“I’m not being a baby,” I grumbled back in a tone that I could appreciate was very childish.
We entered the hotel room and Avion made sure to shut the door tight behind us before dragging me the rest of the way into the room where someone was sitting on the couch.
Or a ghost perhaps?
“Fantastic,” I said in a muted tone. “Curtis Narzand, to what do I owe the pleasure.”
“Well for starters, I don’t love the joke about getting my daughter into bed.”
“Why don’t you tell me more about that before I shove the barrel of my gun down your throat?” I snapped.
“Hey!” Avion barked at me. “Relax. I didn’t bring you here for that.”
“He still owes me half-a-million dollars, you know?” he said.
“I do know, and…” She walked over to one of the queen-sized beds and picked up a duffel bag before carrying it over to me and unzipping it. “Here’s a hundred and fifty thousand of it.”
“Is this your money?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. His.”
“You forced him?”
“Wrong again,” I said. “He’s been saving up. He was planning on trying to meet with you to offer it as a downpayment to get me back.”
I side-eyed Curtis and saw the look of terror and sadness on his face.
It was genuine.
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers and let out a growl. “My life is about to become even more complicated, isn’t it?”
“Maybe just a little,” Avion said.
None of what I was seeing made sense, which was the rapidly growing theme of this entire debacle. How was Curtis Narzand sitting in front of me when Milli wascertainthe man had been killed?
“How do we know he was saving this money for you?” I asked. “He could be lying to cover his own ass because you found him.”
“Yeah, I thought that too, but…”
Avion fished her hand into the bag and pulled out a white piece of paper that had been crudely folded in half. She handed it to me and when I unfolded it, it had a simple, but stated message on it.
This bag and money are property of Giovanni Raines.
If found on or off my person, please return to him.
Hopefully this will be enough good faith to release my collateral,
and if I am not gone, I will get you the rest of the money.
“Even if wecould say he wrote this today, which from how faded the letters are I don’t think he did, he had no way of knowing I was coming. Even my brothers were shocked I was out by myself. They thought it was a set up too,” Avion explained.
“You’ve talked to your brothers?” Curtis and I said in unison.
I glared over at him and he coerced backwards onto the couch, so I looked up at Avion. “I can’t believe you went and saw them by yourself.”
“I’m armed,” she quickly replied, “and I took them to a place I know cops frequent to talk. Don’t worry about me, Mr. Raines. I can take care of myself.” The look of coy confidence on her face was incredibly sexy. I wished that Ihadbeen spending more time with Avion lately, I might have seen this new aura her training was giving her. “Anyway. It’s not like I love the guy, but I’m relieved he’s not dead. He claims he wasn’t on the run, but that he was trying his best to get somewhere where he could meet with you without my brothers knowing. That’s why he’s here.”
“So the woman cleaning his home lied?” I asked.
