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“But if Michael decides to tell the police about the Bratva—“
“He will almost guarantee the murder of everyone he loves,” I cut her off, watching her deflate. “He knows the risks he has taken with getting involved with these fucks. So he will either lie, or won’t say anything to the police.”
“But…” she started, but couldn’t find anything else to say.
“Trust me here. I know more about this than you do,” I said.
“Right,” she agreed, gaze going down. “But… I can’t let him get away with this. Even if I do have to leave after I turn him in. I have to do something. Everyone needs to know. He can’t get away with it and get reelected, making decisions on laws that will make it easier for these monsters to keep doing what they are doing.”
You could make a solid, persuasive argument against a lot of things. But they rarely worked against someone’s moral beliefs.
She wasn’t going to hear sense about this. She wanted to take her boss down. She thought it was worth the risk.
“You’re not safe here,” I told her, waving out at her apartment. “Even with your neighbors and the doorman alerted, if they got in once, they will get in again.”
“How did they get in?”
“Lots of ways these days with so many people getting things delivered. Or the right uniform will often get you in the front door of most buildings. And when all else fails, almost any building can be broken into.”
“I could go to a hotel,” she said, willing to give in on this, at least. “But that feels even more risky,” she said. “Anyone can walk into a hotel. And I’ve seen horror stories about how easy it is to break into hotel rooms.”
“That’s not wrong,” I agreed. A lot more crime happened in hotels than people realized.
“I could—“ she started at the same time something completely fucking unexpected escaped my lips.
“You could come stay with me.”
CHAPTER NINE
Elizabeth
Some part of me was begging me to take Elian’s advice, to pack everything valuable, stick it in a moving van, and just… drive somewhere.
Objectively, there were better places than Brooklyn to work on political campaigns.
Washington D.C. was the most obvious choice.
The thing was, it wasn’t like I was super passionate about politics. I’d kind of stumbled into campaign management when I’d been looking for jobs with good benefits. I’d been working since college on marketing and public relations jobs, but doing it all freelance. So I’d been paying for my own insurance. And, yeah, that got expensive as hell.
But I didn’t care about the game of politics. The parties and their platforms. Because the more you worked inside of politics, the more you knew that these people would say whatever they needed to say to secure a vote, even if they didn’t believe it, or intend to make good on it.
And, sure, that was all of public relations and marketing. Getting people to believe something, to buy into, or buy, something.
It just felt a lot more slimy when it came to public servants who were supposed to represent the people who voted for them.
I didn’t imagine I was going to manage another campaign again once I was done with this job.
Which meant I could literally move anywhere. There were big cities in so many different states, each having different vibes to offer.
And I had no connections here.
But the other voice in my head, growing louder with each passing moment, knew I couldn’t give up. Not yet. Michael couldn’t get away with this. He had to face justice.
I was the only one who could make that happen.
I could leave after.
“I could—“ I started.