Because what the fuck?
There was no way that kind of bruise came from anything other than being grabbed. Hard. Really fucking hard. The band was almost black, for fuck’s sake.
Roe’s eyes widened.
Her shoulders stiffened.
Something a little wary crossed her face.
Because, clearly, someone had been violent with her recently. The last thing she needed was my anger.
I had to rein it in.
“Baby,” I said, my voice as soft as I could make it with how sharp my emotions felt right then, “what the hell happened?”
“Remo didn’t tell you?”
“Remo?” I snarled. “Did Remo do this?”
I didn’t want to believe it, but I didn’t know the man that well yet.
“No! No, Remo saved me,” she said, her hand going up.
“I’m trying not to spiral here,” I told her, my voice as calm as I could manage. “What happened? Why did Remo need to save you?”
Why didn’t you call me?
“I was leaving the hotel last night. And I guess Frank was hanging around. He saw me. And he freaked out. He grabbed me and started ranting and raving about what a whore I was, how I was screwing the customers for cash, and that I was going to… give him what he wanted. Whether I wanted it or not.”
“What?” The sound was a growl. My jaw was too tight for the word to escape properly.
She sucked in a deep breath. “It was really bad,” she admitted, her voice small. “But then Remo came stumbling over acting drunk. He kind of distracted Frank and then, well, stabbed him in the neck with a needle.”
“What?”
What the fuck was going on?
And, more importantly, why had no one informed me?
“Frank went down hard, and Remo got me out of there. He had me call the police to report it.”
“I’m gonna fucking kill Remo,” I snapped.
If this happened last night, he had more than enough time to get to me and tell me.
“He was… nice. And he has guards watching me from a distance now.”
Oh, did he now?
Called up the whole network to set up shifts but didn’t think to tell me what was going on?
Christ.
I needed to calm down.
In Remo’s head, Roe was the Family’s asset. She wasn’tmine. Even though I’d been the one making contact from the beginning.
“Okay,” I said, trying to think through the soup in my mind. “Why would Remo want you to call the cops?”
