Page 33 of Devil's Deal

She lifted higher and looked around me. “What about him?”

I didn’t spare him a glance. “I’ll have someone take care of that. What do you say? You want to get off these streets for a night?”

“Tad won’t like that.”

“Don’t worry about him. I’ll take care of him.” If he got lucky, I’d let him leave town, but—nah. It was time for him to pay the piper, too.

A few tears escaped her eyes, and she brushed them away like she was frustrated at showing a man she didn’t know—a killer—her weakness. “Do you promise…” She trailed off.

“No harm will come to you under my care. I promise.”

She nodded, so I stood and held my hand out to help her up. I wrapped an arm around her as we passed the trash so she wouldn’t have to look at it and then helped her into my car. Once she was secured in the passenger seat, I opened the trunk and called Nico.

“You got a mess to clean up.” I gave him the specific location.

He cursed into the phone. “What did you do?”

Wiping the blood off my sweet girl, I huffed. “Handled your business.” I hung up and got into the car, where I found a text message from Cory.

Unknown Number:Hey. I didn’t know how late you’ll be, but I’m still up. If you want to come by. Or call. Whatever.

Unknown Number:It’s Cory. Sorry. Should have said that first.

Unknown Number:Not that I expect you to. But if you want.

Unknown Number:There wasn’t any trouble at the hotel today.

I already knew that since Dante was checking in with me every hour, on the hour, as of today. I took Cory wanting me to supervise this whole thing seriously. Luckily, Dante hadn’t taken any offense.

“Hey, sweetheart,” I said to the girl. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Whatever you want it to be,” she said immediately. I raised an eyebrow, and she huffed. “Charity.”

I smiled. “That’s better. You look like a Charity.” Looking back at my phone, I pushed on the contact for the unknown number and pushed the phone icon.

Cory picked it right up. “Hello. Bosley?”

“Hey, quirky Cory. I need a favor.”

I didn’t know what he heard in the tone of my voice, but he snapped right to business. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I ran across a young lady who needs a little help. I thought maybe I’d put her up in my room. Order her some food. Do you have another room available or a couch I can crash on?”

“Is she okay? Wait. No. I’ll see her when she gets here. You can stay in my room.” He paused. “I mean, if you want.”

“Yeah. That’s exactly what I want,” I said, meaning it. I hadn’t even realized that was what I wanted him to say until he’d said it. Wasn’t that why I’d offered Charity my own room instead of offering to get her another one? Hell, I could’ve hit up a drive-thru and dropped her at a motel. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Charity curled into the corner of the seat and stared out the window. Every now and then, she peered at me suspiciously, but who could blame her? If I hadn’t been there, Conte would’ve raped her. Now she was in a car with the man who’d slit his throat in front of her. She either had no self-preservation skills, or her life sucked so bad that she didn’t care.

I pulled into the parking lot to the spot I’d dubbed mine in my head. For whatever reason, the parking lot attendants had picked up on it, so the space was always open. Charity wasn’t really dressed to stroll through the hotel lobby, but before I’d worked out a solution, Cory appeared with a large blanket in his arms.

“Hey,” I said, getting out of the car.

“I didn’t know what you meant by saying she needed help. I thought she might not be in any condition?—”

Pressing my lips to his, I shut him up. Could this man be any more perfect?Fuck. I was in so much trouble with this one.

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