Chapter 10 Juliet #2
A beat passes and she releases an annoyed breath.
“Ugh, you’re such a bitch,” she mutters.
“I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, but fine—” Margo moves in, getting as close as she can without actually crawling into my lap.
“You need to watch your back,” she hisses, turning her cheek and moving her mouth to right next to my ear.
I roll my eyes, ready to pull back and lay into her for such a bullshit warning, but her hand latches on to my arm. Margo’s red-painted nails dig into the sleeve of the hoodie I’m wearing and her face is stone-cold serious.
“I don’t live in Silverwood,” she says. “But I heard about Morpheus Calloway. Someone murdered him, right?”
That has my attention. “Do you know something about that?” The question is sharp as it falls from my lips.
She shakes her head and I would be lying if I didn’t say that disappointment didn’t slide through me. “No—at least, I don’t think so,” she confesses.
“You don’t think so?” I repeat.
“You know that Darrio threatens a lot of business owners, right?” She doesn’t wait for an answer. “Like Ma-Ri—a lot of other people have to pay Darrio ‘protection fees’ so he doesn’t send people after them.”
“What does that have to do with Morpheus?” I ask.
Margo presses her lips together for a second, glancing down to her lap. When she lifts her head and her eyes meet mine again, “You can’t tell anyone about this,” she says, her voice turning desperate.
“I won’t,” I say, “just spit it out.”
Her face scrunches tight and she blows out a breath. “Hosting here doesn’t pay a lot if you’re not willing to sleep with the guests,” she says, voice lowering another octave. “Ma-Ri doesn’t like that and though she says we can do what we want on our own time, if she catches on, she might fire me.”
“You’re sleeping with clients?” I shake my head. “Margo, a host isn’t a prostitute.”
“I know,” she huffs out, “but my boyfriend broke his arm last year. He didn’t have the money to pay for the emergency room and his job put him on leave without pay because it didn’t happen while he was on the clock.
The bills were piling up and I was desperate.
One of the regulars here offered to take me out and said he’d pay me for the time.
It was a couple hundred dollars and I figured that meant he just wanted company. I thought it was just a date.”
“It wasn’t,” I guess.
She nods. “He wanted me to sleep with him and he offered to pay me several thousands for one night.” I imagine how Margo must have felt at the time. Desperate and scared—just how I’d felt when my life imploded. “I couldn’t turn down that kind of money, but once it started, I couldn’t stop it.”
“Margo, I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what the hell that has to do with—”
“Just…” She blows out a breath after interrupting me and starts again. “Just let me get it out.”
My shoulders drop and I gesture for her to continue.
“I’ve been going out with several regulars,” she confesses. “Some do just want company for important dinners and meetings. They want to look good in front of business competitors with a beautiful young woman on their arm.”
At that comment, I press my lips together to keep from smirking. No one can say Margo isn’t confident in her looks.
“About a month ago, I went on a date with a man I met through one of Ma-Ri’s regulars,” she continues. “He took me to the city. I think it was his first time on a… well, a date like that because he didn’t really plan well.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’d never been to that part of the city and was just following the GPS to a restaurant, but it took us to the wrong one and it was kind of run-down.
I’ve been doing this long enough to know that I can’t make these men feel bad when I’m…
entertaining them. So, I told him it was fine, that it was cute and…
quaint.” She shudders at the last word before shaking her head.
“It wasn’t. It was old and smelled like mildew, but I just wanted to get to dinner and get it over with and it was going to take longer if we tried to find the right restaurant. ”
“Okay, so you convinced him to stay at the restaurant,” I hedge.
She nods. “I saw Darrio Vargas there.”
I sit forward. Now, we’re getting somewhere. “In the city?” I clarify.
“Yes, but he wasn’t alone.” Margo turns and peers back out of the booth opening. The seconds it takes for her to shift her attention back to me stretch into eons. I want to grab her, shake her, and demand she spit it out.
“Who was he with, Margo?”
She swallows. “I don’t know if this has anything to do with his death,” she repeats. “But that night, I saw Darrio Vargas with Morpheus Calloway.”
A sound catches in my ear and I realize a second too late that it’s Margo’s sharply indrawn breath.
I glance down to find that I’m gripping her arm right back and I’m squeezing so hard that when I immediately release her, the red prints of my fingers linger behind.
“Sorry…” I mutter as the information she just gave me swims through my head.
Darrio Vargas and Morpheus? Why would those two have any reason to meet?
I whip my head up as Margo starts to slide away. “That’s all. I just thought I should—” she’s saying, but I stop her by grabbing ahold of the back of her dress.
“Not so fast,” I say. “Do you know what they said? Did you hear anything?”
Margo pulls herself from my grasp and shakes her head in denial.
“I told you that was it—I just saw them together. I figured it was none of my business, but then I heard Morpheus was murdered and… he’s like your uncle or something, right?
I know the cops think it was you because you were living with him or something and you were at the same party. ”
I stare at her. It’s not a surprise that she knows all of that. Everyone in Silverwood knows my business, why wouldn’t people from the surrounding areas know too?
“You told me so I could… what? Go to the cops and tell them about Darrio?”
She hesitates at the edge of the booth. “Ma-Ri is a good boss,” she says.
I narrow my eyes on her. “Oh no,” I snap. “Don’t pretend like you’re altruistic. What’s the real reason? Why would you help me by giving me information that could lead to another suspect in his murder?”
Margo grits her teeth and glares at me. I stare right back.
Finally, she hisses out a breath and gives me an answer.
“I know what it’s like to be accused of something you didn’t do,” she tells me.
“Before I worked for Ma-Ri, I worked as an admin assistant. It was a good job, but someone stole a client’s watch.
The client pointed the finger at me even though there was no evidence and it didn’t turn up even when they searched my desk and purse.
My boss didn’t even listen when I told him it wasn’t me.
When I was fired, they said the only way they wouldn’t press charges was if I said I resigned. ”
I don’t have to ask why. I know from what my father had said in the past about firing previous employees. Firing them means they’ll get unemployment, but if they resign… they get nothing because they’re doing it voluntarily—or so the paperwork says.
I release my hold on Margo’s dress and give her a nod. “Thanks.” She doesn’t wait around, but gets up and marches off, hurrying across the club floor on her high heels.
“What was that about?” Gio’s curious question comes from the side.
“Hopefully a lead,” I reply absently. Margo being in just the right place at the right time to spot Morpheus and Darrio together before Morpheus’ death feels almost too good to be true.
It’s the first I’ve ever heard of the two men being involved aside from living in the same town, but if Darrio had something to do with his death, don’t we need to know?
My eyes move back to Gio as he watches Margo leave. I lean around him. “Where’s Lex?”
“Here.”
I lean around Gio to see Lex striding up behind him. He holds out an envelope with my name on it.
“What’s this?” Something slides around inside as I rip open the top flap. Inside there’s a slip of paper and a key.
“Key to the back door,” Lex says. “In case you wanted to take Ma-Ri up on her offer and come back to work. If you say no, I can bring it back.”
Scowling, I lift my eyes to his. “Why didn’t she ask me to come back herself?” I ask suspiciously.
Lex shrugs. “She’s a proud woman.”
“Bullshit.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Gio says before Lex or I can get into it. When he hauls me up by my arm, I glance back at the table.
“We didn’t pay—”
“Yes, we did,” he says.
“When—”
Gio groans. “Ugh, does it matter? I’m tired, Prep Girl. I wanna go back to Lex’s and fuck you and then go to sleep.”
“Well, that’s too fucking bad,” I say through clenched teeth. “Because you’re dropping me off at Nolan’s. I have a bone to pick with him.”
Gio stops at the door as Lex pushes through. “Seriously?” He gapes at me. “Nolan is gonna be out ’til late tonight. Can’t I have some before you—”
“Nope.” I pop the word out as I pull away from his grasp and follow Lex outside. As we head around the building to the parking lot, I call behind me, “Consider it your punishment for not telling me about the funeral!”
Gio’s responding sigh is overdramatic and brings a smile to my lips.