Page 104 of A Dirty Business
I dropped down, braced myself, and grabbed the other door. Together, we lifted them, seeing they both had to open at the same time.
After that, total and creepy darkness.
“I can literally hear the rats scampering.”
“Let’s just hope there’s no New York alligators we don’t know about.”
“You know people probably have snakes as pets, snakes that got away through their toilets.”
I suppressed a shudder. “You could be a serial killer. You’re that kind of sick and disturbing.”
He barked out a laugh but pulled out a flashlight and handed it over to me. “Here.”
“You just keep these on you? For days when you might have to explore a creepy basement?”
Another flash of a grin as he pulled out a second flashlight and put it in his mouth, then reached for something else. It was his gun, and he switched his hands, positioning the flashlight over the gun so he was holding both together. He dropped his voice. “I have flashlights on me because you never know what the hell we have to do for our families. Also, you lead.”
“Always gotta be prepared, huh.” But I was stalling, and I knew it was time.
I aimed my flashlight down, seeing it was a set of crude carved-out stairs that led down into this tunnel/basement.
I suppressed a shiver and started down.
It didn’t occur to me until Ashton was fully behind me that he should’ve been the one going ahead. He had the gun.
I told him, “You better have that thing aimed down.”
“Of course, in case I need to kill any New York alligators.”
“Dumbass.”
“Uh, I’m the smart one. I got you to lead the way.”
That was true.Iwas the dumbass.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
JESS
“Where are we?”
“We’re in a basement room underneath your brother’s nightclub.”
Remmi shivered, looking around her. Not that I blamed her. The room had all sorts of ick factor to it, but I’d found it a year ago when I’d been looking for lost inventory, hoping to come upon a surprise pile. I found the door that led down here and got adventurous one day, actually exploring. It was obvious no one from the club knew about it. The spiderwebs had been on another plane, they were that big.
But for all intents and purposes, I summarized so she wouldn’t freak out. “We’re directly beneath Anthony’s office.”
“Oh.” Her eyes got big, but they’d been big since I’d shown up.
I barricaded the one set of doors and turned on a fan, hoping it would stall anyone coming through.
“Are you going to hurt me?”
I squatted not far from her but definitely out of range of touching. Or lunging. I wasn’t totally trusting myself. “Do I need to?”
“This is a criminal offense, you know. You’re holding me against my will.”
I kept quiet on that front but did say, “This coming from the girl who put it out among the criminals that I was ‘protected’ by the West family Mafia? You kidding me? Orders of protection in the criminal world have a whole lot different definition than in the justice system.”
