“What about him?” I jutted my chin towards the photo.
“What about him?” She shoved it back in my direction. But I saw the flicker of irritation on her face. Her eye twitching slightly and her jaw clenching as she sucked on the back of her teeth.
I shrugged a single shoulder. “Rossi was willing to pay.”
“Rossi doesn’t meet the criteria,” Vee countered.
“Last I checked, she had a pair of tits.”
“Rossi isn’t desperate.”
“But we are, and we have tits too.”
I could feel Gabby watching us, her eyes bouncing back and forth. She knew the target was Vee’s kid. By birth. She just didn’t understand what that meant. Neither did I, honestly. Blood didn’t make you family. But spilling it together sure did. Which meant we were closer than family.
“Leave it alone, Bellatrix,” Vee hissed.
Ouch, she just full-named me. Mommy was mad.
“We need the work, Veera.”
She narrowed her glare. I narrowed mine right back. See? We fought like family too. Though usually it was me and Gabby teaming up together. She was suspiciously quiet at the moment. A sure-fire sign that she was just as curious as I was.
“You’re just gonna let them keep that poor girl locked up against her will.
Let them do who knows what to her and her baby.
” I didn’t know if any of that was true.
Honestly, I didn’t care. But I knew it would hit Vee where it hurts.
She had a thing when it came to new mothers.
Likely because of the shit she went through when she was young.
Vee was the first to look away, her eyes softer than they’d usually be.
God only knew what the woman saw when she looked at me.
My guess? It was the girl with pigtails thicker than the rest of her.
I’d filled out over the years. Not much.
That wasn’t in the cards for me. But I was definitely better off than when she took me in.
Vee made certain I had the meds I needed to combat the muscle weakness, balance my glucose levels, and keep me from crashing out forehead-first on the table.
The rest was on me. No drugs, no drinking, maintaining a healthy workout routine.
Did I go a little harder than I should sometimes? On occasion. But when you’d spent most of your teenage years glued to an IV bag, you did everything in your power not to go back there.
“We’ll look into him,” Vee huffed, bouncing a finger between us. “But no one does anything until I give the green light. You hear me?”
“Great!” I slapped my hands against the table and pushed off the veneer to stand. “I’ll get started on recon.”
“Not so fast,” Vee barked. “You’re sitting this one out, Bells.”
I staggered back a step. More than if she would have just leaned forward and slapped me across the face. “What do you mean I’m sitting this one out? Who’s going in then?”
“I am,” Vee replied.
“You?” I balked, and watched her lips twist up. I’d hit a nerve.
“Yes, me. Someone has to bell the cat. Might as well be me this time.” It was code. She meant someone had to get close. Being made was a self-sacrifice. Once you were seen, that was it. There were witnesses and you couldn’t get rid of them all without being suspicious.
I quirked an incredulous eyebrow. “You really think that’s a good idea?”
“Until we figure out what’s going on with the girl, yes, I do.”
“And if you don’t like what you see?”
“I’ll send you in to finish the job.”
I nodded, slamming my chair against the lip of the table before storming out. Vee hadn’t been seen outside this office in years. It was always me, and occasionally Gabby when we were looking for closer range. My soul sister loved her poisons while I enjoyed the chaos of blood splatter.
But I couldn’t let my emotions get the best of me. Not if I wanted to keep my head on straight, instead of flat against the hardwood floor when my muscles tensed up.
I could hear Gabby’s heels clanking behind me a few seconds later. She couldn’t run in those things but she sure as fuck could speed walk. She grabbed on to the back of my elbow, and I paused in my tracks to turn around and look at her.
“You’re going after him anyway, aren’t you?” Gabby whispered.
I shook my head. “No… I’m going after his friends.”
“What makes you think he has friends?” she asked.
“Everyone has friends, Gabby.”
“You don’t,” she replied, and I rolled my eyes.
“I have you.”
“Still not your friend.” She laughed, bumping my shoulder as she moved forward to walk beside me. Then she gasped and stopped walking again. “You already looked into him, didn’t you?”
“No, I looked into his friends,” I repeated. “Betcha Vee did as well.”
It would be dumb of her not to. And Veera Vaughn wasn’t dumb.
There was a difference between disobeying orders and stepping around them.
Vee said I couldn’t go in. And I wasn’t.
I was staying out. In the open. Never knew who you might stumble across in a public place.
Like a bar, or a club, or a dark parking lot in the middle of the night with an itchy trigger finger.