Page 23 of Beautifully Ruined

Vi looks away when I turn to her, so all I say is, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

I get out and follow Enzo.

He stops where she can’t hear us. “We need to split up. Just in case.”

I hold up my hands. “This isn’t my fault.”

His eyes narrow. “I’m not saying it is.”

“Your words might not state it, but you are. Loud and clear.”

He blows out a breath. “You could have left him alone, you know. Isaac. Then?—”

“Then what? We didn’t know Isaac was in with Ivan. Come on.”

“No. But we wouldn’t have needed to if you didn’t get involved with her, if you didn’t decide to be a hero.”

I laugh and shake my head. “There are countless times I could bring up here. Each and every one of us has gotten in dire straits. It’s not a me thing. I didn’t set out to do any of that.”

He points at the other car. “And your brother’s girlfriend? Fuck, Cade.”

“You have no moral ground here.”

“I do. Because it’s not me.”

“I stole that money back.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. And maybe it doesn’t matter if our client decides it’s a slap in the face. Also, now we have fucking Andronski after us.”

“He’d never have known a thing about us if we hadn’t physically infiltrated that party and I wasn’t put on human alarm system duty.” I stop, take a breath. “Look, I’m not pointing fingers or laying blame because things happen that aren’t in our control. We had no fucking idea that any of these events would line up, and you know it.”

He sags against the other car that pulled into the garage. “I’m aware. And now he’s got some girl.”

“Poor job convincing Vi she imagined the girl.”

He glares. “Choose some dumb girl next time.”

“I don’t think anyone’sthatdumb.” I sigh, glancing back at the car where Violet is staring daggers at me through the window. “We wasted time not looking. You know that, right?”

“Look, man, if he had a girl, I don’t even want to think why. He probably dabbles in trafficking, but Andronski isn’t a known trafficker. So, this is specialized. I don’t think you want your girl looking.”

“What I want and what she does are very different things at times. But yeah.” Idon’twant her looking, but I really don’t think Violet is going to let it go.”

“We’ll look into it.” He doesn’t sound or look happy. But it is what it is. “We’ll split. Each will have one of the cars outside following us, just to make sure…”

“You don’t think Ivan’s got tails on us?”

“I don’t know.”

We look at each other.

He doesn’t believe it either, but the fact Andronski found my place and took me and Vi…the fact there was a girl we know nothing about in his sub-basement cells, and he knew and was owed things by Isaac…none of that seems to make either of us feel good or safe or confident we got out scot-free.

“Err on the side of caution,” I mutter. “You take Vi, I’ll go and secure my place.”

“You have anything there?”

“No one’s going to be able to get into my computer, even if I did keep anything there. Still…”