Chapter Five
Julien
“Mind telling me who the fuck those men were, Mia?” I asked once we’d merged onto the highway and were well on our way out of the city.
“How do you know my name?”
I glanced at her, her voice sweet, making her seem younger, the slight tremble of it giving away her fear. I pulled her passport out of my pocket, noting the way her expression changed, then tucked it back into my coat. “Why were two men at your apartment with guns?”
“Why were you?”
I grinned at that. “Do you remember what got the kitten killed, Kitten?”
Her eyes went wide and I had to laugh.
“It’s cat. It’s what got the cat killed,” she corrected, her voice a whisper.
I touched her face, then patted her cheek twice and kept my hand there. “Well, I like kitten better. I think it fits.” She jerked her head away, and when she did, I gripped her chin and made her look at me, wiping any hint of joking from my expression. I wasn’t playing a game and she needed to know that. “Tell me what killed the kitten.” When she didn’t answer right away, I squeezed a little, making her flinch.
“Curiosity.”
“Good girl.” I let her go and turned my attention back to the road.
“Did you kill her?” she asked.
“I think there’s a much more important question you should be asking right now, don’t you?”
She wiped at a few of her tears with her free hand but kept looking at me. What I saw in her eyes, wasn’t just fear. There was something else there, something more, a darkness, an edge. She was a survivor, like me.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Clever kitten. Well, I can’t leave witnesses behind. It’s not the mark of a good killer, is it?”
“I won’t tell, I promise. I had the chance and I didn’t say anything.”
“I know and I find that increasingly curious. Especially after your friends showed up.”
“They’re not friends.” She turned away, her expression closed off.
“Who were they then?”
“If I tell you, will you let me go?”
“Probably not, no.”
“Did you do it?”
“Do what?” I asked, knowing all along what she was asking. She knew the answer, but she needed for me to say it. I exited one highway and merged onto another, taking a toll ticket.
Fucking Italy. Still used paper tickets to collect tolls.
“Kill her. Did you kill your girlfriend?”
The fact that she thought the blonde had been my girlfriend surprised me. “She wasn’t my girlfriend, but yes, I did kill her.”
“Oh my God,” she started, trying to pull on her cuffed arm. “Oh God…”
“Relax, Mia. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead by now, don’t you think?”
“Then why aren’t I?”
“Because I’m curious why there was a hit on you.”
She clammed up again and wouldn’t look at me when she did answer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Not only a peeping Tom, but a liar as well. And a bad one at that.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“That depends.”
“Can I at least know your name?”
I looked at her, her question catching me off guard.
“Julien.” When was the last time I’d told someone my real name? I couldn’t remember.
She nodded, as if trying to fit the name to the man, but before she could ask anything else, my phone rang. I reached into my pocket and checked the display. It was Ryan.
“That was reasonably fast,” I said.
“How’d you run into this one?” Ryan asked.
That did not sound good. “Why?”
“What’s the name she’s going by? Mia Andrews?”
Fuck.
This wasn’t good. “An alias?”
“Yep. I’ll need fingerprints to verify, but Mia St. Rose disappeared a couple of years ago.”
“Disappeared from where?”
“Philadelphia. Ring a bell, yet?”
I glanced over at Mia who now watched me.
“Why don’t you fill me in,” I asked, my eyes remaining on her.
“Samuel and Jason St. Rose. Remember them? Samuel, the father, was under investigation for money laundering for some pretty bad people, including the Casanov family. Investigation is stalled — I’ll have to look further into that. But Jason is supposed to be serving his fifteen years.”
I didn’t know much about those pieces of shit, but I knew about the Casanov family.
“Go on.” It was all coming together.
“Your girl’s stepbrother was released early for good behavior a few weeks ago.”
Fucking system. Assholes with money could still manipulate it. But assholes like Samuel and Jason St. Rose were exactly why I had a job.
“And?” I didn’t care about the St. Roses. I wanted to know about the girl.
“Stepsister’s testimony had put him away.”
“What did he allegedly do?”
“Files are sealed. She was a minor at the time of the crime. Want my guess?”
The look in Mia’s eyes when I glanced her way was one of panic, of fear, but in the depths of her gaze, there was something else I saw, something I now recognized as shame.
“No,” I said to Ryan. I could imagine what he’d done to her, but I did not need that confirmation. I couldn’t afford to know.
“Well, there’s money on her head.” Ryan paused a moment. “Ah, here’s why the investigation stalled out. Turns out there’s a book missing. The ledger from the senior St. Rose’s business. I can only imagine what kind of information is in there. And, even more interesting, Jason St. Rose wants her back. Bad.”
“How bad?”
“Quarter of a million dollars bad.”
“Quarter of a million, huh?” I repeated, glancing at my captive again. “And you’re sure it’s the kid who marked her, not the father?”
“Not a doubt. Send me something with her prints on them and I’ll confirm if it’s her or not. And if it is her, we have a deal, right?”
The deal was that I paid Ryan ten percent. It bought trust, and had made Ryan a wealthy man. Just as killing had made me a wealthy man.
“Deal stands. Just make sure you keep your mouth shut on this one.”
“I’m offended you have to say that at all.” There was a feigned note of upset in Ryan’s voice that he couldn’t quite pull off. “I thought we were friends.”
Friends. That was a joke. I didn’t have friends.
“Shut the fuck up. I’ll send you something tomorrow.”
I hung up and turned to her. “Looks like I won’t be killing you after all.”
She opened her mouth to ask a question, then closed it again.
“Turns out your brother sent those men. You’ve got a quarter of a million dollar bounty on your head. Why is he so anxious to get you back, Mia?”
She stared, all the color draining from her face. She was more afraid of him than she was of me. Considering she knew what I’d just done, that baffled me.
“He’s not my brother,” she started, shifting her gaze out the side window. “Stepbrother. And if you take me to him, I’m dead.”