Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“He was abusive,” I admitted. “I kept trying to leave. But he just… it never worked. Then, it did. For a while. Until he found me at work. Cornered me in the alley when I was taking out the trash. And I just… lost it,” I told him.
“Good. Hope it hurt,” Rico said.
“That was why I fled Brooklyn. I thought the cops might be coming for me. But then… they never did. I didn’t realize until a few weeks ago that they didn’t because I didn’t kill him.”
“He tracked you down?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“That’s the complicated part, I guess.”
“I got time.”
“The night of the robbery…”
“Yeah?”
“When the one guy… had me in your office, another guy came in to pull him away, telling him that I’d hit some silent alarm and the cops were coming.”
“Okay…”
“That second guy? He had a tattoo on his arm that I recognized.”
“Your ex?”
“My brother,” I clarified. “I went looking for him. But he was missing. Had been for a while, it seemed like. And then one night, I came home to find that guy from the office in my apartment. And then my ex walked out of the hallway. And… and they had Jake.”
“Your brother?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you mean had him?”
“Like kidnapped. Or held hostage? I saw a video. He was all beaten up.” Except, of course, judging by his face I’d seen earlier that night, he’d never been beaten. It had just been, I don’t know, really good makeup, I guess.
“Okay,” Rico agreed, strangely calm at such shocking news. “I’m assuming your ex wanted money?”
“Yes. He said I had to start skimming off of the register and paying him each week.”
“To what end?” Rico asked, sitting forward, elbows going to his thighs.
“He didn’t really have an end. It was weird. He didn’t seem to think I would get caught. The register has to be balanced out.”
“Keep going,” Rico said, voice a little tighter. “Is that the whole thing?”
“I mean, I started taking the money. I didn’t want to, I swear. It was killing me to keep—“
“Babe,” he cut me off. “Right now, facts. We can do feelings later.”
“O…kay,” I agreed, unsure about his recent change in demeanor. Feeling antsy, I started to pace a bit. “But I just… I couldn’t be under his thumb forever. I started to try to stake out parts of the Bronx where I thought he might be.”
“Did you find him?”
“Not until tonight,” I told him. “I just… got lucky, really. He was coming out of a Chinese restaurant. I followed him home.”
“And then?”
“Then I snuck in and went to the basement. I thought that if I could confirm that my brother was there, I would call the police and tell them that Kyle was holding Jake against his will. Torturing him.”
“But you didn’t call the police,” he concluded.
“The basement was empty. So I was glad I didn’t call. I figured I could maybe follow Kyle to the location where he was keeping Jake. But… but then…” I broke off, taking a few deep, steadying breaths.
“Finish it. What happened?”
His head was ducked, so I looked at him, my heart shattering in my chest, knowing I’d broken something that had been rare and precious, something I didn’t think I’d ever get again.
“I was leaving and I saw someone.”
“Your ex?”
“No,” I said, sucking in a deep breath as the metallic taste of bitterness filled my mouth. “It was my brother.”
“What?” Rico asked, head lifting, pinning me with his dark gaze.
I was frozen in the spot, incapable of moving as he stared at me.
“It was Jake. He was walking out of Kyle’s building,” I told him, lower lip wobbling with my still-fresh anger. “And as I was leaving, I saw an email from my brother’s roommate, saying Jake had paid him for the rent and he’d picked up some of his stuff. He was never kidnapped. They were working together.”
“Your brother and your abusive ex.”
It wasn’t exactly a question. But I found myself answering anyway.
“Yes.”
Suddenly, that carefully-contained air about Rico disappeared as he flew off of the couch quickly enough to make me go back a step.
“Do they know who the fuck I am?” he raged as he stalked away from me, moving toward the kitchen. Like there was too much rage inside of him to stay still. “Do they know who they are fucking with?”
Did I?
This wasn’t the Rico I’d known for months, who I’d been intimate with for weeks.
This wasn’t someone I recognized at all.
“Rico,” I called, voice soft, almost trembling. The sound seemed to break through whatever was going on in his mind right then, making him turn back, watching me.
“Yeah?”
“Who are you?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Rico
When she broke down, I knew it wasn’t some evil plan. To distract me with intimacy then rob me blind.
Sure, I’d seen more than a few people use tears and begging to try to get out of trouble for fucking me or my family over.