“And another question,” she said. “Be honest with me. I’m not going to say anything, I just need to know. Did the two of you fuck last night?”
Like an overripe peach, my cheeks must’ve gone ten shades pinker. “I—”
“I didn’t hear anything,” she said in a whisper. “It’s just that you both seem, lighter. And I could also probably mention how the two of you are a little more touchy with each other today. Don’t forget I am an investigative journalist. I can spot these things. Just like I can spot Julian’s offspring in that room. Will need a paternity test, which he’ll have to be compelled to do, and since Thanh doesn’t want to get deported.Ugh.Ok, I need to think about this now.”
We got off with it. And then, all the things she’d said to me came flooding back. I was in a bubble with Donovan, touching, smiling, being. And Maya had brought me out of it. That woman in there was a victim, and she deserved justice.
“We could probably get his DNA,” I told her.
“You could?” she asked.
“We could,” Jinksy added in my ear. “I’m not sure if anyone is around to do that grunt work though.”
“We’ll get someone on it,” Donovan said—to all of us. “I’m thinking there’s got to be someone who will do it. We’ve got to have someone within the Ashford family who can do it for us.”
“I’ll be back after I’ve talked to Mercy about this,” he said.
I knew I shouldn’t have promised the world to her like that, I stared at Donovan, expecting him to whisper that I would be in for my punishment later tonight. Yet, he didn’t, in fact, he smiled and said it was a good call.
Apparently Sanctum could get you or do whatever it wanted for you. You wanted to fly to the moon, guess who was going onto the next manned trip up out into orbit. You wanted cola the way they used to make it, guess who got the recipe.
Maya took Thanh’s statement and made her sign some documents before asking for a cotton swab of the inside of herdaughter’s cheek. We weren’t near for any of it, but Donovan signed something to say he saw the entire thing happen and would attest to it not being contaminated.
***
Across town, we were above a dry cleaning and tailoring store. There was a young woman. She was recently rescued from the trap the Ashford family had put her into. This time, we were allowed to stay in the room, and I didn’t know if I could handle it. I’d tried as hard as I could, but listening to the young woman—similar age to me, as she talked about a job that took her from the Philippines were she was told she’d be a hotel maid, and ended up an escort. Her arms were cut up pretty badly, claiming she escaped through barbed wire and a chips of glass that had been set on top of concrete walls.
Donovan took me to the side of the room as I began to hyperventilate. “I know,” he whispered. “I see it, I hear it. It’s exactly why we do the job right. Not fast. Not angry. Right.”
“People should burn for this,” I said behind clenched teeth. “They should go out in the worst way possible.” My voice raising, I couldn’t help it.
“Maybe, yes. But maybe Maya’s case is what will burn them in the worst way. The eyes of the law will be the pain that keeps hitting them, time and time again. I believe it. And it’s our job to make sure she gets everything she needs for that to happen,” he said, slowly nodding with me as if he remember how to regulate my breathing with me.
After last night, it was impossible to hate or even pretend to hate him now. I didn’t quite understand what we were, but I don’t think we would ever get an answer to that while under Sanctum’s thumb. I could see a little more clearly about what I’dsigned away—and even though the money was nice, I felt like I was going to be owing Mercy my life by the end of it.
It wasn’t going to be easy, but I knew I could eventually pay my way out of it, and that’s something I had to tell myself in that state of mine. It was like I’d gone absent behind the eyes, and everyone in front of me knew it.
“I’ve got everything I need,” Maya said. “Are you two ok?” she asked. “I don’t want to be asking for two new protectors, do I?”
“No, Ma’am,” Donovan said.
“Ew, do not call mema’am,” she mocked. “It’s Maya, or if I give you a glare, Ms. Chen.”
He nodded and had that sorta half smile I totally fell for when we first started hooking up, and again now. “We’re ok,” I told her. “It’s a bit of a raw subject for me, but don’t worry, I am absolutely fine to continue working. Where are we heading to next?”
She clapped her hands twice. “Lunch,” she said. “I might’ve opted for a lunch at the hotel, but since I’ve got the two of you on my arm, let’s go somewhere nice.”
I envied her ability to put what she’d just heard somewhere she wasn’t actively touching. It would take me a while to put that into the back of my mind. But the mention of lunch brought about my appetite.
We walked out of the room, leaving Laurisa in the room alone after her statement had been taken.
“I’m pretty hungry,” Donovan said. “Did you have anywhere in mind?”
“Well, since my benefactor is paying, somewhere expensive,” she said.
“Those types of places book up fast,” he said.
“We should know, where did we try going that one time when you and I were together, and they said they didn’t have anyroom for us until like six months down the line,” I said, not quite as professional as I knew Donovan would’ve wanted, but it just came out of me. I was a blurter—especially when my entire body felt like it had been zapped by a thousand volts of electricity.
