Page 30 of Wicked Things
“Hungover?”
“No.”
“It’s a Christmas fucking miracle. I need you to drive me somewhere. Go get changed.”
I look at Michael, hoping for some kind of intervention on his part—I still have no idea what’s happened to Sloane—but he just gives me a wary look that tells me I should get moving, so I do.
When I come back, out of my gym gear, Zeth and Michael are poring over a map, laid flat on the front reception desk. Theo and Sal are stare malevolently at me as I approach the group of men. “Is she safe?” I ask. “Is she okay?”
“We don’t know,” Michael replies. “But we do know where she is at least. For now.”
“Where?”
Michael picks up Zeth’s phone and hands it to me. The screen is open on a text message:
Redwood Cubs baseball field. 8pm. No earlier, no later. Sloane is in one piece right now, but fuck with me and that will change. –Alaska
“Alaska? Why the fuck would they take her to Alaska?”
Michael takes the phone back, scowling. “Not Alaska, the place. It’s from Alaska, the person. One of Julio Perez’s concubines. She’s certifiably insane and has a temper a mile wide.”
“Why would she want to take Sloane?”
Zeth rumbles under his breath. I’m asking too many questions, but fuck it. Sloane has always been good to me. Kind. She took care of Millie when she needed it, and then she took care of me. If she’s in trouble, I want to know exactly what kind, and with whom.
“Who the fuck knows,” Zeth says, pressing his fingers into his eye sockets. I’ve never seen him like this before, so…on edge. He’s always so in control. Frighteningly so. He never loses his cool, which makes him even more dangerous most of the time. At the moment, he looks like he’s about to crack and splinter into a million jagged pieces.
“Please stop looking at me like that,” he says, giving me a sideways glance. “I’m trying to fucking think. I can’t do that with you staring at me like you’re waiting for me to burst into fucking tears.”
“Sorry, man. I’m just…I’m worried about her, too, okay?”
His hard expression softens a little. “Alaska wasn’t like Julio’s other whores. She was his own personal mistress. We just heard from a friend. He told us that he just got back from South America, and that he killed Julio a couple of weeks ago. Apparently Julio traded Alaska, and she was sent to work in Ecuador. When our friend got there, she was nowhere to be found, though.”
“So she escaped, came back to America…”
“Found out Julio was dead, and has apparently decided she is going to take over his entire empire,” Zeth finishes.
“Huh.”
“Ballsy bitch,” Theo interjects. “I like a woman who knows how to take a hold of the reins. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”
“You’re not going to,” Zeth snaps. “Neither of you are coming with us. You’re staying here. Don’t worry. You can eat all the fucking clam chowder you want.”
A shadow falls over Theo’s face, but it’s Sal’s reaction I find most curious. He jerks back, like Zeth has slapped him, and then a slow, secret smile plays across his features. Zeth’s gaze turns to tempered steel. “Don’t even think about following us,” he says coldly. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care who your father is. If you so much as breathe in the direction of this baseball field, I will personally fucking end you in the most horrific way imaginable.”
Sal holds up his hands. “Wouldn’t dream of it, boss.” Of course, he sounds like he’s lying. He does very little to conceal his contempt for Zeth’s command. These Barbieri brothers are mad. They’d have to be to provoke Zee in such a way. Michael shifts from one foot to the other, the tiniest shift of weight, barely noticeable, but I’ve spent a long time around the man now. He’s usually so unflappable. His composure is solid, like the foundations of a bombproof building. As with Zeth, to see him so shaken is enough to disturbme. They must really believe this Alaska woman is willing and able to cause harm to Sloane.
The injured woman, who hasn’t said anything until now, sways on her feet. She looks like she’s about to collapse where she stands. “What am I going to be doing while you’re meeting with this woman? There has to besomethingI can do.”
“You’re going to wait here for us to call with news. You’re going to rest. Eat. Drink. Sleep. If you start to feel worse, you’re going to call an ambulance and head right back to the hospital,” Michael says in a clipped tone. “You’re not going to do anything stupid. In fact, you two,” he says, pointing at Theo and Sal, “can stay with her. Make sure she doesn’t pass out.”
“Our father didn’t send us here to babysit,” Sal hisses. “He sent us here to help you deal with your DEA problem. And for you to show us the city’s darker side, Zeth..”
“Find out where Lowell is, then, if you absolutely have to do something,” Michael tells them, shrugging,
‘This…” Sal spreads his arms wide. “Isunacceptable.”
Fire flares behind Zeth’s dark eyes. A fire completely without a heat. The kind that burns cold—cold enough to freeze you to your core. He’s never turned that look on me before, not even after breaking into his gym time and time again, and I’m sure as hell glad of that fact. He turns, taking a step, so that he’s nose to nose with the Barbieri. “You’d better find a way to make it acceptable, motherfucker. Or you and I are going to have a problem.”
