Page 78 of Blood We Steal

“That was supposed to be a closed proceeding.”

The prosecutor had assured me my testimony wouldn’t be common knowledge. The prosecutor had lied.

She chuckled. “It was a closed proceeding. But you testified against him, and you’re still alive,” she said.

“Yeah, it’s complicated. And who knows how long that’ll last,” I whispered.

She shook her head and smiled at me. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. At least not from him.”

“Well, it’s nice that you think that, but I think you’re mistaken.”

“All right,” she said. “Can I ask another question?”

“Of course.”

“How’d you end up working for him?”

That question froze me, and I was silent, trying to work out an answer. “I…it’s⁠—”

Veronica reached out and squeezed my hand. “I’m not judging you. I’m just curious. But my big sister always said I talk too goddamn much anyway, so I’ll shut up.”

“No, it’s not you, it’s just…I don’t really think about that, haven’t in a long, long time. But I just fell into it, I guess,” I said with a shrug.

Maybe that was a tenth of a fraction of the story. But it was all I could muster.

“Yeah. We do just fall into things sometimes. Well, I’ve monopolized you enough, and if my speculation is correct, Mr. Marku is looking for you.”

“Yeah, you’re probably wrong about that,” I said.

Veronica chuckled. “We’ll see.”

I turned a corner and collided with a hard chest and muscular arms that belonged to Rubin. Veronica had not been wrong.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Rubin

“Where have you been, miu?” I kept my voice quiet. Lethal for anyone smart enough to hear it. She was.

She stared up at me and smiled. “To the beauty salon.”

My brow furrowed before I could stop it. She lifted a hand to the loose braid that brushed her shoulder. “You didn’t notice my amazing new hairdo.”

“I don’t give a fuck about your hair, Simone. Where were you?”

She brushed off my gruffness and smiled wider. Something almost giddy in it. “Thanks a lot, Mr. Marku. All that work and that’s the response I get.”

“What are you so happy about?” I said.

I’d seen her go to Veronica and that CO. I’d decided he’d get to live and would not think more of it. Tried to, anyway. But the hours stretched and I couldn’t stop wondering where she was. Who she was with. What she was up to. It could have been a chat with someone who, in a different life, would have been a friend. Plausible. Too simple for Simone. She had to be up to something. She had to be.

I’d driven myself to near frenzy, and she’d breezed in like it was nothing. The tic in my jaw worked overtime as I glared at her.

“Come with me.” I grabbed her wrist, my fingers settling against her pulse as I moved. I hated standing in the hallway, exposed.

If Simone minded the roughness of my tone, she didn’t show it. She seldom did.

“Don’t disappear like that again,” I said through clenched teeth.