Page 69 of Hart of Darkness
“My brother,” I said with venom laced in those two words. I would fuck up Duke so badly if he knew where Grace was. “So you said you overheard her on the phone. Do you have her cell phone number? Or any idea of how to get a hold of her?”
“To my knowledge, she doesn’t have a cell phone,” Dom said. “She used the phone at my place. And no. I have no clue where to find her.”
I could try to choke more info out of him, but I got the impression he wasn’t about to tell me anything else.
“Do you know or have you heard of the Black Knights?” Maggie asked. The woman was relentless, both in and out of bed.
Dom snarled. “Who hasn’t? Do you think Grace is tied up with them?” He sounded as though he’d asked a question he knew the answer to.
Then again, my mind was a jumbled junkyard of this and that, and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever think clearly again.
Maggie shrugged. “Don’t know. I’m doing a story on the gang. I work for theBoston Eagle,by the way,” she said proudly.
Dom twirled a ring on his pinky finger. “Word on the street is Miguel Rivera is their leader. He has a team of men who meet women, promise them a red-carpet welcome, douse them in glitz, clothes, and money, thenwham!They’re being pimped out or sold.”
Maggie’s foot dangled and moved furiously. “Mmm. I had to pull teeth to get that info.”
I stretched my neck to look at her. “Come again?”
“Ted told me in confidence. I guess it’s not a secret anymore.” She regarded Dom. “It sounds like you know Miguel’s ways firsthand.”
He shuddered. “Fi’s friend escaped from one of his soldiers.”
I shook out of my shock for the moment over the news that Maggie knew the name of the leader of the Black Knights but hadn’t bothered to tell me or bring it up when Denim had been on the phone. I could’ve warned him to back off. Maybe then he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But that discussion was for later.
I stabbed a thumb in the direction of the bar area. “The girl with your sister?”
“No,” Dom said. “Hannah is Craig’s girl. Fi’s friend doesn’t live in the state anymore. She went back to her parents.”
“Do you know where I can find Miguel?” Maggie asked.
I jerked my head at her again. “Whereyoucan find him?” The woman was going to give me an ulcer. “You’re not going anywhere near him.” Steam was coming out of my nostrils.
“Listen to your boyfriend,” Dom said. “Nothing good can come out of you snooping into Miguel’s business.”
Maggie pulled out a small notebook. “You got a name of any of his pimps?”
My mouth was slightly ajar. Here I was, wrestling with everything Dom had said about Grace, and now I was going to have to tie Maggie up so she wouldn’t walk right into the mouth of a dragon.
He sized Maggie up, puffing out his cheeks. “I’ve heard of reporters getting killed for information. But you won’t find any of them. The Black Knights are like ghosts, and you only know they’re there when it’s too late.”
Maggie narrowed her eyes.
I swiped my hand over her leg. “Easy, baby.”
Her knuckles whitened as she gripped her pen. “Do you know the name Dallas?”
Dom flinched. “Please tell me you don’t know him.”
Now we were getting somewhere. “We only heard the name earlier tonight. What do you know about him?”
“On the streets, he’s known as Dallas,” Dom said. “But Fi’s friend mentioned the man who had been breaking her in, so to speak, wanted her to call him Cory.”
Maggie’s jaw hit the floor.
Suddenly, the web Maggie and I were untangling just got stickier, and whether the Black Knights, Cory, and Grace intersected somehow, one thing was certain. It was time I paid my brother Duke a visit.
