He flipped his phone shut and drew in another breath.
It was then he allowed himself to envision what was on thattape.
He was interrupted in this when Brady dropped the phone hehad to his ear, turned his head, and looked into the back at Marcus.
“You have a meet with Nightingale at two,” Brady told him.
In other words, in twenty minutes.
“Excellent,” Marcus replied.
Brady turned forward.
Marcus breathed.
Daisy
“Aren’t these pretty?”
I didn’t look.
I kept staring out the window of my apartment, seeingnothing.
“Daisy, hon,”LaTeesha, one ofSmithie’s four women, got closer to me.(Yeah, he had four, and yeah, he workedthat, and yeah, I got that—Smithie had that big of a heart, not one of them ornot any of the gazillion kids he had felt what they got from him was lacking.)
“You’re sweet,bein’ here with me,sugar.But I’mfeelin’ the need for alone time.”
“Daisy—”
I turned to look at her, my mouth open to say something,when I stopped and stared at the huge bouquet of flowers she held in her hands.
Daisies.
“Smithie?”I asked, still staring at the flowers.
“Marcus Sloan.”
My eyes shot to hers.
“Uh…pardon?”
She smiled gently.“They’re from Marcus Sloan.”
“Marcus Sloan?”
She misunderstood me, thinking I didn’t know who he was whenI didn’t.Not really.But I’d heard of him.And, of course, seen him at theclub since I noticed he’d come in every once in a while after that first timeI’d seen him with Ashlynn.
“He’s Smithie’s partner.Silent partner.”She said that lastquickly, and I knew the way it came at me the “silent” part wasverysilent.“He…he’s…” She seemed to struggle before she went on, “A good man.Kind-hearted.He helped me and Smithie with some things once and I’m gratefulhe did.Don’t know what we would’ve done if he hadn’t.My guess is that heheard what happened and—”
Oh no.
Nononononono.
No.
My chest closed up so I had to force out my, “Please.”
She set the daisies aside and crouched down beside me,taking my hand.
