Chapter Thirty-Five

It was drizzling outside, and just past dusk, making it hard to see. But after just a few minutes of walking through the area, I knew where we were anyway. The big, familiar buildings and the dirt road identified it as the block of warehouses where I’d almost been killed the day before. My limbs shook, and I gripped Blair’s arm for support. She held me steady, and when she flicked her hair back, I saw that she had the tiniest nick on the top of her ear. She brushed off my concern.

“We’ll get a bandage later. Right now… Let’s figure out how to get home. I take it you recognize this place?” she asked.

I nodded, not fully trusting myself to speak.

“Do you think there’s a phone anywhere?” my friend asked. “We need to call the police.”

“No police,” I gasped.

I slumped against the exterior of one of the buildings, and stayed there with my head in my hands. Water was seeping from the wall through to my clothes and it made me shiver. It also reminded me that I was still wearing the clothes John had provided. I felt guilty. I’d glanced at the tags. The pants alone cost more than my monthly rent.

“Hey, Cass? You’d better get a grip.”

I looked up through blurred eyes, and realized I was crying.

“Sorry,” I said immediately.

My friend shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I mean, cry over the guy. Just do it later, because someone’s coming.”

She was right. I could hear the sound of heavy feet squishing through the packed dirt.

“Too late,” Blair murmured as a group of men came around the corner.

She grabbed my arm and we hugged the wall as they went by, oblivious to our presence. I stared at them as they approached, and tried not to breathe.

One was a heavyset man who could’ve been Yuri the mercenary—or the warehouse guard who looked just like him—and the other was a gangly, familiar man in a jean jacket. His nose was covered in white bandages. It was definitely Gary, the money man.

But what really caught my attention was the person they were dragging between them.

It was John, I was sure of it. Even in the near darkness, I could see the poetic tattoos scrawled up and down his arms. His head was down and his body was limp. The unnatural way his feet scraped along through the mud made me cringe.

I yanked my friend even closer to the building and tried to melt into it.

Please don’t let them see us, I prayed.

They got closer. They paused a few feet away from us, I could make out the smug look on the Gary’s face, as well as the blank one on Yuri’s.

“Where does Ramirez want him, Gary?” Yuri asked. “All these fucking buildings look the same.”

“That’s why they’re numbered, dumbass,” Gary replied.

“You and your goddamned numbers,” Yuri muttered.

Gary’s face scrunched up, and for a second I thought they were going to drop John and start to fight.

Then Yuri sighed. “Let’s just get him where the boss wants him. I’m starving.”

“What else is new?” Gary replied, but this time the jibe sounded good-natured.

They started to move again, and as I watched their retreating backs, desperation crept in.

“Okay,” Blair breathed. “Now we really have to call the cops.”

I gave her an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry. I can’t.”

“What the hell, Cass?”

“I know it sounds crazy,” I said. “But I can’t let the police get John.”

“Even if we put aside the fact that the man tossed you away like yesterday’s lunch, why would they want him? He’s the victim here,” Blair replied.

I shook my head. “Right now he is. But his business isn’t legal. At least I assume it’s mostly not. And I just can’t…”

She stared at me. “You do sound crazy, you realize that, right?”

“If I ask you to leave, will you?” I wanted to know.

My friend looked like she was going to protest, but she just she sighed heavily. “How do you expect me to get out of here?”

I smiled weakly and reached into my purse. “You know how you got your license, and you’ve always wanted a motorcycle but could never afford one?”

Blair’s eyes lit up, and I exhaled with relief.

When my friend slipped away on the Ultralow with a solemn vow to not call the police, I had a moment of panic.

What are you doing? my inner self demanded. He’s a self-proclaimed dangerous man. He’s a criminal. You’ve been holding his hand like you were on a first date, and now you’re going to do what? Rescue him from a bunch more criminals? God knows what these other men are capable of.

I cursed at my cautious brain, dismissed its ramblings and went off in the direction that Yuri and Gary had disappeared. I rounded a corner and stared forlornly, wondering how I would find John in this sea of nearly identical buildings.

But I didn’t have to go far.

A meaty hand grabbed my arm, and my cautious brain cursed me back for not listening.