Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“Who did that?” I moved my eyes from her neck and met her gaze.
“That’s none of your business.” She crossed her arms, shifting from one foot to the other. “What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”
“Was it Gabriel?”
I wasn’t sure what I’d do to my brother if he’d done this to her. I didn’t know him to be violent, but then again, I didn’t know him to do drugs either, and I definitely wasn’t sure what he was capable of when he was on them.
“No.” She frowned, dropping her arms at her sides. “Wait, where is he?”
“That’s exactly what I’m here to talk about.”
“You think I know?” She pointed at herself, eyes widening. “I have no idea where he is. He ghosted me.”
“You were one of the last people to see him.”
“I . . .” Her jaw dropped momentarily. “So he really has been missing since last weekend?”
“It appears so.”
“And you just started looking now?” she asked.
“I was out of the country,” I said, a little harsher than I wanted to, but the way she was questioning me as if I was the bad guy pissed me off. “Besides, I’m not my brother’s keeper. I didn’t know about the drugs. I didn’t know about you.”
“He didn’t tell you about me?” Her brows pulled in a little more.
God, I hated my brother right now. Part of me even hated that he had another opportunity with her and fucked it up, but the selfish part of me was grateful for the opportunity.
“He left me a voice message,” I explained. “He told me to go to that club and to look after you.”
“Look after me?”
“He told me to ‘look for her in the VIP bar.’ It took me a split second to realize it was you he meant.”
“Why would–” She stopped speaking suddenly, eyes widening even more, if that was even possible, as she brought a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“Could he have gone to the police?” she asked, but she wasn’t really asking me. She was talking to herself now. “Or maybe Tommy found out I told him. Oh, fuck.” She paced again. “No, that can’t be right. If he’d found out, I’d be dead, but then Anthony . . . oh shit. I don’t know.”
“Care to explain it to me?” I said after watching her talk to herself for a while.
“He could’ve gone to the feds and skipped town.” She kept pacing. “They’re going to kill me. They’re going to piece it together and know I told him things and then they’re going to kill me.” She stopped walking and faced me. “He ran. He must have.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “What did you tell him? Why would he run?”
“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.” She put her arms on her head and took deep breaths. “I have to get to Santi. Fuck. I have to call Dad. Oh God. I’m going to be sick.” She ran into the bathroom.
I gave her space. I needed to think this over. Why the fuck would my brother go to the feds? What could she have possibly told him? He couldn’t have been on the run. I saw him leaving his building calmly and knew my brother well enough to know that if he was in danger, he would have looked like he was. When Rosie stepped back into the room, she’d washed her face and picked up her hair in a neat bun but didn’t look any less panicked.
“Pack a bag. You’re staying with me.” I took my phone out to text the two drivers I had waiting downstairs and told them to go home in one car and leave mine.
“What? I can’t just go and stay with you.”
“You have to.” I glanced up at her. “We don’t know what you’re dealing with and if I leave you here, Tommy may get to you before I have a chance to stop him.” I looked at her neck. Those bruises were fucking me up. “Was he the one who did that to you?”
“No.” She set a hand there as if to cover it up, but it was impossible. As if realizing this just now, tears welled in her eyes. “How am I supposed to dance tomorrow night?”
“You still dance?”
She nodded. “At the city ballet. I’m . . .” she paused, shaking slightly. “I’m in The Nutcracker.”
“I’m sure they can cover that up.” I tried smiling, but my concern overrode my pride. She nodded, still in the same spot. I waved a hand around impatiently. “Pack a bag.”
“I’m not going to pack a bag, Dominic.”
“Either you pack a bag, or I do it for you, but I’m not leaving here without you.”
“You’re just going to, what, kidnap me?” she snapped.
“If that’s what it takes.”
“You can’t be serious.”
I took a step forward. “Do I look like I’m fucking joking?”