Page 16 of Beautifully Ruined

He smirks. “I’m better looking.”

“That’s not what your mom said.”

“Leave her out of it.” He looks around. “Upstate I could get behind. The outer reaches of Queens. But Staten Island?”

“Could be worse. Could be Jersey.”

“True. Still… You owe me big time for this. You know that, right?” Enzo says as we approach the battered front door.

I snort, pulling Vi closer and wrapping my arm around her. “After how many times I’ve saved your sorry ass? Are you kidding? Have you forgotten what happened in Cancun?”

Enzo winces. “Not even years of therapy could erase what happened in Cancun.”

Violet raises her eyes to look at me and then Enzo. “What happened in Cancun?”

I’m about to answer when Enzo flashes me a warning look before he peeks outside and gives us the all-clear signal.

“What happened in Cancun stays in Cancun. Now, come on, let’s go.”

“No!” Violet rips her hand from mine, slamming it over her mouth.

Enzo meets my gaze. “It’s clear. For now, Cade. We need to go.”

“Violet, come on?—”

Panic blooms as she shakes her head. “No. We can’t go without Jean.”

Enzo frowns. “Who?”

“Jean. It’s not her name, I just called her that, but…we have to get her out, now.”

She starts to turn, but I catch her before she runs. “Who’s Jean, Vi?”

“The girl. There was a girl in the cell next to mine.”

Cell?

I swallow down the fury.

“Ivan’s got a girl locked in a cell downstairs. She’s been there for months. We have to help her. Now.”

Chapter Four

VIOLET

I expectthem to leap into action, go running off, even though, right now, Cade looks like he needs to see the inside of an emergency room.

But he’s standing there, talking. And his friend is there, too. As are the other men with guns.

And the place is littered with so many dead bodies.

For a moment, my legs wobble, and I think I’m going to be sick.

But I hold it together. I make myself stand firm as Cade comes up to me, the gun in his hand held like a man who doesn’t do IT for a living, or hacking.

I’d say he could be in law enforcement, but I’m not that naïve. I’m stupid for a smart person, stupid like letting someone, a stranger, have rough sex with me. Stupid like I believed that Cade was nothing more than Cade.

But believing Cade is on the side of the law?