Page 49 of A Dirty Business
“You already got her. Her aunt murdered her abuser. Demetri is covering it up right now. We have the gun. We know where the body will be. Relax on her. She would’ve raised the alarm then and there if she was going to.”
I gave his comments some thought.
“And if she doesn’t play ball, we still have the brother card to pull.”
That was enough. “Stop talking.”
He snorted but complied.
We’d started following behind Jess when I called her.
A part of me didn’t want her to answer. A part of me wanted her to drive straight to the nearest police station and everything would get handled from there, but I knew she wouldn’t because it was too late. If she did that, they’d go to the house. Our cover-up job wouldn’t be complete, and my family would be implicated. I knew what my unclewould do. But, and that was a bigbut, everything could be stopped. It’d be messy but doable, and somehow I’d try and make sure Jess would make it out alive. Her aunt wouldn’t. I didn’t know who else Stephano would kill, but not Jess. If that happened, Jess would still have her soul. She could still do her job and not be compromised, but there’d be no us.
Maybe there shouldn’t be an us.
If I had anything good in me, I would walk away from her. I’d call her now, tell her to drive to the station, and we’d handle it from there.
I didn’t do that because she was too deep in me. And I was selfish.
It was already too late for me. So why the hell was I even thinking about this?
When she turned onto the main road, I pulled out my phone and dialed.
She picked up. “Yeah?”
“Get off this road.”
I was a little surprised when she put on her right blinker, slowing. She complied with everything I said, turning onto a smaller road.
There were houses around us. I added, “Keep going.”
“How far?”
“Just keep going.”
Once we were out of the town, past houses, and the road looked desolate, I told her to pull over.
We both did.
Ashton was out of the car in a heartbeat. He went up to her side, opened the door, and motioned for her to get out. She did. He gave my vehicle a nod, and slowly, reluctantly, she came toward my SUV. I got out and went around the front, giving her a nod to take my passenger seat. She did, giving the other SUV a lingering look as I got behind the wheel.
“Get in. Those kids don’t know you either. They’ll take cues from your aunt, and your aunt isn’t dumb. She’ll do as she’s told.”
She looked at me, her eyes flashing before her mouth flattened into a hard line, and she swung up into the SUV. She shut the door, yanking on it harder than was necessary.
My phone buzzed.
D:All good. Heading back now.
Me:Drive her car to the cleaners, then return it to her place.
D:Will do.
“What now?” She’d been watching me text.
Ashton’s SUV was already gone.
I texted Ashton.
