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“Your first of many perp walks, married to that criminal who you chose to side with, Charlie,” Detective Vane muttered in my ear. “Isn’t it embarrassing?”
I took a deep breath and steadied my nerves, raised my chin, and shrugged.
* * *
My composure lasteduntil I was handcuffed to a table in the interrogation room. Detective Vane and Whitely left me to sweat for a while. It felt like my entire life flashed before my eyes. All the trouble I’d been avoiding for a decade had caught up with me. All those nights in the group home when I’d been the lookout, the kid too scared to sneak out the broken window on the second floor, and so instead had stayed behind, guarding the door. The one who’d stayed on the beach while my nursing friends had skinny-dipped at the shore after passing some hard exams.
The purse watcher. The wallflower. The rule follower. Now, my life had gone completely off the rails, so what had all that worry and sacrifice even been for? A wasted effort. I could have been sneaking out, skinny-dipping, and breaking the rules my entire life. I’d ended up in the same place, anyway.
“Miss Burke, we didn’t keep you waiting too long, did we?” Whitely asked as they came in and locked the door behind them.
“It’s Mrs. De Sanctis, and it’s fine.”
“Hmmm, Mrs. De Sanctis.” Detective Vane sat across from me and smiled. “How are you doing, Charlie?”
I shrugged. “Good. You?”
“Oh, I’m great. You look a little beat up there. Piss your husband off, did you?”
A bitter laugh left me at her hard tone. “If I had, I’m sure your warm and supportive manner would really set me at ease. Are you like this with real domestic violence victims, or just people you’re trying to intimidate?”
Detective Vane glared at me. “I don’t like weak women, Mrs. De Sanctis, and I don’t like people who don’t take help when it’s offered to them.”
“I don’t need your help. The only people who are victimizing me are you two.”
Whitely stepped forward, placed a folder on the table, and flipped it open. A white van sat at the corner of a photograph inside, and a row of body bags lined the ground in front. I recognized it immediately. It was the same setting as last night, and I could bet those bodies were the Castillo Cartel.
“Why are you showing me this?”
“Does it look familiar?”
“I think it’s a scene from a movie, right? I just can’t remember which one.”
Detective Vane chuckled. “This is really how you’re going to play it? Don’t you know you’ve got serious charges against you? You could do time.”
Do time?The only way I could do time was if they could pin something on Renato, and I believed in the manipulation and strategy of my husband far more than these clowns.
I didn’t answer, deciding that was the best strategy from now on.
“I’m showing you this to make you aware of how dangerous the man you married is. He could hurt you and your sister.”
I held my tongue and stared Whitely down. Their words had no power over me.
“Charlotte, we can still help you. We know Renato was involved last night. Have you ever heard the name Kirill Chernov? He and his brother are two of the most dangerous criminals to ever hit the East Coast. The only one more dangerous is your husband.”
A hard knock broke Whitely’s concentration, and he muttered as he got up and went to the door.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything? Since I haven’t had a call from my client, and you’re already questioning her, there has to be some mix-up in communication, right?”
The newcomer’s smooth confidence muffled the tension rising in me. He’d called me his client. This had to be Renato’s attorney.
He stalked into the room, drawing all eyes. He didn’t seem like any attorney I’d ever seen. He looked like a thug in a bespoke suit, and it worked for him. A buzz cut, neck and knuckle tattoos, and a suit that had probably cost more than my annual waitressing salary, custom-made to fit his huge hulking shoulders.
“Charlotte, I’m Ronan Black, a close friend and advisor of your husband.”
“You mean hisconsigliere, don’t you, Black? Just call a spade a spade,” Detective Vane spat, clearly annoyed that the attorney had arrived so quickly.
Ronan didn’t bother looking at her. All his attention was on me. “I’m here to represent you and get this misunderstanding cleared up as quickly as possible.” He shook my hand, gentle, despite the fact that his huge, tattooed hand was twice the size of mine. He sat beside me and set his briefcase on the floor. “Have you been offered a drink?”
