Chapter 5 #2
I swear under my breath and do as asked.
Usually, I spend time down in the basement of Enzo’s place. On the outside, it looks normal, inside, it’s modern, a smart house, and a fortress.
I lead Violet upstairs. She’ll be staying in one of the guest rooms, rooms that no one uses except for me when I need to stay during all-nighters that turn into all-weekers.
But I sit her in the living room, and get a soft throw, putting it around her, ignoring her narrowed eyes.
“Need any help?” Enzo asks as I go through the kitchen to where the bar is, the one we use when we need to unwind.
He’s got a bottle of rum in one hand and a glass in the other, but I can tell he’s contemplating drinking straight from the bottle.
I get the whiskey and open the wet bar fridge, pulling out a bottle of Coke. Then I fill a glass with ice.
He takes a swig from the bottle. “Fucking usually love shit like that… But a missing girl? There are a lot of missing girls out there. I keep going over which one it might be. Because one single girl is odd if he’s into trafficking. And didn’t we know about it?”
“One isn’t odd if he wanted a specific girl.” I pour a few of the cubes into the glass for me and then fill hers up with whiskey and Coke. More whiskey than Coke because I want Vi to pass the fuck out and sleep. Not drunk necessarily, but just enough of something to give her that extra nudge.
Then again, the state I think she’s in, it might not work.
“You think this is a custom job kind of thing?”
I pour a triple into my glass and swallow down half, loving the heat that burns away some of the pains and aches, at least until morning. “Instinct says no, but I’m not putting faith in that. Just cold hard facts and right now, we have none.”
“Yeah.” He takes another swallow of his rum from the bottle, and that, more than anything, tells me this affects Enzo, too.
“We find her, and we find what happened. Or we find what happened, the reasons why, and then we find her. This could be something we can use against him. He still doesn’t know who The Ghost is..”
It’d be easier to destroy Andronski if that was the case.
“Or…” Enzo says, “This is a trade for someone else. An incentive. Leverage.”
“And we can’t ask Isaac any questions to see if he knows about this.”
He steps up, pats my arm. “Go see to your girl. I’ll be in the basement, watching security footage around here while I do some work.”
I head off with the drinks, and she’s where I left her. Of course, she’s not asleep.
The throw is on the floor, and she sits, stiff, hands on her knees.
“I got you a drink.”
“I don’t need a drink.” But Violet takes it. She takes a sip and coughs. “You think getting me drunk is going to make me forget?”
“No. Not getting drunk. But I think a drink might help you sleep.”
“Sex and booze are your answers?”
I want to kneel between her legs but right now, I’m not sure I can, so I sit on the coffee table, but she avoids my hand as I reach for one of hers.
I set my drink down. “Violet? The drink will help. You need to be able to calm and settle.”
“Why? I never signed up for this.”
Fuck.
I breathe out slowly. “You’re the one who reached out to me, who wanted The Ghost. So, you kind of did sign up for this. And why are you mad at me? They didn’t come after us for anything untoward I did. They connected you to Isaac, and me to you. Isaac’s the reason they took us.”
“Maybe so. But they took me only as leverage. Something to be used, discarded. Disposable.”
“Because they needed me to pay off your stalker’s debt. Your stalker, not mine. You know what they said Isaac called me? Quote-on-quote, ‘bitch of an intern’s jealous boyfriend’.” I try to keep my calm.
Sure, I get that Ivan put it together, me at his daughter’s engagement party, me rescuing Vi from Isaac. But still. If Isaac hadn’t been in the equation, none of this would have happened, because I wouldn’t have been easily ID’d.
“You’re calling him a stalker?” Vi lets out a bitter laugh. “Pot. Kettle. Black.”
“Everything I did to you, you wanted. Craved it. Asked for it.”
“I know I did,” Vi yells back.
“So, why are we even having this conversation?” I’m confused as hell.
“Because…I don’t know!” Vi’s lip trembles.
I breathe out and lean forward, running a hand over her hair.
“Fuck, Andronski is an opportunist. It isn’t your fault or mine. It’s just bad timing, And we’re playing a stupid blame game. It happened. We deal with it.”
“I just hate this.”
“You need to drink your drink and go to sleep.”
“I don’t want the drink.” But she glares and grips the glass tight, drinking half of it down.
Finally, I just take the glass from her and stand. Then I scoop her into my arms.
“Cade, put me down.”
“Nope.” I drop a kiss on her cheek. “You need sleep. I’ll make you a deal.”
“I don’t make deals with Ghosts.”
“Thank fuck I’m Cade, then.”
She huffs.
I smile. “Tomorrow, you can yell at me all you want, but tonight, you sleep.”
“Oh, I’ll yell at you, all right.”
I carry her into the room I use and set her on the bed. I have jeans, underwear, and T-shirts here, so I get one of the shirts.
She folds her arms over her chest. “Leave me.”
“I’m not leaving you.” I take off her dress, hating the fact she isn’t wearing underwear, because it just makes her so much more vulnerable, and there are things that could have happened to her—
They didn’t.
I pull the T-shirt on.
She’s emotional and exhausted, but I keep that to myself. Instead, I pull back the covers and help her in the bed, covering her and plumping the pillows.
I kiss her forehead and lie down on top of the covers, next to her. “You can say whatever you want to me, but I’ll stay with you. I’m not going anywhere, Violet.”
She huffs again but wiggles back into my warmth, and she’s small and delicate and I hate that she could have been hurt.
But I wait until she falls asleep.
Then I carefully get off the bed, and I go in search of Enzo.
Someone, somewhere, is going to pay for this.