Page 28 of The Kingpin's Call Girl

“But I’m a college student, not a...” I look around. “A prostitute. He’ll figure it out. He’ll know.”

“Did he figure it out tonight?”

“No.”

“If he hasn’t at this point, he won’t.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can’t?—”

“You’ve gotten somewhere nobody else can get. This guy, coming back onto the scene out of nowhere, the thing with hisbrother, the questions, the rumors, nobody knows jack about him, nobody can get near him, and suddenly you’re in...”

“His bed?” I supply.

He sucks in a breath. “Look, what I did for you last week, holding off on the charges...” He lowers his voice like the buildings might hear. “I could get in deep trouble for that sort of thing. And I was happy to do it because we’re allies.”

“And I paid you back. Per our agreement.”

“Right. And look, I can probably get you that location for your sister, but what if I went above and beyond? Your sister hasn’t been easy to find, which means she’s deep into something. And I said I’d help you, but locating a person and extracting them? Those are two very different things.”

“Deep into something? What exactly does that mean?”

“Look, we checked the morgues, so that’s the good news, right? She’s alive. But you have to ask yourself, why haven’t you heard from her? She might have gotten herself into something she can’t get out of so easily. She could be inside a cartel; she could be kidnapped, locked up under another name. Locked up abroad, in some sort of debt to somebody powerful. You go this extra mile for me, and I’ll do the same for you.”

“Oh my God. You think she’s being held against her will? Is that what you think?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that it will take more muscle than you have to go the extra mile for her. More of me breaking the law for you. Like I did with your arrest.”

I swallow. “But I’m not a prostitute. You arrested me for prostitution, and you know that wasn’t what I was doing.”

“Regardless, now you’re doing undercover work. You’re helping the world. And the money—that’s for you to keep.”

My head spins with fear. Awe. Full-on shock.

“And I hate to say this, but even if you tried to hide, he would find you.”

“In a city of eight million? In aColumbia dorm?”

“That’s right. Come on.” The light turns, and we cross.

Music thumps from a nightclub as people spill out onto the broken sidewalk. We sidestep the crowd and push on, past a pizza place, past a shuttered bank, until we stop at a bus stop bench. “We’ll wait here.”

“For what?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer, just takes the money from his pocket and stuffs it into my bag.

“I don’t feel okay about this,” I say.

A van pulls up. He looks around, then goes to the window and hands my phone over. The van pulls away.

“What’s going on?”

“That’s tech. They’ll pull over somewhere to clone it and check if there’s redundant tracking and then bring it back to us.” He sits on the bench and pats the seat next to him.

I sit.

“When Luka calls, you are going to show up. Two weeks. I’ll do for you, if you do for me. In the meantime, you’re gonna go out and buy yourself some beautiful things with that money.”

“I can’t! I can’t do this! You know I can’t!”

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