Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“We found a name,” I said. “Dominic Denton.”
Darby’s eyes went sharp. “That fucker.” She dropped into a chair and leaned back, putting her booted feet on the table, even though it made Antonio twitch.
“You know him?” I asked.
She nodded. “He’s been in the club scene forever. He runs parties, buys out whole clubs for ‘events.’ Always brings his own security. I kind of figured he was sketchy, but not this level of evil.”
Antonio studied Darby. “You ever work for him?”
She snorted. “He doesn’t hire people like me. He finds compliant, timid people.” She narrowed her gaze at me. “Which is surprising because you don’t seem like the blindly compliant sort of person.” She pointed at the file. “I recognized another name, too. Rourke. Cade Rourke.”
The file there listed him as a party broker. He ran a fleet of black SUVs for VIPs. His last payment had been logged two days ago.
“Cade’s not as slick as Denton,” Darby said. “He’s a heavy drinker and frequents several bars in the local area. More importantly, he talks. If you want to get at Denton, Cade’s the way in.”
Antonio absorbed that, slow and deliberate. “Is he reliable?”
Darby shrugged. “Motivated’s better than reliable. He’s greedy, and he hates Denton. He’ll talk if you squeeze him right.”
Antonio picked up his own phone and tapped a few times. Then he looked at the man standing in the doorway. “Find Rourke. You know where to take him. Keep Kass informed.” The man nodded and vanished.
Darby whistled. “Someone’s not fucking around.”
Antonio ignored her, turning back to me. “You did good, Tessa. Most people would have quit halfway down that file.”
“I don’t have the luxury,” I said. “Not if I want to live.”
“Is this helping clear some of the haze around your memory?” he asked. He looked closely at me and waited for an answer.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s helping a lot. It was all there before, but the pictures of these guys… The ones I recognize have varying creep factors, but this is the evilest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
He nodded once. “Then keep going. As long as it takes. As long as you need to.”
He stood, walked around the table, and stopped behind my chair. He rested his hand on my shoulder for one second, then let it drop.
I watched him leave, then looked at Darby. She had her feet back on the table, grinning at me. “You’re not what I expected,” she said.
“Neither are you.”
Darby grinned wider. “I think you’re starting to get it. Just remember reputation can only give you part of the picture.”
I looked back at the files spread out over the table. Denton’s face stared back at me. I wanted to remember it forever.
Darby drained her can and belched. “Well, shit,” she said. “Guess it’s time to ruin some lives.”
I smiled at that. For the first time in a long time, it felt real.
I took the whole mess back to my suite and spent the rest of the day reading through the documents Knight had put together. By the end of it, I needed to take a shower. I felt filthy by association, reading everything Veda had found on these guys, as well as new stuff Knight had found. It brought my whole ordeal back to the surface. I would never again be as helpless as I’d been while I’d been held captive. Never again.
An hour before dusk, I heard voices from the lower level. The cadence was sharp, then punctuated by a single short bark from Antonio, cutting everything off. I waited a count of ten, then opened the door at the end of the hall and made my way downstairs.
At the back of the living room, a door leading down a flight of stairs had been left open. The voices were quieter now, which made me think things had been rather rowdy when I’d first heard the commotion.
I went down the stairs which opened up into a large room, like the observers’ side of an interrogation room. A closed door separated one side from the other and what I assumed was one-way glass -- like in the movies -- showed the inhabitant of the other side of the room.
In the center of the smaller, separate room, a single chair sat bolted to the floor with what looked like a drain underneath.
Antonio stood in front of the glass. He didn’t acknowledge me, but I saw him in the reflection because he met my gaze and held it for a long moment. I glanced past him to see the person on the other side of the glass. The guy zip-tied to the chair was likely the man captured when Haven had been attacked. Kass stood against the wall next to Antonio, arms folded and face blank like he was supremely bored.
When Antonio finally spoke, he didn’t turn around. “You’re not getting any closer, Tessa,” he said. “You can watch from here, but you’re not going in that room.”