Page 94 of Dark Endures

That wasn’t one of the choices, but there’s no need to remind him of that fact. “Who set up the operation?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. I swear I don’t know. I wasn’t the first to run it. The previous guy ended up dead after he ignored a direction. When I got a message telling me what to do, I did it. No questions asked. You’ve got to believe me, man.”

I actually do.

“The only one I actually saw was the cop that delivered the girls.”

The cop! Now we’re getting somewhere. “Who was that?”

“Some old white guy?”

That’s helpful when you’re twenty. The cop could be anywhere from forty to sixty. “What’s his name?”

“It’s something weird. Tree. Shrub. Bush… No. His name was Plant.”

Plant? Marlie’s Plant? “Plant brought you all the girls?”

“Yeah.” His head bobs. “He would come get a bag full of cash and give me another girl. We always met under the mall in the parking garage tunnels early in the morning when none of the johns were around.”

“Tell me everything you remember about Plant. Every detail from the date to the amount in the bag.” We might be one step closer to finding Marlie!

The Kiss

Mindy

Adonis and Dahlia are kissing on the couch!

Adonis and Dahlia—

The food slips out of my hands unnoticed.

“Get off of her!” I fly across the room and start pulling on his back as Dahlia pushes him away from her. “What do you think you’re doing? Leave her alone.”

My momentum combined with Dahlia’s tips Adonis and me off the couch. He lands hard on my hip.

Dahlia gets up off the couch, straightening her clothes as she moves towards the door.

Adonis climbs off of me, almost toppling over again he’s so unsteady on his feet.

“He’s drunk.”

“I’m not drunk. I just had a few beers. You don’t need to go Dahlia. Come sit down. We can watch a movie together.”

Dahlia ignores him and stares at me as I stand up. “Maybe we should go.” She nods towards the door.

I live here. Where am I going to go? A drunk man doesn’t scare me. “I’m fine. But you should go. I’ll see you at work in the morning.”

“We’ll both see you, Dahlia” He half-leans half-steps towards her.

“Are you sure?” She ignores him and asks me.

“Positive.” If I ran from every drunk in my life, I’d never stop.

“Okay.” She gives me a skeptical look, but walks out the door.

As soon as it closes behind me, Adonis says, “You stupid little—”

“You’re drunk and I’m going to bed. You better hope Dahlia doesn’t report you.” Okay, that might not be the smartest thing I’ve said, but hopefully it wakes him—

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