“I can’t talk if you’re holding me like that.”
“Then shake your head if you’re gonna stop lying to me.”
I lock eyes with him. “Okay. You got me. I need some dough to leave town and hoped you’d help me out ’cause you like me and I’ve done you a favor or two before.”
“That wasn’t a favor.” He touches my cheek, his thumb sliding over my lower lip. “That was a good time. And you’re right, I do like you, Othella, and I’ll help you. Give you all the cash you need to get out of town, but first, you gotta do a job for me.”
My heart races. “I can’t. You don’t get it. I gotta leave tonight.”
He shakes his head, smiling all the while. “Nah. You ain’t going anywhere until you lift something for me.”
“I can’t.”
His hand tightens around my neck. “Give me a good reason why you can’t.”
“Perry is out of town. Remember?” My veins feel like they’re about to burst. “I don’t have a partner.”
“You’re the queen of the fingersmiths, aren’t you?”
“No one calls me that,” I reply.
“I do, and I’m the only one who matters.”
“I don’t need the dough bad enough to do a job solo,” I lie again.
“Yes, you do need it that badly,” Tony says, loosening his grip on my neck. “You need it worse than you know.”
“How’s that?”
“The coppers are looking for you, honey. Or they will be by morning, and they’ll throw you in jail if Perry’s brother doesn’t find you first.”
“What are you talking about? Why would Jerry Merri-weather be looking for me? And why would the police want me? They’ve got nothing that proves I did anything.”
“You killed your boyfriend and the cops want to arrest you. Meanwhile, Perry’s brother, Jerry, just wants to bash your head in.”
I’m sure I didn’t hear him right. “What are you talking about?”
“A neighbor heard y’all arguing this afternoon, saw you run out of the apartment, and called the cops. They found his body on the living room floor.”
I step back. “Perry ain’t dead. He can’t be. I didn’t hit him hard enough. And he talked to me right before I left.” I start shaking so hard I think I’ll fall. “He wasn’t dead, I swear to you. When I left that apartment, Perry was alive!”
“Calm down—no need for histrionics.” Tony leads me from the dance floor to his box. “When he was found, Perry lay dead on his living room floor, a gash in his head that was the size of a baseball. The Smokador you used to kill him was covered in blood.”
The pounding in my chest is unbearable. “I didn’t kill him.”
“Doesn’t matter what you say. Nobody will believe you, especially not Jerry. But that’s where I come in. I’ll keep him off your back, and the coppers, too. Most of ’em in that neighborhood work for me. How do you think I found outso quickly that Perry was dead and the police were looking for you?”
Tony lights a cigarette. “So, you’re gonna do this job for me, and I’ll pay you and protect you until you’re safely out of town. Deal?”
Fuck. Is Tony telling me the truth about Perry? Is he really dead? I swear, he was alive when I left the apartment. But if the cops have my name on a ticket, it doesn’t matter whether I killed him or not. They’ll arrest me if they find me, and I can’t go to jail. I’d be no good in jail. Christ. But if the cops don’t catch me, what about Perry’s twin, Jerry?
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
“Good girl,” Tony replies.
“So, what do you want me to steal?”
“Nothing big, just a pocket watch from an old man.”
