“I didn’t know it at the time, but yeah. Helped keep the girls in line.”
“Then I’m not sad to see him go.” She leans back on her palms. “But when did you guys first talk? It wasn’t that night.”
“No.” I twist the hem of my T-shirt, thinking. “Several months later we both had our sights on a much bigger prize. Some rich prick, who liked child porn. He worked at a fancy finance firm.”
I later came to realize he helped cook Marissa’s books.
“I get out of the elevator, and the fucking Ghost gets out of the one right next to it.”
“That sounds movie-worthy.”
I roll my eyes, still annoyed years later. “I’m chasing him down the hall, arguing with him that I got there first.”
By that point, we’d started to work around one another. It became clear that the Ghost had some serious business that he was up to. It still irked the hell out of me when he killed someone I’d set my sights on, though.
“The guy’s got this nice office with huge windows. He’s working at his desk, but something spooks him. He reaches fora gun, but he can’t shoot for nothing. Nearly took out the fucking lights.”
Sparks cascaded down. We’d lunged for cover. It became a good old-fashioned shootout in the middle of a skyscraper in Manhattan.
“That’s the night he took the mask off,” I tell Adeline. “So he could yell at me.”
“Did you yell back?” she asks with a coy smile.
I shrug. “We had to stick around longer that night, cleaning the place up. A couple of weeks later, Tyler knocks on my door. He got me Daisy’s will,” I say, referring to Russet’s best friend. Marissa pimped her out, not caring that she was pregnant.
Adeline glances beside me. “Is that Russet now?”
My phone lights up with a message.
Russet: Abe says you’re on house arrest, but I’m wondering if you want to jailbreak and come over? I have cookies.
“Russ wants me to come over.” I’m oddly touched.
She comes to Fujimori’s for book club or the occasional group event. I don’t know if anyone other than Len, who’s now going to be her sister-in-law, has ever been to her place.
“You want to come?” I ask, assuming Russ wouldn’t care.
“I’ve got a meeting that is supposedly very important. But it looks like you’re very popular.” She nods at the phone in my hand.
Hadrian’s brother is calling me.
CHAPTER 12
Isolde
The name Harry Hallow flashes on my screen.
“Leon’s not going to like that,” Adeline says.
Leon doesn’t like cellphones on his gym floor. He barely tolerates allowing them so people can listen to their music and podcasts.
I slip through the stretchy bands of the boxing ring, my feet tipping to the ground. I pick up the call, waiting to speak until I’m closer to the locker room.
“Hiya.”
“Is this a bad time to talk?” Harry asks with his typical, caring, and serious nature.
“Leon’s,” I reply.
