Page 135 of Broken

“I can explain if you want me to but the gist of it is, we have a mutual agreement where Nero asks me to help and I get paid for it.”

“Like a hired thug?” her eyes widen.

“No,” I push off the dresser. Fuck, I have to tell her the truth. “At first, sometimes I was there when things got rough, but I stopped doing that when Nero realized what else I’m good at.”

“So you hurt people?”

“Sometimes,” I tell her.

“I don’t know how to handle that, Garrett.”

“I’m not going to gloss over it. It’s part of who I am. It didn’t last long, but it happened. I’m not proud of it. I used my grief and frustration and anger at the world. After a while things changed. That stuff didn’t sit right with me, and I fought with Nero to get out of it. When he learned there were other uses for me, he agreed.”

Calli lowers her legs and sits up higher against the headboard. She’s waiting for me to go on.

I explain about my skill set, and without going into detail, some of the things I’ve done. Calli is smart, and she puts things together.

“I thought you were a delivery guy. It didn’t make sense when I found out you owned the tattoo parlor. You were here spying on Caleb, weren’t you?”

I nod, my jaw tight.

“And all the times you came here, when you saw him. Telling me to stay away was because you knew he was into something bad?”

“Not him. He was just a way to find the other guy. He was who Nero wanted.”

“The one who…”

“Yeah.”

Calli’s face screws up in thought. She lifts her face toward the window, the sunlight making her eyes squint for a moment.

“What will they do with him?”

When I don’t answer, she looks over at me, waiting. She will not let me get away with keeping anything from her.

“He won’t go on trial for Gwen.”

“They’re dangerous, aren’t they? Like really dangerous.”

“Yes.”

“And you work for them.”

“Yes.”

Calli touches her lower lip and plays with it. I wait in silence. I want to tell her only one other person knows this much about me, that I trust her enough to give her all my truth. She has to decide for herself. But I can’t walk away without her knowing one important thing.

Her head lifts as I walk around the bed. She watches me crouch down and rest my hand on the comforter beside her thigh. There is no flinching, or movement to get away from me, so I take that as a good sign. Or as good as I’m going to get.

“Five days ago, Nero told me he knew who killed my sister. All I wanted to do was find him, to know why he killed Gwen.”

Calli swallows.

“He told me I couldn’t. He said to give him five days, then he’d let me.” It is implied what that means. “He would never let me, Calli. Nero’s not a good guy. He’s hard and mean when he needs to be. He does things he should be put in prison for. But when I asked to be kept outside the club, he agreed. Finding out what happened to my sister has plagued me for years.”

My voice cracks. Calli goes to reach for my hand but stops herself. My head drops a little. We both stare at the space between our hands.

“I can’t change my past, Calli.”

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