Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
CADE
Fuck. Why did I kiss her? Why the fuck did she kiss me?
Why did it have to be even better than I ever imagined?
And I’ve imagined it.
A lot.
But I don’t have time for thoughts like that. I shove it all away and try to work out the next move.
I had it planned. Tell her it made sense for her to come to my place since it is bigger, I could keep her safe there.
The kiss, of course, is a wrench in the works, but I’m sure I can work around it.
Weirdly, it doesn’t take much to convince Vi to come back to my place.
We gather some things, extra clothes, underwear—unfortunately—and then we head into Manhattan.
She isn’t herself, but I put it down to the disappointment in The Ghost not being there, and that she just got fucking attacked.
I don’t tell her all the things Enzo and I found out.
Hopefully, the sonofabitch will go to jail, and Vi will get her next internship, and that’ll be that.
When we get to my place, she sets her things in her room and heads to the kitchen.
“I’ll make us something for dinner.”
“That’s okay, you don’t have to do that. We can go out to eat, or maybe we could order something in.”
She starts raiding my cupboards and pulling out pasta and a bottle of gourmet pasta sauce.
I order in some extra groceries and soon, she’s cooking away.
“I’ll leave you to it, Vi. I have some work I need to do.”
I head to my room but leave the door open.
I’m not really comfortable with having someone, anyone, around while I’m working, but she won’t be able to make heads nor tails of anything on the screen.
There’s computer savvy, and then there’s me.
And as I don’t have anyone to spy on or obsess over on a screen, since she’s here in my home, I’m safe enough.
Though, I know I have to contact her as The Ghost. I can’t just leave it as is.
There’s the weird dynamic with us, the ghost of The Ghost pulsating in the background.
We were both looking forward to hot and kinky sex and now…well, I don’t think she’s going to welcome an offer of me jumping her and having my way with her any time soon. From either of my identities.
The Ghost seems to have just left her to fend for herself and, as far as she’s concerned, I’m not The Ghost, so it would be weird.
Yeah, but she also went and kissed me back. So, maybe…
“Get it together,” I mutter. “Send her a fucking text from The Ghost, asshole.”
I open our message history and stare at the empty text.
Me: Seems you had help,
No. Delete.
Me: Something came up.
No. That’s not right either.
What is wrong with me? Why the fuck can’t I cover it?
There are plenty of things I could do. Taunt her, promise a rematch, mock myself…
But I know what the problem is.
Me.
I think I want to kill The Ghost. At least with her.
Thing is, I can’t. If I do, then there’s no chance at all for us.
Chances are there might be no chance at all when she finally finds out, but… I’m not a coward. I don’t back out.
I settle on a text.
Me: Rematch. Soon.
And then I turn the texts off.
I don’t need my phone buzzing during dinner. Besides, I’ll deal with the fallback from this, tomorrow. Tonight, nothing’s happening except spending time with Vi.
“We have a problem,” Enzo says the moment I answer his call.
“Define problem. I just left your fine abode a few hours ago.” I don’t like his tone of voice.
It’s late. It’s been days since the attack, and things are still more or less the same between me and Vi.
I haven’t even opened The Ghost’s texts. I will, I promise myself. Soon.
Vi’s gone to bed, and I’m in my room.
“Not a work problem problem.”
“Then—”
“One of The Syndicate operatives reached out. It hasn’t been announced yet, but did you wonder why Isaac’s arrest wasn’t anywhere?”
I shrug, tapping my hand on the edge of the desk, and I look at my door.
It’s shut, and I don’t hear anything. But in that moment, I wish I’d put cameras in the room where Vi’s sleeping, which is about the stupidest thought I’ve had in the last few hours.
It’s not the first time it occurred to me tonight, but it’s the first time I’ve wanted them to make sure she’s sleeping and in there. It’s about knowing she is safe and okay, not about stalking her or getting myself worked up.
I lower my voice a little.
The walls are thick, but this is sensitive, and I don’t need her hearing. “His press machine? The guy’s got ambitions and money, I’m sure he’s done his best to squash the press.”
“More than that, Cade, He’s been released on bail, but he’ll have to appear in court on charges of attempted rape and assault.”
“Good. And the problem is?”
“The problem is, idiot, you’re now a key witness in what’s going to become a high-profile case. If this goes to trial…”
“Which it will…” I suck in a breath.
Fuck.
“Your identity could be outed. It’s a risk.”
“No one knows who I am.”
“And what about when we’re boots on the ground, man? When we have to physically go in somewhere? A blurred photo of you is one thing, you being all over the court case is something different. What the hell were you thinking?”
I jump up, “What was I fucking supposed to do, let Isaac hurt her? You know what the guy’s capable of, what he’s done in the past.”
And with me saying that, I get it. We found it.
Chances are the prosecution might not be able to uncover what we did, but people have ways of coming out of the woodwork with court cases so one of the girls might have told family or friends and…
“What was I meant to do?” I say a little more softly, going to my door to check that Vi’s not up, but there’s no light streaming from under her door, so she’s probably asleep.
I go back in my room and close the door.
“We need to make this go away,” Enzo says. “Tonight.”
“How?”
“I’m thinking we pay Isaac a visit to make sure this doesn’t go to trial. Here’s his address—”
“I have his address.”
“He’s not at his regular home. Here…”
I write it down.
“Meet you there.” I turn off my computer and take the address with me. I call an Uber and head down to the street to wait.
To say the brownstone is nice is an understatement. It drips with old money, expensive things, and now blood.
The blood isn’t particularly nice, but it does lend the place the old-school Brooklyn rough edged style.
I shake my hand, the brass knuckles not usually my choice.
Right now, Isaac, a mess of blood, bruises, and broken bones, is hanging unconscious from the wall that Enzo nail-gunned him to through the wrists, shoulders, and thighs, missing the arteries.
Enzo turns to Isaac and punches him in the face. “Why can’t people fucking behave?” He lands another one. “We’re going to have to make him disappear.”
Isaac moans.
“No fucking shit.” I lift the asshole’s head by his once blond hair, now dirtied by sweat and blood. “Where? They’re going to comb through this place, and you know it. And all his other ones.”
“We know people.”
The people we know are cops, mafia, and other bad motherfuckers. People who don’t behave like assholes like Isaac.
Torture isn’t usually my thing; Enzo enjoys it a little more.
Ever since his little sister was kidnapped, abused, and killed by a serial killer when he was a kid—a serial killer I helped him track down and destroy—his mission has been more Old Testament.
I’m more modern age. I like to destroy with technology.
But I get why he wants the creeps to pay with blood, guts. Their lives.
In this case, I’m one hundred percent onboard.
“The fuckers fucking suck.” I slam my brass-knuckle-covered fist into Isaac’s kidneys.
If he lived, he’d be pissing blood for a week.
He’s not going to live.
We can’t let him.
And therein lies our fucking dilemma.
My fault, I know. But having seen the basement here and the set up, I don’t think the sex dungeon is always for the willing. Not if I go by his little collection of polaroids down there.
All scared. All bruised. All broken.
So many fucking girls.
I definitely get Enzo’s anger.
I feel it too.
If I hadn’t intervened, hadn’t been there, would Isaac have taken Violet in broad day light?
“Enzo, we need to think about this. There won’t be a court case. But even knowing cops, we can’t choose who’s on the team on this. They’ll fingerprint, do the rest of their forensics shit.”
He shrugs. “We hack in, simple.”
But I shake my head. “Not simple. If we miss something, then we’re fucked. One thing and… Shit, this is my fault.”
“What about Belov or—”
“No. We do them favors, not the other way around—” Suddenly, something comes to me.
A daughter of one of our less than upstanding clients high ups went missing. Another crime family was blamed. They accused the first client right back, and no one knows what happened.
Missing like that might mean WitSec, or more than likely, dead.
“Enzo…”
“What?”
“Remember Natalia?”
“Yeah, but he didn’t take her, though. And how would that fix things? There’ll still be issues with the parties.”
“We could doctor something, hack in, put some pictures of Natalia on his computer that’ll make it seem legit. You know I can do it.”
He snorts. “We both can do that.”
“I’m better at that kind of thing.” And I am.
Concocting a story and putting everything down in writing and making it legit and seem organic is my thing. The Ghost’s.
He nods, types out a text, and sends it. “Letting them know we found evidence that he tried to destroy, but we’ll get it back for them. Proof. Should I tell them they need to clean up?”
“They’ll offer.”
As we wait, I get the scum’s computer, and I copy the hard drive, smash it and then put it to one side. “We’ll do the recovered files as evidence thing.”
“So, we kill him?”
I sigh. “We have to.”
Enzo looks past me. “Shit…”
I know she’s there before I turn. But the floor still slips from beneath me, right as blood drips from the brass knuckles onto the expensive white rug.
Violet.
She locks eyes with me. “What the fuck is going on, Cade?”
“Did you follow me, Vi?”
“Goddamn it, Cade,” Enzo snaps.
Her gaze shoots to him. “Who the hell is he? Why are you here? Where is this?”
“This is one of Isaac’s places, probably where he planned to take you.” I make no move to step between her and her unconscious ex-boss.
Enzo comes up, evil dancing in his eyes as he runs his gaze long and slow over her, clearly putting it all together, or…thinking he is. “Or…maybe she’s been here before, you know—”
“Shut the fuck up, Enzo.”
“She doesn’t know me, but I know her.” He’s not listening because he’s a dick. “I’m Enzo, Violet.”
“Who…?” Vi looks at me, helplessly. “What’s going on. What are you doing to Isaac? This isn’t you, Cade!”
“See, now I get it.” Enzo snickers. “Oh, man. How did I miss this? You hitting on your little bro’s very pretty ex. I mean, I get it. But, dude.”
I shoot him another look, and he ignores that too.
Her eyes are still on me. “Cade?”
Enzo smirks. “Since your wannabe knight here won’t answer, I will.”
“Shut the fuck up, Enzo,” I snarl.
“Nope. To answer your question, it’s pretty obvious what we’re doing here. We’re cleaning up your mess.”
I’ll kill him. “Enzo…”
Enzo walks up to her. “No, dude. She followed you. And you’re so hard for her it’s ridiculous. You risked not just yourself, but me in this.”
My fists are closed so tight I might break a bone or two from the pressure alone. “I mean it, man. Shut up.”
Vi shakes her head. “No, let him talk.”
“No one can stop me, sweet thing.” Enzo shrugs. “See, we bugged the office, put in cameras to keep you safe. At least, I thought that’s what it was, but I think Cade here’s got a crush on you. No, I don’t think. I know. We watched a vid—”
“That’s enough,” I snap.
Enzo opens his mouth, but he takes one look at my face and holds up his hands.
Except the damage has already been done.
Vi’s gaze darts between me and Enzo before finally settling on me.
“It’s true… Isn’t it?”
Blood freezes in my veins. “Is what true?”
“The cameras, everything…Oh, god, I’m an idiot. It’s you. You’re The Ghost.”