Rafael looks at me. “You don’t remember Piero?”
My heart is hammering. “No.”
“I do. He liked me.”
I shake my head. I will not deal with this. I can’t. I walk out of the office into the club, straight into the beat of the music and the sounds of sex. My stomach turns. I walk through to the foyer and out of the building.
I suck in a huge breath of cool, fresh air. Another. I want to keep walking, run maybe, start over, wipe all of this out. I’ve done it before.
But …
Elias.
I don’t know how much time passes. I’m standing with my back against the brick wall when Dominic comes out. He puts his back to the wall, stands beside me.
He’s silent for a long time then says, “There’s a lot I don’t remember.”
I don’t reply. He doesn’t expect me to.
After a while, he says, “Rafael cleaned up some audio. You should listen to it.”
He pushes away from the wall and walks to the door. I go with him. The bouncer lets us in.
We walk through the sex club to the office. Dominic shuts the door, cutting off the sounds.
Rafael’s gray eyes, serious, almost grim, flick up over the monitors. He says, “Maybe it’ll make sense to you. It’s in Italian though.”
“That’s fine,” I reply.
I go to stand beside Rafael. He plays a clip of Ernesto when he’s on the phone as he’s leaving.
In Italian, Ernesto says, “Yes, I’m fucking sure. It’s Elio.”
“Elio?” I echo. “Is that what he said?”
Rafael shrugs. “That’s what I heard.”
“Play it again.”
Rafael plays it three more times, but I can’t make sense of it. Maybe the audio got corrupted in the clarification. It doesn’t make sense.
I’m at a loss. I can see that Rafael and Dominic are too.
Rafael says, “The best person to ask is Noah.”
I freeze.
“He has resources,” Rafael says. When I don’t still don’t reply, he adds, “He would help you, Andre. He’d help any of us.”
A shudder breaks me from my stillness. I can’t deal with Noah. Dealing with Rafael and Dominic is bad enough.
But Noah …
No.
I can’t.
I shake my head.
