He sounded annoyed. Probably because he was a little, that knee-jerk rejection of anyone who thought he wasn’t capable of making good decisions because of where he’d come from or how he spoke. Make that “used to speak.”
That would pass. What mattered was that hefeltJustin take the hook. His old partner had already been interested in the challenge of getting a guilty man off and the payoff with the stocks—but the opportunity to cause issues in Cade’s relationship with Marlow was just the sweetener he needed to bite.
“The stocks and my usual fee,” Justin counteroffered. It was just for show. He didn’t expect Cade to back out now. “No promises, obviously. I’ll do my best.”
“Done,” Cade said. “A handshake good enough?”
Justin laughed. “For an asshole, you always had a good sense of humor,” he said. “I’ll get my assistant to draw up a contract. I assume that your friend outside is here to make sure we’re not going to pull a fast one?”
“That’s right.”
Justin picked up the phone on his desk. “Brent? Bring through Mr. Deacon’s guest.”
A second later, the door opened and Maria walked in. She didn’t look like she didn’t belong—her makeup was flawless and her clothes good quality—but she held herself as though she knew better. Both hands were clenched around her purse, and she kept her elbows close to her side as the equally flawless but far more relaxed Brent directed her to a chair. She sat with her knees and heels pressed together and her back so straight it looked like it hurt.
“Don’t worry,” Justin said. “I don’t bite.”
“You’re not what I’m worried about,” Maria said, tension sharp as cheese wire in her voice. “My neighbors said Night Shift was at my house last night. The principal at my school thinks I’m dead because he can’t find me and I’m not answering my phone. Night Shift is the only law there is during the full moon, and now fuck knows how many of them are looking for me. None of this is my fault—”
Cade snorted. “Didn’t you facilitate criminal activities for a felon?”
“Yeah, for years,” she said. “And it went fine until you came knocking on my door.”
Justin chuckled. “I like her,” he told no one in particular. Then he rested his folded arms on the table and raised his eyebrows. “So, what hoops do we have to jump through here?”
He didn’t get an answer right away. Maria flexed her hands against her bag, the pleather pleated under her nails, and glanced around at them.
“What if I don’t do shit?” she asked, her voice flat and stripped of the nice Spanish-teacher overlay. “I owe Piper, sure, but he can’t do fuck-all to help me now. Maybe I should just walk out of here, give Franklin whatever he wants. I’d miss the extra money, but I’m a good teacher. I could get by, and I’d be alive to do it.”
She had to know the answer to that. Everyone else in the room did.
“Then we tell Piper why his once-in-a-lifetime, limited time offer on some sort of future evaporated,” Cade told her, just in case she needed to hear it out loud. “Maybe he doesn’t have the pull he did before, but he’s a careful man. Are you sure that Franklin is the only one he kept a stash of evidence on, just in case?”
Maria clenched her jaw. “Not on me,” she said. “He trusts me. I’m not like Franklin.”
“And Franklin’s not like Piper,” Marlow said.
“Piper shot you,” Maria said. Her gaze cut toward Justin, and she stumbled over her tongue as she edited herself. “Allegedly, anyhow. Do you expect me to believe you think he’s Robin Hood?”
“I think he was an asshole,” Marlow agreed. “He was corrupt, and he hurt people—but it was a business for Piper. He was in it for the money. Franklin… he’ll take the money, but it’s not the point. He won’t let you walk away. He’ll take you down with him.”
Maria opened her purse and reached inside. She came out with a switchblade, the pearl handle held competently in her fingers. She thumbed the trigger, and Cade grabbed her wrist and squeezed as the blade snapped out. Justin and Marlow both bolted to their feet.
Tendons flexed under Cade’s grip, and Maria rolled her eyes.
“What do you think I’m going to do?” she asked. “Stab all three of you and run off into the night? I promise, if you let go of my wrist, I won’t hurt you.”
“Or yourself?” Cade asked.
She looked at him for a second and then flashed a grin that was all hard lines and sharp edges.
“Don’t get me wrong, that’s sweet,” she said. “But ask Marlow, I’m a survivor. If I was going to kill myself, I would have let the gangs do it a long time ago. I just need something out of my bag.”
She waited.
Cade stared at her for a second and then glanced at Marlow. He thought about it for a moment, mouth twisted, and then gave a short, sharp nod. At this point, Cade had trusted Marlow with his reputation, his business, and his cock. There didn’t seem much point in drawing the line now.
He let go of Maria’s wrist. She flipped the knife in her hand and dug the point into the thick strap of her purse.
