CHAPTER 7
“What? Who?” Mel’s golden eyes go wide.
“The girl that was in the room—the one who looked freakishly like you—wasn’t the girl Black sent over. It was someone else. Black assumed the dead call girl was hers. She never saw the body and the police still haven’t released her name, but I saw her.” I shake my head and shiver. Continuing, I think out loud, “That means the original hooker that Black sent to our room was either in on it or she’s dead.” I tell Mel what Black told me.
“I know Tawny and that wasn’t her. I’m calling her.” Mel pulls out her phone and dials. After a second she hangs up. “It went straight to voicemail.”
“Her battery is dead.”
“Or she’s at the bottom of the bay.” Mel tenses and presses the edge of the phone to her lips.
“Mel, I don’t like this. What if it’s just some random person killing off Black’s girls? I mean, they tried to take a shot at me, they tried for you, and Tawny’s missing.” My throat’s grown so tight that I can’t swallow. “What if this has nothing to do with Sean and everything to do with Black?”
Mel’s golden gaze cuts over to me. “I don’t trust Black, period. But offering her own staff up to be slaughtered isn’t like her. Especially you and me. We’re her bread and butter. No one out earned me until you came along.”
I add, “Black has a pretty big fear of being poor.”
“I can’t blame her.” Mel rubs her hands over her face and shakes her head. “It makes no f*cking sense. Someone is playing us and I’m inclined to think it’s one of the f*cked up Ferros since all this started when Sean came around.”
“It’s not him.” I say it with complete conviction.
“But how do you know?”
“I just do.”
“That’s a shitty answer when people are getting whacked, Avery, and you know it.”
“It’s not Sean.” I repeat myself with utter confidence. Standing, I start to pace while rubbing my chin. “Sean has his own stuff going on, and he only fights back when prompted.”
“What about that shit with Trystan on the way in?”
“There’s bad blood between them.”
“But Rockstar didn’t start that fight. Your boy did.”
“And no one ended up dead in a dumpster either, Mel. Come on, think! What are we missing?”
We’re both quiet for a long time. I keep trying to pin this on Naked Guy or Henry Thomas, but something feels off. It’s too easy to pin it on one of them and there’s no real motive. Well, not one worth killing for. Henry is embarrassed and irate that Sean stole someone he wanted, again. Henry’s also pissed that Amanda died, but it doesn’t make sense for him to kill me to get back at Sean, not if Henry actually liked me. That’s the part that doesn’t fit in his puzzle.
Maybe he didn’t like you. Maybe he was using you. My inner-voice is a pain in the ass.
Mel huffs and shakes her head, still on the bench. “It makes no sense. We’ve got someone shooting at you and me. Maybe it’s a vendetta against Black?”
“By who?” I turn and look at her. “Who would want to wipe out her staff, because that’s what it looks like they’re doing. That’s why Black wants to protect me and she sure as hell doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”
Mel makes a sound of disbelief. “She doesn’t give a flying fart what happens to me.”
Shaking my head, I correct her. “I asked to take you with me, if I accepted the position as a madam. Black said no.”
Mel glances up at me with her eyebrows pinched together. “That’s weird.”
“Not if you’re her main girl. I mean she’d want to keep you around.”
“Yeah, but she’s sending you off. Someone doesn’t want us talking to each other. They think we’ll figure things out.” Mel bites her lip as she thinks.
I lean against the wall and tap my nails on the thick dark paint. “Mel, I don’t know how to handle this. If we call the cops, there’s nothing to tell them.”
“And they’ll throw my ass in jail. No cops.” Her eyes are wide and frightened.
“So, what can we do?”
“It’s simple. This is the way things were on the streets where I grew up. No one saves you, except you. There’s no white knight, no police officer that will rescue you. It’s time to fight or die, Avery.”
I repeat Mel’s old words, softly, “Surviving justifies anything.”
“F*ck, yeah.”